Thursday, June 3, 2010

The Natural Man

Mosiah 3:19 - "For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father."

Here a king named Benjamin is teaching his people the things an angel taught him about Christ.

The "natural man" is anything that we as humans naturally tend to do which do not align with God's commandments.  It is embodied in things such as lust, envy, anger, pride, and greed.  These kinds of things lead us to misery.  They stand in direct opposition to the things which Christ taught.  The Holy Spirit, however, leads us to "love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, [and] temperance" (Galatians 5:22-23).  The Spirit also, through the atonement of Christ, cleanses and purifies us, allowing us to become saints and eventually return to our Father in Heaven.  We, however, must work to access this power.  It takes effort to put off that natural man and do those things we are commanded.  The reward, however, far exceeds everything we could ever accomplish by any other means.  I know this to be true, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

http://www.mormon.org/

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