While travelling on my personal road to Damascus , one of the things which continually spoke to me of the truth of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was our focus on the Living Christ.
The Christ we revere and worship is a dynamic, immediate, loving presence. He is a living presence in our lives, our scriptures, and our church meetings. Most importantly, the essence of his presence resides in our temples.
A Cross To Bear
Traditional Christianity often criticizes us because we do not rally around the symbol of the cross. There are other Christian denominations who do not feature the cross in their worship services or on their buildings. Because of our higher profile, however, this criticism is often used by anti-Mormons as proof we don’t believe in any Christ – living or dead. It is as if the cross is something we fear like vampires in a late night monster movie. There is apparently no room for any understanding of why the symbol of the cross is not part of our religious iconery.
The reasons are tied in many ways to our celebration and worship of a Living Christ. We remember the blood Christ shed for us on Calvary whenever we partake of the Sacrament, but our beliefs regarding the atonement encompass more than Christ’s brutal death on the cross. As Latter-day Saints, we place major emphasis regarding the atonement on the events in the Garden of Gethsemane – where Christ bled from every pore as he bore the weight of the sins, grief, and pain of all mankind.
Furthermore, the symbol of the cross has been usurped in many ways as a marketing ploy – a shorthand way for declaring belief without digging deeper to understand and strengthen that belief. It is not the cross, or even what it symbolizes, that mediates between man and God. It is Jesus Christ alone who is our advocate with Father – a Christ who lives now, in the moment, or else how could he act for us?
Cross-centric ministries focus on what Latter-day Saints regard as the sorrow and grief of our Savior’s death. While we revere this sacred incident, we choose to focus on its aftermath – Christ’s triumph over the bonds of death, his physical resurrection in a body of bone and flesh, and the knowledge and celebration that through his sacrifice and resurrection – through The Living Christ – all mankind will be resurrected.
Latter-day Saints are Christ-centric, not cross-centric. We look to Christ in our daily lives, seeking his guidance, seeking his will, striving to be Christ-like in our thoughts and actions.
A Testimony of The Living Christ
In January 2000, the First Presidency and The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles wrote and signed The Living Christ: The Testimony of the Apostles. For me, this declaration is as basic, dynamic, and powerful as the Church’s Proclamation On the Family, or even our Articles of Faith. It clearly declares not only the beliefs we share with traditional Christians, but also those setting us apart through the blessings of the restored gospel.
The Living Christ: The Testimony of the Apostles is an inspired and inspiring document. Please make the effort to seek it out on the Church’s website and read it for yourself. If you are already familiar with it, read it again as there is much of weight and importance within its relatively short length.
For the purposes of this article there are two specific passages from The Testimony of the Apostles I wish to highlight:
We solemnly testify that His life, which is central to all human history, neither began in Bethlehem nor concluded on Calvary . He was the Firstborn of the Father, the Only Begotten Son in the flesh, the Redeemer of the world.
The apostles are clear – Christ’s life did not conclude on Calvary . He overcame death to be the Redeemer of the world. How magnificent is this declaration! His life did not end, therefore, he is alive today – right now.
Of Him the Prophet [Joseph Smith] also declared: “And now, after the many testimonies which have been given of him, this is the testimony, last of all, which we give of him: That he lives!”
Okay, are we getting the point here? HE LIVES!
In Lectures On Faith, Joseph Smith tells us that to have correct faith we need to have correct beliefs. How interesting then is the timing of the release of The Living Christ: The Testimony of the Apostles? Could it be the declaration was given to the Saints and the world in the year 2000, as we entered a time of worldwide confusion, in order to give us correct beliefs, so we may have correct faith in a living Christ.
Bumper Sticker Philosophy
For me, the Christian homily, Christ Died So We Might Live, does a great disservice to the miracle of what Christ actually accomplished. Christ Sweated Blood In Gethsemane For Our Sins, Died On The Cross, And Was Resurrected So We Might Live would never fit on a bumper sticker, but it is somewhat more accurate.
Christ Died So We Might Live – if that’s all there is, then we’re in trouble. If Christ is dead, if there is no resurrection, if Christ does not live, now, today, then there is no hope.
But we know this is not true! We know Christ lives. Our prophets and apostles, whom we sustain as seers and revelators, have reinforced this truth again and again.
Christ Lives So We Might Live. Now, there’s a proper piece of bumper sticker philosophy for you, but what does it mean? Does it only mean, so we might live eternally, or does it also speak to how we might live in mortality?
A Living Church
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a living church. It is a church with living prophets and living revelation. All of these testify to a living Christ. Through living revelation, in particular, we know Christ lives – because if He were dead, he couldn’t talk to us.
And talk to us He does. In fact, He talks to us both formally and informally, directly and indirectly, personally and through the words and actions of those called to guide us.
As we enter the new year, the study of The Doctrine and Covenants becomes the focus of our Sunday School lessons. Immediately, we learn The Doctrine and Covenants contain the words of the Lord as he speaks directly to us, in this day, for our time. This is formal living revelation – applicable when it was revealed, applicable now, and with the promise of more to come as this dispensation continues.
Living Christians
A living Christ, a living Church, living prophets, and living revelation – where does it all leave us as individuals living on the Earth today?
If we believe in a living Christ then, in order to follow him, we must become living Christians – Christians who are alive in Christ.
Becoming a living Christian is not a static process. We cannot expect to become a living Christian by simply declaring our belief in Christ – that is only the start. For if you truly believe in Christ then you want to be like him, to be active, to go about doing good.
Mortality and all of the daily grinds and responsibilities often weigh us down.
There never appears to be enough time to do it all. We are out of breath, weary, and often discouraged as the Adversary wraps us in a heavy wet blanket of inertia.
It seems contrary, but to lighten these burdens we must do more – we must consciously seek the will of The Living Christ and take the necessary steps to do our part to complete it. In doing so, The Living Christ will raise our burdens upon his shoulders – as he did with our sins, our pain, and our infirmities – and raise us up in the glow of his living love.
A Thousand Opportunities
President Hinckley declared, “This is a season of a thousand opportunities. It is our time to grasp and move forward. What a wonderful time it is for each of us to do his or her small part in moving the work of the Lord on to its magnificent destiny.”
If we are truly to be living Christians, we must heed this rallying call. As we enter this new year, we must each challenge ourselves to find a way, no matter how small, to move the work of the Lord on to its magnificent destiny. We must set aside our mortal weariness to magnify our callings, seek opportunities to serve, strive to bring our individual houses into order, and leave fear behind in order to open our mouths and share the gospel.
As we strive to become living Christians, alive in the Living Christ, He will bless us and guide us home.
