Articles of Faith: What Do Latter-day Saints Believe About the Godhead 5?

Article of Faith 1

We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ,

                                and in the Holy Ghost.

This is the fifth article on the Godhead in my series on the Articles of Faith of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The past few weeks, I discussed the character of God the Father or Elohim. Since Jesus Christ taught that His disciples “he that hath seen me hath seen the Father” (John 14:9), we can know that He has the same character traits as His Father. This essay will use the words of Elder Bruce R. McConkie to explain clearing who Jesus Christ is.

There are numerous ways in which the labors and ministry and status of “God the second,” who is the Son, are distinct and separate from the other members of the Godhead. Chief among them are these:

1. He is the Firstborn.

Our Blessed Lord is the firstborn spirit child of the Father of Spirits; all others are junior to him. His is the eternal birthright and the everlasting right of presidency. “I was in the beginning with the Father,” he says, “and am the Firstborn.” (D&C 93:21.) Paul says he is “the image of the invisible God, the first born of every creature.” (Colossians 1:15.) The body he then possessed was a spirit body, a body made of spirit element, a body like those of all the spirit hosts of heaven. Appearing to the brother of Jared, he said: “This body, which ye now behold, is the body of my spirit.” (Ether 3:16.) In that spirit state he advanced and progressed until, in power, dominion, and intelligence, he became, “like unto God.” (Abraham 3:24.) It was then that he created all things and was foreordained to be the Savior and Redeemer.

2, He is the Creator.

Under the Father, Christ is the Creator of this earth, of worlds without number, of all things. Paul says: “By him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers all things were created by him, and for him: and he is before all things, and by him all things consist.” (Colossians 1:16-17.) Being “like unto God,” he became and was the GREAT I AM, the I AM THAT I AM, the Eternal One, the Lord Jehovah. He operated and ministered in his Father’s name and by his Father’s power.

3. He is the Promised Messiah.

The ancient prophets testified that God would send his Son into the world to save and deliver his people, to save them from the temporal and spiritual death brought upon all mankind through the fall, to be their Deliverer and Redeemer. The prophetic word acclaimed him as the Messiah, the Anointed One, the Son of David, who would reign on the throne of his Father….

4. He is the God of our Fathers.

Because God is known only by revelation, because the knowledge of God and of salvation was revealed to our father, and because there is only one God and one plan of salvation for all men in all ages, how appropriate it is to call Christ (by whom salvation comes) the God of our fathers. He was their God and he is our God….

5. He is the Son of God.

All men (Christ included) were born as the sons of God in the spirit; one man (Christ only) was born as the Son of God in this mortal world. He is the Only Begotten in the flesh. God was his Father; Mary was his mother. His Father was an immortal man; his mother was a mortal woman. He is the Son of God in the same literal, full, and complete sense in which he is the son of Mary. There is nothing symbolic or figurative about it. He is God’s Almighty Son and as such is distinguished from the Father in the same way any son is a separate person from his father.

6. He is our Redeemer, Savior, Mediator, Intercessor, and Advocate.

Salvation comes because of Christ and his atoning sacrifice. He is the Redeemer who ransoms men from the effects of Adam’s fall. He brings immortality to all men, thus redeeming them from temporal death through the resurrection. Those who believe and obey his laws are redeemed from spiritual death and have eternal life. In like manner he is the Savior….

7. He manifests and reveals the Father.

There are two concepts here. First, God was in Christ manifesting himself to the world. That is, because the Son was in the express image and likeness of the Father, and because he was one with the Father in all things, insomuch that he did and said what the Father would do and say in like circumstances, anyone who saw the Son also the Father. To know the Son is to know the Father. Second, Christ reveals the Father to the faithful, as it is written, “Neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.” (Matthew 11:27.) …

8. He is the Eternal Judge.

“The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son: that all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father.” (John 5:22-23.) And this Son of Man, in a not far-distant day, shall come again, in all the glory of his Father’s kingdom, to take vengeance upon the ungodly and to give glory and honor to the righteous.

9. He is the Father.

There are three ways in which Christ the Son is properly called the Father. First, he is “the Father of the heavens and of the earth, and all things that in them are.” (Ether 4:7.) That is, he is the Maker, Organizer, and Creator of all things; he fathered them in this sense. Second, he is the Father of all who believe and obey his law. Those who receive the gospel have “power to become [his]sons.” (D&C 39:4.) they thus become “the children of Christ, his sons, and his daughters”; they are “spiritually begotten” by him; they take upon them “the name of Christ.” (Mosiah 5:7-8.) They are born again and have a new Father. Third, he is the Father by divine investiture of authority. “In all His dealings with the human family Jesus the Son has represented and yet represents Elohim His Father in power and authority.” The Father, accordingly, places his own name upon the Son so the Son can speak in the first person as though he were the Father. “And so far as power, authority and Godship are concerned His words and acts were and are those of the Father.” (“The Father and the Son,” exposition of the First Presidency, June 30, 1916.)