Putting Off the Natural Man

Perhaps one of the most basic teachings of the gospel, or perhaps the Plan of Salvation’s most basic principle is the need for the children of God to “put off the natural man.” In Mosiah 3 we read “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.”

The scriptures are full of metaphors of how each of us should do this thing. One of the most common phrases is that we must be “born again.” We teach that baptism is symbolic of dieing and burying the old self and coming out of the water a new person… one who has taken on the name of Christ. (In our culture when a woman marries a man, she takes upon herself his name. She is no longer known by her old name… just by that of her husband).

Since Adam and Eve partook of the fruit in the Garden of Eden and fell, it has been the duty of man to repent and to return to our Heavenly Father. In Old Testament times, the covenant people were commanded to live the law of sacrifice which involved the sacrificing of animals. In our day, we are still commanded to live the law of sacrifice but in a different way.

Christ stated in 3 Nephi 12:17 “Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets. I am not come to destroy but to fulfill;” We also read in 3 Ne. 9: 20
“And ye shall offer for a sacrifice unto me a broken heart and a contrite spirit. And whoso cometh unto me with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, him will I baptize with fire and with the Holy Ghost,”

Today we are expected to sacrifice all things. We must be willing to lay all of our worldliness upon the altar. Joseph Smith taught “Let us here observe, that a religion that does not require the sacrifice of all things never has power sufficient to produce the faith necessary unto life and salvation; … it is through the medium of the sacrifice of all earthly things that men do actually know that they are doing the things that are well pleasing in the sight of God. When a man has offered in sacrifice all that he has for the truth’s sake, not even withholding his life, and believing before God that he has been called to make this sacrifice because he seeks to do his will, he does know, most assuredly, that God does and will accept his sacrifice and offering, and that he has not, nor will not seek his face in vain. Under these circumstances, then, he can obtain the faith necessary for him to lay hold on eternal life” (Lectures on Faith 6).

In my recent reading of James Ferrell’s “The Hidden Christ”, I have been awed by the Old Testament and how literally every story in it points to Christ and the Atonement. Those of you familiar with his book “The Peacegiver” know how the story of Abigail points to the Savior. Consider how Moses struck a rock with his staff and water flowed forth. How many scriptures refer to Jesus as the “Rock of our salvation” and as the source of “living water”?

I learned another important lesson from Ferrell in chapter 12 of “The Hidden Christ”. I quote “Some people think the God of the Old Testament seems harsh, citing examples of punishments under the law, (death to transgressors by stoning, for example), and the commandment for the Israelites to kill every person that lived in the promised land when they were finally crossed into the land to occupy it. However, if you think of the body of Israel not as a collection of individual, but as a representation of a single person—one who is to be a follower of Christ—all of these harsh contradictions make divine sense, and Old Testament books like Joshua and Judges suddenly become illuminating guides to repentance and sanctification. We truly do need to wipe out all the temptations around us and stop dabbling in sin.”

He continues “Because Egypt, as it were was still in the Israelites, they were not allowed to cross into the Promised Land for forty years. As a body they had to become sanctified. One might wonder why all the people had to wait for the purification of the whole before they were allowed to enter into the promised land. Why couldn’t some have entered sooner on their own—when they, themselves, were ready”?

An even more difficult question might be why Moses was commanded the following: “But of the cities of these people, which the Lord thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth: But thou shalt utterly destroy them; namely, the Hittites, and the Amorites, the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee:” (Deut. 20:16,17). And “And when the Lord thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them: Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son.” (Deut. 7:2, 3).

If we look at the Children of Israel as representation of an individual, how much of the world are we expected to give up? “All that is ungodly within each of us truly must be put to death or we will not be able to enter into the presence of the Lord. Furthermore, in order to become holy, we really do need to overcome all the temptations around us and stop dabbling in sin. If we are content to surround ourselves with unholiness, we, too, will become unholy and will therefore remain separated form the Lord, which, in the language of the scriptures, is death—spiritual death”.

Experiences in my own life have shown that the Lord expects a lot of me. I must put off the things of the world. I must not put my trust in the arm of the flesh. I must put off vulgarity and uncleanliness. I have learned for myself that the scripture we read in D&C 121: 45 is true
“Let thy bowels also be full of charity towards all men, and to the household of faith, and let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God; and the doctrine of the priesthood shall distil upon thy soul as the dews from heaven.”