Who is the Rock of Our Salvation? This is a very simple question to answer. The answer is and will always be Jesus Christ our Savior. Through His example, love, and Atonement we can saved. If we center our lives on Him he will bless us with the strength to endure the end. I believe that Christ is the center of our everyday lives. He has His hand in everything we do. He lives today and forever. “The LORD liveth; and blessed by my rock; and exalted be the God of the rock of my salvation.” (2 Samuel 22:47) He gives us the strength to put our heads down and move forward through challenges of our lives.
Christ is our Rock. He and His gospel will be an anchor through our daily challenges. His gospel is truly the “good news.” Nothing in this world will bring you more happiness than His work. We are able to experience this happiness in the gospel because, there is not a flaw in it. “He is the rock, his work is perfect” (Deut. 32: 4) As Latter-Day Saints we need to understand that we have the fullness of the everlasting gospel. Christ established this church to receive the gospel and then to preach it among His children by the Spirit of the Holy Ghost.
Christ is our Salvation. The Bible Dictionary defines salvation- “to be saved form both physical and spiritual death.” (Bible Dictionary) As we know everyone will be saved physically. This is because we, as humans, kept our first estate and chose to follow Christ in the pre-existence. To be spiritually saved and gain eternal salvation we must follow Christ throughout our mortal life. Elder Russell M. Nelson describes salvation perfectly. “To be saved—or to gain salvation—means to be saved from physical and spiritual death. Because of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, all people will be resurrected and saved from physical death. People may also be saved from individual spiritual death through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, by their faith in Him, by living in obedience to the laws and ordinances of His gospel, and by serving Him. To be exalted—or to gain exaltation—refers to the highest state of happiness and glory in the celestial realm. These blessings can come to us after we leave this frail and mortal existence. The time to prepare for our eventual salvation and exaltation is now.” (Russell M. Nelson, Salvation and Exaltation, Ensign, May 2008) To achieve this spiritual salvation we must set aside ourselves and let the Lord shape our lives. I know that if you let the Lord shape your life you will go through a life changing experience. You will start to see His hand throughout your life. He is with you through thick and thin. Even though He may twist you in ways you could never imagine, you can do it. All you need to understand is if the Lord believes, the greatest person to ever live on this earth, you can do it, what more motivation do you need.
It is very important for us to build our lives on the foundation that the Savior has prepared for us. His foundation will strengthen, protect, and guide us throughout our lives. As we continuing faithfully to build upon His foundation we will not only have these blessings poured upon us but, these blessings will spill onto those are very dear to us, those we will teach, and those we will serve. As I have had the wonderful blessing to prepare for a mission I am just starting to see the importance of this foundation throughout my life. This past Sunday I as able to be meet with my bishop to discuss my worthiness to serve a mission. I was able to answer the question with confidence and honesty knowing that I have lived worthy of His standards for missionaries. There has been no greater feeling in my life then walking out of my bishops office knowing that I am worthy to become a missionary because, I chose to build my life upon His foundation. “And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, year, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.”(Hel 5:12) So much comfort comes from this scripture. It is the perfect description of Christ foundation. I know that if we establish our lives on His foundation that we “cannot fall.”
His Atonement is infinite and something that is very dear to my heart. As I have taken the challenge to let Christ shape my life I have come to better appreciate His Atoning sacrifice. He is the only person that could have preformed the Atonement. I thought about the Atonement a lot throughout my life. I have pondered these questions: Why me? Why would someone so powerful, so great care about me? How could the Atonement cover everyone? Then it hits me. The Savoir suffered for me. He has felt what I have felt. He know my Spirit. He knows what I am going to become. I am not just a number because, He knows me by name. He has had everything and he has lost everything. I don’t think anyone could have put it better than Paul in 2 Corinthians 8:9 “For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that , though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.” This is what the Atonement is all about. The Savior set aside Himself to share His inheritance with us. We need to understand what he gave up. He did not only give his life for us, he gave us His inheritance. He was the first born of the Father meaning that He had everything that the Father had and God has everything. “And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if s be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.” (Romans 8:17) If we allow Christ to be the Rock of Our Salvation his blessing will truly be pour upon us. The Atonement was His calling. His gospel is perfect. Upon His foundation we cannot fall. He is the Rock of Our Salvation.
Sources:
2 Samuel 22:47
Deut. 32: 4
www.lds.org
Russell M. Nelson, Salvation and Exaltation, Ensign, May 2008
The Scriptures: CD ROM Edition 1.1
Hel 5:12
Corinthians 8:9
Romans 8:17
Bible Dictionary
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9 comments:
Joe, good job. At first I thought that you were going to start out every paragraph with "Christ is our . . ." which I thought would be cool! It seems like the last half of your essay is not as tightly focused as the beginning. I appreciate your commentary and personal experiences. Careful to summarize long quotes or scriptures rather than including all of them in the body of your essay.
Christ is the rock of salvation. Rock is a good word because it represents something strong and unmoving. Christ will always be here for us.
you did a great job. i liked how you used a question at the begining and then answered it. i thought that was different and very good. i also liked all the quotes.
Thank you so much for your strong testimony of Jesus Christ, our frim foundation. Your words reminded me of the love of Christ towards us and I was comforted.
It seems like you have a very clear understanding of what the atonement means. I think that you are well on your way to serving a faithful mission.
I love the way you related the importance of spiritual salvation and how that only comes through our reliance on the Savior. Your testimony of Christ really came through powerfully throughout the post.
This whole blog was enlightening, but the best part had to be about the atonement. I have never thought about the inheritance Christ gave up for us. Thank you for sharing your thoughts.
I liked the quote by Russell M. Nelson. I also liked how you said that we are not just numbers to Christ, but we are individuals that He knows. You ended so strongly too. Thank you!
Faith in Christ grounds us upon the Rock of Christ. What a simple insight that so vital to our salvation and existence. Awesome!
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