Part 2

But Abram had found a true friend. It was the true and living God Himself. He delivered Abram from the hands of the false priests, and the Lord God said to Abram, "I am the Lord thy God; I dwell in heaven, the earth is my footstool; I stretch my hand over the sea, and it obeys my voice; I cause the wind and the fire to be my chariot; I say {22} to the mountains, Depart hence, and behold, they are taken away by a whirlwind, in an instant, suddenly."

[Sidenote: The God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob.]

This was the true and living God, the God Almighty, creator of the heavens and the earth and all that lives therein. In the midst of the worship of idols and graven images and strange gods of many lands, Abram had learned to know God--that is, he had learned to recognize the true God, the living God of power. He was not confused. He did not mistake an image of stone for the true God.

Afterwards Abram's name was changed to Abraham. He became the father of Isaac, and the grandfather of Jacob. These three men all served the true God. From them sprang the Children of Israel, all of whom learned also to worship the true God of heaven and earth. That is why He is often spoken of as the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob.

[Sidenote: The first commandment.]

In the days of Moses, God gave a commandment in these words, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." That commandment was still in force at the time of Jesus, and is still in force today. Of course, there are not many idols or graven images held up to worship today; but there are still many different kinds of God worshipped even in the Christian world. To some, God is merely a spirit; to others, He is merely an influence, or a power; to others still, there is no real God, but the name is used merely to designate the forces of nature--and so on. Naturally, we cannot gain eternal life through any such conceptions as these. Like Abraham we must learn to recognize the true and living God. We must not be deceived by false {23} doctrine. This is life eternal, to know--to recognize and to worship--the true God, the living God--of heaven and earth.

We know now the meaning of the first part of Jesus's statement. We know what it means to know God. But what does it mean to know Jesus Christ, whom God sent?

[Sidenote: What does it mean to know Jesus Christ?]

Two young men were sitting at luncheon one day in the dining-room of a students' club house. One of them was registered in the School of Divinity of one of the oldest and largest universities in America, and was studying to become a minister. The other was preparing to become a teacher.

"Do you believe that Jesus was really the Son of God, and the Savior of the world?" asked the young teacher.

"I believe," replied the preacher--the would-be representative of Jesus--deliberately, "that Jesus was a great leader, a great teacher, a great philosopher--in every way a great man. But I do not believe that he was really the Son of God, nor really the Redeemer in the usually accepted sense."

[Sidenote: It is necessary to understand God's plan.]

Had this young minister, who was preparing to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ, learned to know Him? Surely not. It is not enough merely to recognize the true and living God, and to distinguish Him from the many false gods of the world. One must learn also to understand God's plan for the salvation of mankind, The first man, Adam, was just like us. He did not {24} understand the plan of salvation until it was taught to him. One day, when he was offering sacrifice outside of the Garden of Eden, an angel appeared to him. The angel told Adam many things about the Fall, and sin, and death. These things we shall learn more about later. The important thing to learn now is this: Because of the fall of Adam and Eve, it became necessary to send Someone to the earth to lay down His life for the salvation of men.

[Sidenote: The divine mission of Jesus.]

God selected our Elder Brother Jesus, to perform this noble mission. He came to the earth--the Only Begotten of the Father--and taught men, took their sins upon Himself, and finally allowed His life to be taken to redeem mankind from the effects of the fall in the Garden of Eden. Was Jesus, then, merely a great leader, a great teacher, a great philosopher? He was all that, to be sure. But He was also more than that. He was--He is--the Only Begotten Son of the Father, the Savior of the world. To know Jesus Christ whom God hath sent, is to accept the divine mission of Jesus, to believe that He is really the Christ. This is life eternal, to know the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom He hath sent.

[Sidenote: A third step.]

Now we understand, in part, what it means to know God and Jesus Christ. But a third step is necessary before one can claim complete knowledge. If a man should claim to know the principles of the telephone, then should try to talk to someone at a distance without connecting the wires with the transmitting instrument, should you believe that he really knew what he claimed to know? Would you not {25} rather think, "If this man understood and recognized the principles of the telephone, he would do what they require?"

[Sidenote: What we would do if we had learned to know God and Jesus.]

It is just so in knowing God and Jesus Christ, His Son. If we have really found the true God, and sincerely believe in the mission of Jesus Christ, we will surely do the things that They command us to do. Indeed, we cannot claim a complete knowledge without doing God's will. Once, when John the Beloved was writing to some members of the Church, he said to them, "Hereby we do know that we know Him (Jesus Christ), if we keep His commandments. He that saith, I know Him, and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth His word, in him verily is the love of God perfected; hereby know we that we are in Him."

[Sidenote: The condition of eternal life.]

Now we may claim to have learned the conditions of eternal life. To know the true God is to recognize the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob--the God of Israel, and not to confuse Him with any one of the many false gods worshipped in the world. To know Jesus Christ is to recognize Him, and to accept Him and believe in Him as the Savior of the world. To know God and Jesus Christ, is to keep the commandments They have given to man. It was the whole aim of Jewish education to learn to know God and His commands, and how to keep them. It should be the aim of all education. Only by knowing the true God and Jesus Christ, can we hope to enter the kingdom of God.

{26} "To us, there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by Him."

It shall be our pleasure from now on to learn what Jesus Himself taught, that we may learn the better to know Him and the Father, and thus gain eternal life.

THE REFERENCES

Abraham Chs. 1,2. Moses 5:1-11.

Exodus 20:3. 1 John 2:3-5.

1 Cor. 8:6.

THE QUESTIONS

1. What was the real problem that confronted Abram in his search for God?

2. Why is the true God called the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob?

3. What is the first of the ten commandments?

4. How does it apply in this age?

5. What does it mean to know God?

6. What do men of the world often think of Jesus?

7. Why was Jesus necessary in the plan of salvation?

8. What does it mean to know Jesus Christ?

9. What does it mean in full to know God and Jesus Christ whom He sent?

10. What should be an aim of all true education?

{27}

{28} PICTURE: SIMEON BLESSING THE LORD.

{29}

III

THE GOD OF ISRAEL.

[Sidenote: A very important question.]

What kind of being is God, the Father, of whom are all things? If you should be sent into the missionary field to preach the Gospel, you would find this one of the most difficult questions you would have to answer. For God is somewhat of a mysterious being in the opinions of most men. Very few men have ever claimed to have seen God, or to have held converse with Him. And for that which seems mysterious, men like to find hard, complicated answers. The simple truth does not satisfy them.

[Sidenote: The truth is simple and easy.]

Yet, the simple answer is nearly always the right one. A missionary to the South Sea Islands found himself one day trying to explain to the natives the nature of hail. There is neither hail nor snow nor sleet on the islands. There are really but two seasons--the dry and the wet. When it is wet it rains. The missionary tried by many various roundabout ways to make the natives understand that hail is frozen raindrops. The natives knew nothing about frost. They had no previous knowledge with which to associate his explanation. And, as you know, we cannot understand anything new unless we can tie it up with something that we already know.

The missionary became desperate. Finally, he thrust his hand into a bowl of rice standing on the floor, lifted a handful, and allowed it to fall again in a shower to the ground. "Hail," he said, "is like that." Instantly {30} the natives got the picture. They saw the raindrops turned white and hard, and pelting the earth in their fall. The simple explanation went home.

[Sidenote: Jesus's explanation of God.]

Now, Jesus's explanation of what kind of being God is, is even more simple and clear than is this illustration of what hail is like. But men have strayed into the worshipping of many different kinds of God, because they have refused to accept the simple truth.

Near the close of His mortal life on the earth, Jesus delivered a very excellent farewell discourse to His disciples. It is full of words of cheer and comfort. Amongst other things Jesus said:

"I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know Him, and have seen Him.

"Philip saith unto Him, Lord shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us.

"Jesus saith unto him. Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?"

[Sidenote: The meaning of Jesus's answer.]

Is not this answer very simple and very clear? Is there any good reason for mistaking this answer? You hear it said very often of a young man that he is the very image of his father. If you should some day say to a young man, "I should like very much to see your father," what should you think the father looked like, if the young man were to answer, "He that has seen me has seen my father"? {31} Could you possibly in reason help thinking that the father and the son were alike?

We know what manner of man Jesus was. Jesus possessed a body of flesh and bones; or, as John the Beloved, said, "The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us." Besides, Jesus was so much like other men that His own people could not see anything different in Him. When Jesus went into His own country and taught in the synagogue, the people were astonished. "Whence hath this man this wisdom," they asked, "and these mighty words? Is not this the carpenter's son? Is not his mother called Mary? and his brethren, James and Joses, and Simon, and Judas?" To His own people Jesus was but an ordinary man.

[Sidenote: The testimony of Paul.]

But the disciples of Jesus learned to understand what Jesus meant by His teaching about God. Said Paul, "God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, whom He hath appointed Heir of all things, by whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high."

[Sidenote: The truth about God.]

It is not necessary, then, to go a round-about way to find out the nature of God. The simple explanation is the true one. The God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob--the supreme God of this world--is a person. He possesses a body of flesh and bones. His Son is so much like Him that {32} He could say in truth, "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father." Jesus was the express image of God's person.

[Sidenote: God is our Father.]

Jesus's favorite name for God was Father. This beautiful word means many things to us in the teaching of Jesus. First, Jesus was really the Son of God, and could rightfully speak of Him as "My Father." But Jesus taught us more than that. Not only is Jesus the Son of God--the Only Begotten in the flesh--but we are all the children of God. He is the Father of our spirits, so that we may also rightfully pray to Him as "Our Father who art in heaven." Then, if God is really our Father, He must have the same kind of feelings for us that fathers always have for their children. Indeed, since He is God, His feelings must be deeper and truer than those of any earthly father. Jesus put it thus:

"What man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?"

[Sidenote: A real joy to know the true God.]

It is a matter of comfort and joy to know the true God--to worship a God whom we can understand, whom we may recognize. It is no wonder that people everywhere become confused when they try to pray to a God who is something yet nothing, who is everywhere yet nowhere, who sits on the top of a topless throne, and so forth. It is no wonder that people are looking for the true God.

{33} "We know that there is a God in heaven, who is infinite and eternal, from everlasting to everlasting the same unchangeable God, the framer of heaven and earth, and all things which are in them--that He created man, male and female, after His own image and in His own likeness, created He them, and gave unto them commandments that they should love and serve Him, the only living and true God, and that He should be the only being whom they should worship."

THE REFERENCES

John 14:6-9. Heb. 1:1-3.

John 12:45. John 1:14.

Matt. 13:35. Doc. and Cov. 130:22.

Col. 1:15. Matt. 7:9-12.

Phil. 2:6. Doc. and Cov. 20:17-19.

THE QUESTIONS

1. How do we learn to know things?

2. Why have men strayed from the true conception of God?

3. What kind of being is God?

4. What did Jesus say God is like?

5. What did His disciples understand Jesus to mean?

6. In what sense is God the Father?

7. How is He like other fathers?

8. Why could you not worship any other God than a personal God?

9. What did Jesus teach Joseph Smith concerning God?

{34} PICTURE: JESUS AND THE WOMAN OF SAMARIA, Hofmann

{35}

IV

WHAT JESUS SAID OF HIMSELF

[Sidenote: Jesus's testimony to the woman of Samaria.]

One day, early in His ministry among the Jews, Jesus "left Judea, and departed again into Galilee. And He must needs go through Samaria. Then cometh He to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with His journey, sat thus on the well; and it was about the sixth hour.

"There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her. Give me to drink. . . . Then saith the woman of Samaria unto Him, How is it that thou being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.

"Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldst have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living water. The woman saith unto Him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water? Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle? Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst: but the water that I {36} shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. . . .

"The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.

"Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship Him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.

"The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when He is come. He will tell us all things.

[Sidenote: The testimony of the people of Sychar.]

"Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am He." When she heard this remarkable declaration, the woman ran back to the city of Sychar and told the people what Jesus had said to her, asking them, "Can this be the Christ?" The people of Sychar went out themselves to see Jesus, and invited Him to stay with them. Jesus stayed there for two days, and many believed in Him because of His teachings. And when He left them to continue His journey to Galilee, the people said to the woman who had first met Jesus, "Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard Him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the World."

{37} [Sidenote: Jesus taught always that He is the Christ.]

This experience of Jesus with the people of Sychar is full of interest and rich in meaning. We might spend much time in discussing it. But it is not necessary now to consider more than the fact that from the very beginning of His ministry, Jesus taught that He was really the Christ, the Savior of the world. He was not always so successful in getting the people to recognize Him--in getting them to know God and Jesus Christ whom He had sent--as He was here at Sychar. When at one time He bore the same testimony in the Temple, the priests and the people took up stones and would have stoned Him to death, had He not miraculously walked out of their midst. But always Jesus taught of Himself that He is the Christ.

[Sidenote: The answer to John.]

When the messengers of John the Baptist came to Him and asked, "Art thou He that should come, or do we look for another?" Jesus answered promptly, "Go and show John again those things which ye do hear and see: The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them." These things were all signs of the coming of the Christ, and the answer was the same as if Jesus had said, "Yes, I am He that should come; ye need not look for another."

[Sidenote: The confessions at the trials of Jesus.]

It was thus plainly and fearlessly that Jesus, at the end of His earthly life too, taught that He was the Redeemer of the world. When Jesus was haled before the high priest. {38} the high priest demanded, "Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?" Jesus answered boldly, "I am: and ye shall see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven." And to Pilate's question, "Art thou the King of the Jews?" Jesus replied, "Thou sayest."

[Sidenote: And on the way to Emmaus.]

These answers and explanations are so clear to us now that it seems hardly possible the disciples of Jesus did not also understand them. Yet it was so; the disciples looked apparently for a powerful, earthly king. When Jesus was crucified, they were overwhelmed. For a while they did not know what to make of it. But Jesus Himself made all things clear. One day, after the crucifixion, two of the disciples were journeying toward Emmaus, talking about the strange things that had happened. Suddenly, the resurrected Savior joined them. Because these disciples had failed to understand the meaning of His mission on the earth, Jesus said to them, "O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into His glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets. He expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning Himself." Thus did Jesus after His resurrection bear testimony to His teaching that He is verily the Christ, the Son of God.

[Sidenote: How shall we find out Christ?]

The knowledge that Jesus is the Christ, is, as we have already learned, necessary to gain eternal life, the greatest of all gifts. But how shall we come into possession of that knowledge? Shortly before His {39} death, Jesus taught His disciples thus: "I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever." And a little later, "When the Comforter is come, whom I will send you from the Father, even the Spirit of Truth, which proceedeth from the Father, He shall testify of me." So, then, we may gain the knowledge, the testimony, that Jesus is the Christ, the Savior of the world, through the inspiration of the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth. And to be influenced by the Spirit of Truth, we must ourselves worship in spirit and in truth. Sooner or later the testimony must be obtained, for it is decreed that every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is the Christ.

THE REFERENCES

John 4:1-42. Matt. 27:11.

John 10:24, 25. Luke 24:25-27.

Matt. 11:3-6. John 14:16.

Mark 14:61, 62. John 15:26.

THE QUESTIONS

1. What is the meaning of the Christ?

2. What is the significance of Christ's ministry at Sychar?

3. On what other occasions did Jesus publicly declare Himself the Christ?

4. Of what particular value is His testimony to the disciples on the road to Emmaus?

5. How is a testimony of the Christ to be obtained?

{40} PICTURE: JESUS AND NICODEMUS, Artist Unknown

{41}

V

THE SPECIAL WITNESS OF JESUS

[Sidenote: The end of the period of preparation.]

It was the day of the baptism. Jesus had completed the years of preparation for His ministry of service. We know very little of what He did during the eighteen years from the time of His first visit to the temple to the time of His baptism. The historian Luke tells us that Jesus went down to Nazareth with His parents and was subject to them. "And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man." The day of the baptism was momentous, however; for it was the day on which the special witness of Jesus made special recognition of Him as the Christ.

[Sidenote: The testimony at the baptism.]

John the Baptizer was performing the ordinance of baptism in the river Jordan for all those who requested it. Thither, then Jesus went; for He, too, wished to be baptized. But when Jesus approached, John felt that in Him was One greater than he; just such a One as he had himself predicted, whose shoestrings he was unworthy to untie. When, therefore, Jesus asked for baptism, John replied, "I have need to be baptized of Thee, and comest Thou to me?"

"And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now; for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness. Then he suffered Him.

"And Jesus, when He was baptized, went up straight-way out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto Him, and he (John) saw the Spirit of God {42} descending like a dove, and lighting upon Him. And, lo, a voice from heaven, saying, This is my Son, in whom I am well pleased."

[Sidenote: John's testimony.]