Chapter 11 - The Life of Christ

1997 to 2009

All of the prophets since Christ have testified that He did come. All of us need to study the life of the Savior and follow Him faithfully throughout our lives. We each need to have a personal relationship with him...

By the time He was 12 years old, Jesus knew he had grown in His understanding that He had been sent to do the will of His Father. He went with His parents to Jerusalem. When His parents were returning home, they discovered that He was not with their group. They went back to Jerusalem to look for Him. "After three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions and they were hearing him, and asking him questions" (Joseph Smith Translation, Luke 2:46)...

Joseph and Mary were relieved to find Him, but unhappy that he had treated them so "they were amazed: and his mother said unto him, Son, why bast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing." Jesus answered her gently, reminding her that Joseph was only a stepfather, saying, "Wist ye not that I must be about my [Heavenly] Father's business?" (Luke 2:48-49)...

When Jesus was 30 years old, He came to his cousin John the Baptist to be baptized in the Jordan River. John was reluctant to baptize Jesus because he knew that Jesus had never sinned was greater than he...

Soon after Jesus was baptized, Satan came to him to tempt him. He wanted Jesus to fail his mission. If Satan could get him to commit just one sin, then Jesus would not be worthy to be our Savior, and the plan would fail. In this way Satan could make us as miserable as he is. We would never be able to return to our Heavenly Father. Satan's temptations came after Jesus had been fasting for forty days. He fasted for 40 days and 40 nights to be with God. After that, Satan came to tempt Him. Jesus firmly resisted all of Satan's temptations and then commanded Satan to leave. (See Matthew 4:1-11; see also Joseph Smith Translation, Matthew 4:1, 5-6, 8-9, 11.) Jesus Christ remained sinless, the one perfect being to ever walk the earth (see Hebrews 4:15; 1 Peter 2:21-22)...

After being tempted by His fast and His encounter with Satan, Jesus began His public ministry...

When his work of teaching and blessing the people was finished Near the end of His mortal ministry, Jesus prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice for all the sins of mankind...

In a modern revelation the Savior described how great His suffering was, saying it caused Him "to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit" (D&C 19:18). The awful anguish of taking upon himself every sin that any human being has ever committed went through the Savior's body. He suffered "according to the flesh," taking upon himself our pains, sicknesses, infirmities, and sins (see Alma 7:10-13)...

After nine hours suffering on the cross, He cried out in agony, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Mark 15:34). In Jesus's bitterest hour, the Father had withdrawn his spirit from Him so Jesus could finish suffering the penalty for the sins of all mankind that Jesus might have complete victory over the forces of sin and death (see James E. Talmage, Jesus the Christ, 3rd ed. [1916], 660-61)...

Some friends took the Savior's body to a tomb, where it lay for three days until the third day...

He willingly and humbly went through the sorrow in Gethsemane and the suffering on the cross. The Savior will have died in vain for our sins if we do not so we could receive all the blessings of the plan of salvation. To receive these blessings, we must come unto Him, repent of our sins, and love Him with all our hearts.