Men of Valor: The Powerful Impact of a Righteous Man by Robert L. Millet

Author:Robert L. Millet [Millet, Robert L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Gospel Teachings
ISBN: 9781590387115
Google: jAA1AAAACAAJ
Publisher: Deseret Book
Published: 2007-08-15T06:00:00+00:00

5

Treading Where His Feet Have Trod

In being ordained to the holy priesthood, we receive a divine investiture of authority: we are called and charged to speak and act as our Lord would do. More specifically, we are called upon to exercise our agency properly. There is a very real sense in which followers of the Christ do not have the right to do wrong. God is our Principal, and we are his agents. Our agency is thus defined as our commission to carry out his will in the way he wants it carried out. Or, as one verse in the Doctrine and Covenants states, "Wherefore, as ye are agents, ye are on the Lord's errand; and whatsoever ye do according to the will of the Lord is the Lord's business" (D&C 64:29). "The capacity to do evil and the right to do evil are very different things," Joseph Fielding McConkie pointed out. "No one has ever done anything that was wrong with the approbation of heaven" (Understanding the Power God Gives Us, 11; emphasis added). A Book of Mormon prophet taught that "the Messiah cometh in the fulness of time, that he may redeem the children of men from the fall. And because that they are redeemed from the fall they have become free forever, knowing good from evil; to act for themselves and not to be acted upon" (2 Nephi 2:26). This passage "is telling us that because of the atonement of Christ, we are free to act for ourselves. [It] does not suggest, however, that the Atonement gives us any 'right' to do evil" (McConkie, Understanding the Power God Gives Us, 12).

With these truths in mind, President Joseph Fielding Smith was bold in declaring: "I have heard people say, and members of the Church too, 'I have a right to do as I please.' My answer is: No, you do not. You haven't any right at all to do just as you please. There is only one right that you have, and that is to . . . keep the commandments of Jesus Christ. He has a perfect right to tell us so. We have no right to refuse. I do not care who the man is; I do not care where he lives, or what he is—when the gospel of Jesus Christ is presented to him, he has no right to refuse to receive it. He has the privilege. He is not compelled to receive it, because our Father in heaven has given to every one of us, in the Church and out, the gift of . . . agency. That . . . agency gives us the privilege to accept and be loyal to our Lord's commandments, but it has never given us the right to reject them. Every man who rejects the commandments of our Father in heaven is rebellious" (Conference Report, April 1967, 120–21).

Freedom comes to the soul of one who has surrendered unconditionally to God, who has chosen to do things God's way. That is, "No man is like God unless he is free.

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