In 2020, I set (and met) the goal to read Jesus the Christ by James E. Talmage.
As Easter approached, I went back through my notes and highlights from Jesus the Christ to see what stood out to me about Christ’s character during that reading; specifically His attributes, His behavior, and the way He treated* others.
(Let me just interject a plug here for the digital resources on the Gospel Library app. There are definitely some kinks (I submit feedback all the time), but I really love the ease of marking and adding notes as I study. I enjoy going back and reading the thoughts and ideas I jotted down during previous study sessions, and I often copy and paste quotes from Conferences and other teachings into my scriptures. It's just a whole lot of fun! Plus, you can use all sorts of colors and make things pretty!)
Here are some of the things I marked in the book (I’ll include the chapters where the quotes are from. Unfortunately, the digital copy doesn’t show the page numbers - I'll submit feedback):
Christ had the attributes of God and man and met the qualifications to be the Redeemer.
Jesus Christ was the only Being suited to the requirements of the great sacrifice:
1—As the one and only sinless Man;
2—As the Only Begotten of the Father and therefore the only Being born to earth possessing in their fulness the attributes of both Godhood and manhood;
3—As the One who had been chosen in the heavens and foreordained to this service… (chapter 3)
These attributes are what made Him eligible to provide the Atonement for us.
He gave His life for us willingly.
It’s important to understand that Jesus Christ had a choice. Our omniscient God knew the choice that Christ would make, but God’s knowledge of that choice doesn’t diminish the agency that was involved. The Savior willingly died for our sins.
…He voluntarily surrendered His life, and permitted His own decease through an act of will. Born of a mortal mother He inherited the capacity to die; begotten by an immortal Sire He possessed as a heritage the power to withstand death indefinitely (chapter 3).
Christ had to come to earth to obtain a physical body. As a resurrected being, He now has all the essential characteristics of the Father.During that antemortal period there was essential difference between the Father and the Son, in that the former had already passed through the experiences of mortal life, including death and resurrection, and was therefore a Being possessed of a perfect, immortalized body of flesh and bones, while the Son was yet unembodied. Through His death and subsequent resurrection Jesus the Christ is today a Being like unto the Father in all essential characteristics (chapter 4).
I don’t know if we realize that having a body makes us more like God. It’s no wonder Satan would have us abuse our bodies, neglect them, and hate them. Even our Savior had to take this step of receiving a body to become more like the Father. We are truly blessed to have mortal tabernacles.
Jesus Christ learned line upon line, precept upon precept.
I think we sometimes assume that Christ knew all during His mortal existence, but He experienced gradual knowledge and understanding over time just as we do. Even His comprehension of His mortal mission was developed throughout His lifetime.
Christ’s realization that He was the chosen and foreordained Messiah came to Him gradually. As shown by His words to His mother on the occasion of the memorable interview with the doctors in the temple courts, He knew, when but a Boy of twelve years, that in a particular and personal sense He was the Son of God; yet it is evident that a comprehension of the full purport of His earthly mission developed within Him only as He progressed step by step in wisdom. His acknowledgment by the Father, and the continued companionship of the Holy Ghost, opened His soul to the glorious fact of His divinity (chapter 10).
He was capable of sin.
It wasn’t an inability to sin that kept Him sinless. He had every bit of agency God’s children are entitled to.
Our Lord was sinless yet peccable; He had the capacity, the ability to sin had He willed so to do… The writer of the epistle to the Hebrews expressly taught that Christ was peccable, in that He was tempted “in all points” as are the rest of mankind (chapter 10).
(Side note: my digital copy of Jesus the Christ is full of word definitions I had to look up. While reading it, I would sometimes think, “Okay, Brother Talmage, did you really use these words in 1908, or were you just showing off?”)
Christ’s body was subject to mortal conditions, but He cared for His body and was healthy.In recounting Christ’s calming of the sea, Talmage wrote:
Jesus found a resting place near the stern of the ship and soon fell asleep. A great storm arose; and still He slept. The circumstance is instructive as it evidences at once the reality of the physical attributes of Christ, and the healthy, normal condition of His body. He was subject to fatigue and bodily exhaustion from other causes, as are all men; without food He grew hungry; without drink He thirsted; by labor He became weary. The fact that after a day of strenuous effort He could calmly sleep, even amidst the turmoil of a tempest, indicates an unimpaired nervous system and a good state of health. Nowhere do we find record of Jesus having been ill. He lived according to the laws of health, yet never allowed the body to rule the spirit; and His daily activities, which were of a kind to make heavy demands on both physical and mental energy, were met with no symptoms of nervous collapse nor of functional disturbance. Sleep after toil is natural and necessary. The day’s work done, Jesus slept (chapter 20).
The Savior heals in phases.
This is something I noticed about the story of the ten lepers. Traditionally that story is taught as a tale of ingratitude, for only one of the ten returned to Christ to thank Him for the healing. But in addition to that, the story illustrates how Christ doesn’t necessarily heal all at once. The lepers were offered physical healing, but the one who returned to thank the Lord was given additional spiritual healing as Jesus pronounced, “Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole” (Luke 17:19).
Talmage shared another example:
A blind man was brought, and Jesus was asked to touch him. He took the sightless one by the hand, led him outside the town, applied saliva to his eyes, laid hands upon him in a ministration, and asked him if he could see. The man answered that he saw dimly, but was unable to distinguish men from trees. Applying His hands to the man’s eyes, Jesus told him to look up; the man did so and saw clearly… This miracle presents the unique feature of Jesus healing a person by stages; the result of the first ministration was but a partial recovery (chapter 22).
Christ was truly selfless.
After Jesus fasted for 40 days and 40 nights, Satan tempted Him to use His power to obtain food, but He would not. In fact:
… we find no instance of a miracle wrought by the Lord for personal gain or relief of His own need, however pressing (chapter 24).
I confess I have a very imperfect relationship with Jesus Christ. There's a lot I don't understand about His sacrifice and the necessity for a Savior. But I am ever learning and striving for greater knowledge of spiritual things. I look forward to studying more about our Redeemer this year.
*I’ve really struggled with tense in this post. I’ve gone back and forth between present tense and past tense. Mortality and eternity make for difficult grammar choices! Haha!
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