Salvation and Exaltation

This last week I read a talk given by Russell M Nelson for a class I am taking in school. I wanted to share some quotes and thoughts I had while reading this talk. If you have any insight you want to share, I would love to hear it. 

The talk I read is a General Conference talk from April 1992, called "Doors of Death." Russell M. Nelson begins his talk by sharing a brief story of two brothers who recently lost their spouses. Elder Nelson points out that the separation that occurs at death will create a degree of pain and sorrow. The intensity of the pain varies from person to person, but it is there. The closest person that I have lost in my life was my husbands father, a few years ago. I don't fully understand what it is like to lose a parent, but I have watched my husband deal with the lose of his father, knowing that he will see him again someday. 

Later on, he says that "life does not begin with birth, nor does it end with death." When I think about my testimony in the pre-mortal life, I wouldn't say that "I know without a doubt, that I lived before I came here to earth," but I believe that we all lived with our Father in Heaven before we came to earth. I love that I was born into a family that believes in the Plan of Salvation. I don't have to wonder what the point of living here on earth is, and I know in my heart that I will see God, my father-in-law and my great grandma again.

Elder Nelson briefly discusses physical death, but I am more drawn to his words about the meaning of Spiritual Death. He says, "Spiritual death is more likely when goals are unbalanced toward things physical. Paul explained this concept to the Romans: “If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.” I like how he used the word "goals." I had never really thought about the choices I make in my life as goals, but if I am living a certain way, then, simultaneously, I must be choosing my goals in life. Also, if my goals or desires lean more towards the satisfaction of my physical desires over my spiritual needs, I could eventually create a life that is no longer clean enough for the Holy Ghost to dwell. 

Then, Elder Nelson said something that really created a realistic understanding of how important it is to always be working towards the things of God and not of man. He said, "If physical death should strike before moral wrongs have been made right, opportunity for repentance will have been forfeited. Thus, “the [real] sting of death is sin.” Christ did not atone for our sins so that we could live however we wanted to and through Him we will be saved. He atoned for our sins so that we can try every day to live the commandments and when we mess up, we can repent of our sins. When I read that "the real sting of death is sin" it reminds me that physical death is not a "bad" thing. Physical death is sad because we don't get to see our loved ones who have passed on before us, when we want to, but to die is not the tragedy. The tragedy is to be cut off from the Lord. The only thing that can cut us off is sin. When we sin and are not repentant, we are doing ourselves an injustice and we are not honoring the one person that sacrificed so much for our chance to return back home. I don't understand the torment and the pain that Christ went through so that we don't have to experience Spiritual death, but I do know that I don't want to use that as an excuse for not using the opportunity he gave us to make things right with Him(Christ) so that He can advocate to our Heavenly Father for us. 

I love how Elder Nelson says, "Even the Savior cannot save us in our sins. He will redeem us from our sins, but only upon condition of our repentance. We are responsible for our own spiritual survival or death." It is our responsibility to do all we can, by following the commandments, following Christ's example and repenting when we fall short. Saying that "I believe in Christ" is not enough, but  we are not left to our own devices to figure out how to return to live with God again. This is why I am grateful for the atonement and the plan of salvation/happiness.