Who is Christ to You?

This week I am going to combine a scripture from last week with something that Brother Griffin said this week. The scripture is found in Matthew 22. In verse 42, Jesus poses the question, “What think ye of Christ?” This question motivates our actions, for how we act depends on how we view Christ.

Who is Christ to you? Is he merely a man? (C.S. Lewis andTad R. Callister). Is he a prophet? Or do you view him as your savior? What is his character? What emotions do you feel when you think of him? Do you fear him? Do you feel his mercy? What causes you to feel the way you do about him?

I have struggled a lot of my life to feel Christ’s love. I have often seen him as a “hard man” (Matthew 25:24) and felt that if I made a mistake I was not worthy to enter into his kingdom. I saw only the justice side and not the mercy. Stephen E. Robinson, in his book “Believing Christ” talks about how we need to believe that Christ can save us in instead of just believing in him. We need to believe him when he says, “Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I shall give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).

Brad Wilcox gave a great insight into the nature of Christ in his talk entitled “His Grace is Sufficient”. Brother Wilcox ponders on the experience of appearing before Christ at the judgment bar. He says that many of us picture Christ as that harsh professor who is looking at our test and saying, “Darn it, you came up just two points shy of heaven.” We plead and plead for him to try to squeeze just a few more points out of the essay question. Ultimately, Christ says, “Good try,” and we miss heaven by just a whisker.

Brother Wilcox then reminds us that it won’t be the sinner begging Christ to enter into the kingdom, but Christ begging the sinner to repent and stay. As Wilcox states, “Heaven won’t be heaven for those who haven’t chosen to be heavenly.”

Let’s remember how merciful Christ is and how willing he is to help us the second we decide to turn to him. His grace is enabling. He saves us after all we can do, but he also helps us DO all that we can do. We must not become paralyzed be the fear of not being perfect and see Christ how he really is. He loves those who want to be perfect. He understood that there would be risk in this mortal journey and that we would sin. That is why he atoned for us. He is waiting with open arms and he will help us as many times as we are willing to get up, brush ourselves off, and follow him.

Click HERE for a great talk from this past general conference about becoming confident before God.