This week Sister Tanner taught us Chapter 13 on Baptism. Such a fantastic reminder of the importance of this sacred covenant and how important it is in our lives!
Elder Robert D Hales said “"It is very important for us to understand the marvelous gift of the remission of sins, but there is much more. Do you understand and do your children understand that when they are baptized they are changed forever?"
The Savior taught us that all men and women must be born again. Nicodemus, one of the rulers among the Jews, came surreptitiously to the Savior by night and said, “Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.
“Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."
Nicodemus was bewildered and asked: “How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?”
Jesus explained that He was talking about being born spiritually. He said:
“Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
“That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”
Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins “is the introductory ordinance of the gospel” of Jesus Christ and must be preceded by faith in the Savior and by sincere and complete repentance. -Joseph Fielding Smith
Baptism is by immersion in water. … Baptism cannot be by any other means than immersion of the entire body in water, for the following reasons:
(1) It is in the similitude of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and of all others who received the resurrection.
(2) Baptism is also a birth and in the similitude of the birth of a child into this world.
(3) Baptism is literally, as well as a figure of the resurrection, a transplanting, or resurrection from one life to another—the life of sin to the life of spiritual life.
"Every child that comes into this world is carried in water, born in water, and of blood and of the spirit. So when we are born into the kingdom of God we must be born in the same way: by baptism born of the water; through the shedding of the blood of Christ cleansed and sanctified; and justified through the Spirit of God, for baptism is not complete without the baptism of the Holy Ghost. You see the parallel between birth into the world and birth into the kingdom of God."
-Joseph Fielding Smith
“There is no more important counsel that can be given to any member of the Church than to keep the commandments after baptism. The Lord offers us salvation on condition of repentance and faithfulness to his laws.”
“Every person baptized into this Church has made a covenant with the Lord to keep His commandments, and in this commandment, reiterated in the dispensation in which we live, we are told that we are to serve the Lord with all the heart and all the mind, and with all the strength that we have, and that too in the name of Jesus Christ. Everything that we do should be done in the name of Jesus Christ.”
In the waters of baptism we covenanted that we would keep these commandments;Who, among Latter-day Saints, is seeking a place in the telestial kingdom? Who, among the Latter-day Saints, is seeking a place in the terrestrial kingdom? With those kingdoms we should want nothing to do; it is not the intention of the man who is baptized into the Church, or ought not to be, to so live that he will not find a place in the celestial kingdom of God; for baptism, itself, is the way into that kingdom. Baptism is of two-fold nature; primarily for the remission of sins, and then, entrance into the kingdom of God, not the telestial kingdom, not into the terrestrial kingdom, but entrance into the celestial kingdom, where God dwells. That is what baptism is for; that is what the gift of the Holy Ghost, by the laying on of hands, is for—to prepare us that we may, through obedience, continue on and on, keeping the commandments of the Lord, until we shall receive the fulness in the celestial kingdom.
Serve the Lord.Love our neighbors as ourselves; and with all the might that we have, with all the strength, with all our hearts we would prove to Him that we would "live by every word that proceedeth forth from the mouth of God" {D&C 84:44}.Be obedient and humble.Diligent in His service.Willing to obey.Hearken to the counsels of those who preside over us.Do all things with an eye single to the glory of God.
-Joseph Fielding Smith
See the entire lesson HERE
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