Defining Gospel Terms
Mar 24th, 2009 by larrybarkdull
When we read the scriptures and encounter terms like Justification, Purification, Sanctification, and Baptism of Fire, we often stumble as we try to define these terms and understand how they work together. Here is a quick overview to help us understand the process that we agree to at baptism, when we enter into the New and Everlasting Covenant. This process is directed by the Holy Ghost, our ever-present companion, whose mission is to mold us into Zion people and fit us for eternal life.
The New and Everlasting Covenant
In the beginning, the Father set forth two primary covenants to advance and save his children. These covenants are 1) the Covenant of Justice, through which he reveals the laws governing the celestial kingdom and those who inherit eternal life, and 2) the Covenant of Mercy, by which he rescues and exalts his children according to those same celestial laws.
Regarding the Covenant of Mercy, Jesus Christ is the agent of mercy and salvation. The vehicle of mercy and salvation is the Atonement, which establishes the foundation of the Covenant of Mercy. Upon that foundation, the New and Everlasting Covenant rises and forms the framework of our new life in Christ. Helaman explains, “And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.”
Our new life is like a temple. As that holy structure rises, covenants are added. If we were to attempt to outline the New and Everlasting Covenant it might look like this:
New and Everlasting Covenant
- Covenant of Baptism
- Oath and Covenant of the Priesthood
a. Ordination (men)
b. Temple covenants (men and women)
c. Eternal marriage covenant (men and women)
Of profound importance is the fact that we make the New and Everlasting Covenant at the time of baptism with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. All three members of the Godhead effectively affix their names to the agreement with a covenant to save and exalt us. This is the purpose of the New and Everlasting Covenant. Each member of the Godhead now takes a part in our advancement and transformation, although “we receive all of the blessings of this covenant through the Son, who is Everlasting.” Bookending the New and Everlasting Covenant is the other covenant in which the Father, Son and Holy Ghost affix their names: the covenant of eternal marriage. Now the New and Everlasting Covenant is complete. Clearly, we become Zion people by means of the Covenant a combination of our best efforts and the best efforts of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
The first pillar of Zion is the New and Everlasting Covenant. The New and Everlasting Covenant is the sum of all gospel covenants, ordinances and commandments–”the fulness of the gospel.” The purposes of the Covenant are: 1) to obtain knowledge and power for personal salvation, and 2) to obtain knowledge and power to help save other people by teaching them of the Atonement and administering to them the Covenant.
Infinite and eternal in scope, the Covenant has the power to save men and women and transform them into the image of God. We are saved to the degree that we receive and conform to this Covenant. If we become complacent about the Covenant, we risk forfeiture of our privileges. Zion people build their lives upon the bedrock of the Atonement by entering into the New and Everlasting Covenant.
Justification
Within the New and Everlasting Covenant, the covenants of justice and mercy work hand-in-hand to make of us Zion people and propel us toward eternal life-to make us just. We often think of justice in terms of inflicting penalties for sin, but justice also rewards us for obedience to God’s eternal laws. Mercy assures that those rewards are given according on our best-not perfect–effort. This is a manifestation of grace-we do all that we can and Jesus Christ makes up the difference. Thus, by obedience and grace, a child might be justified to receive the same reward for obedience as an apostle, as evidenced in the account of 3rd Nephi when both the children and the apostles were equally blessed with access to the Savior, his teachings, healings and heavenly ministrations.
Justification, therefore, is to be judged worthy of the blessings that are specified by the laws of God on the basis of our best efforts. In the end, we understand, all blessings come to us by the merits of Jesus Christ. We cannot obtain any blessing from God, become just, attain to Zion, nor obtain inheritance in the Celestial Kingdom without being justified by obeying God’s laws and by applying to grace that is available through the mercy of Jesus Christ.
The Holy Ghost is the Savior’s justifying agent. Elder McConkie wrote: “What then is the law of justification? It is simply this: ‘All covenants, contracts, bonds, obligations, oaths, vows, performances, connections, associations, or expectations’ (D&C 132:7), in which men must abide to be saved and exalted, must be entered into and performed in righteousness so that the Holy Spirit can justify the candidate for salvation in what has been done. (1 Ne. 16:2; Jac. 2:13-14; Alma 41:15; D. & C. 98; 132:1, 62.) An act that is justified by the Spirit is one that is sealed by the Holy Spirit of Promise, or in other words, ratified and approved by the Holy Ghost.”
Some of the most definitive statements on justification are found in the Sermon on the Mount and the Sermon at the Temple. BYU professor Chauncey Riddle says, “The Book of Mormon is the scripture that lays out with great clarity justification both as a process and a product [See Alma 5].” Only by entering into the New and Everlasting Covenant can we exercise faith in Jesus Christ unto repentance, be cleansed from his sins through baptism, then live obediently by sacrifice so that the Holy Ghost can justify us to receive the prescribed blessings that are affixed to the laws of God. By this process, and by this only, can we truly become just.
Purification
Purification and sanctification are words that are often interchanged. That they are closely associated is evident. In this article, we will define purification as extracting any impurities that would stand between us and perfection; we will define sanctification as changing the purpose of something. We enter the New and Everlasting Covenant to draw upon the Atonement and become pure and therefore Zionlike.
Zion people are purified people; they are the “pure in heart.” Quoting Brother Riddle: “[The Atonement of Jesus Christ has the power to] “reach into our bosom and give each of us a new heart.” Purification flows from the Covenant of Mercy; by covenant we agree to allow the Lord to extract from our lives all impurities and pollutions that would stand between us and the Celestial Kingdom. This is necessary because ultimately, our desire to become Zionlike will require divine intervention: “To pour light and truth into the human vessel is not enough. As a child of Christ attempts to love the light and truth…each becomes aware of an alarming fact: having light and truth is no guarantee of being able to do what is right.” Only the Atonement can purify a heart, and we must agree to the process of purification. Thus, we enter into the New and Everlasting Covenant or the Covenant of Mercy.
Purification is dependent upon two factors: 1) our complete effort to change and make amends, and 2) the grace of Jesus Christ to do what lies beyond our ability. The Savior is the Purifier, but the agent for the purification process is the Holy Ghost: “The Holy Ghost is also a Purifier in that, because of Christ and the Atonement, this Spirit member of the Godhead has power given him to cleanse, sanctify, and purify the human soul. (3 Ne. 27:19-21.)” The process of purification is often called the baptism of fire. We are fully immersed in the heat of the Lord’s furnace to burn out of us all impurities. The Holy Ghost will persist in the process until he can commend us to God as being pure, that is, “true and faithful in all things” in the similitude of “Him whose very name is ‘Faithful and True.’”
We must do our part to purify ourselves, but in the end we will need the Holy Ghost and the Savior to make us completely pure. Brother Riddle said, “If we have repented of every sin we can repent of, have made fourfold restitution as far as we are able [D&C 98:44; Luke 19:8], and have been reconciled to our brother [Matthew 5:23-24], we may present ourselves at the altar with a broken heart and a contrite spirit [2 Nephi 2:7.] and plead in mighty prayer for this change of heart [Mormon 7:48; Mosiah 4:2.]. Then and only then will our Savior reach in and give us a new heart. The new heart will be a pure heart, one that has no selfish desires, one that is willing to do the right thing. It will choose to do the will of God at all times and places, no matter what the opposition or the sacrifice involved.
“This new heart is made in the image of Jesus Christ, that same heart that enabled our Savior to say, ‘Father, not my will, but thine be done,’ that same heart that enabled him to live a sinless life, that same heart for which he was chosen to be the Firstborn and to be the Only Begotten. To be purified is to become literally a new creature in Christ, to die as to the old person that we were, literally to become of the heart and mind of [Christ]. The scriptures promise great rewards for those who qualify and take this step. The scriptural name for this new heart is ‘charity.’ Charity is to have a heart that loves with the pure love of Christ.”
Sanctification
Like purification, sanctification also flows from the Covenant of Mercy, which is the New and Everlasting Covenant. As much as we enter the Covenant to receive the blessings of the Atonement and become purified, we enter the Covenant to be sanctified.
Sanctification is the result of being purified. When the contaminants, pollutions and alloys have been burned from our souls, we emerge from the furnace sanctified; that is, we now have a new purpose. Let us examine, for example, the sacrament prayer in which the priests bless and sanctify profane bread and change its purpose by the priesthood to call us to remembrance of the body of Jesus Christ, the Bread of Life. Now blessed and sanctified, the bread’s purpose has changed from sustaining physical life to sustaining spiritual life. Likewise, a pile of stones can, by the priesthood, be changed in purpose to become an altar: “And thou shalt anoint the altar of the burnt offering, and all his vessels, and sanctify the altar: and it shall be an altar most holy.” Or a natural man can be purified of sin then sanctified by the Holy Ghost, so that his purpose now becomes one of service to God: “And thou shalt put them upon Aaron thy brother, and his sons with him; and shalt anoint them, and consecrate them, and sanctify them, that they may minister unto me in the priest’s office.”
The Savior sanctifies us through the Atonement, but the Holy Ghost is the agent of sanctification, just as he is the agent of purification. The Holy Ghost rids us of impurities so that he might change our purpose. This is purification and sanctification. We have a responsibility in the process. We must cooperate with the Savior and Holy Ghost as they purify and sanctify us. The Lord commanded: “Sanctify yourselves; yea purify your hearts, and cleanse your hands and your feet before me, that I may make you clean.” None of this is possible outside the Covenant.
Our responsibility
Our part in the sanctifying process requires that we separate ourselves from Babylon and all that is profane, unholy and ungodly. To accomplish this, wrote Mormon Times editor, Joseph A. Cannon, “We fast and pray, we ‘wax stronger’ in our humility and become ‘firmer in the faith of Christ…even to the purifying and the sanctification of [our] hearts, which sanctification cometh because of [our] yielding [our] hearts unto God’ (Helaman 3:35). If we ‘come unto Christ’ and ‘deny [our]selves of all ungodliness’ and yield our hearts to God, then we are ‘sanctified in Christ by the grace of God through the shedding of the blood of Christ.’ It is through this [process] that we can ‘become holy [sanctified] without spot.’ (Moroni 10:32-33).” Thus we are commanded to “sanctify yourselves that your minds become single to God.”
Our effort to purify and sanctify ourselves begins with faith in Jesus Christ; we must believe that he has the power to cleanse and transform us, and we must trust in his methods and timing. Faith in Jesus Christ-true faith-always leads to repentance; we must eliminate the impurities from our souls and change our purpose. Repentance leads to covenant-making; we desire to legitimize our resolve by entering into an agreement with the Lord to purify, sanctify and make us in every way fit for the Celestial Kingdom. That agreement is called the New and Everlasting Covenant, and we enter that Covenant by the covenant of baptism. Now are pronounced clean, but we are not yet pure and sanctified. For that reason, we receive a special gift: the gift of the consummate purifying and sanctifying agent, the Holy Ghost.
Reception of the gift of the Holy Ghost is the baptism of fire spoken of in the scriptures. When a person enters into the New and Everlasting Covenant, he does so for the purposes of receiving relief from his sins and starting down the path to becoming like God. That process of transformation requires burning out of him the impurities that made him a sinful “natural man,” then molding him into a new creature, a saint, to assume the image of God.
The crucible-the baptism of fire
A common metaphor for this sanctification process is the making of steel. When raw ore is placed in a crucible and heated in a furnace, the substance becomes molten and the properties separate. At that point, a skilled metallurgist can divide out the impurities from the pure, refined ore. An alloying process ensues whereby the metallurgist carefully combines select elements in perfect proportion with the pure iron. The result is steel. But the process is not yet complete. For steel to become strong and not brittle, it must be subjected to reheating in the furnace, which is followed by pounding to align the molecules into their strongest position. The process of being thrust into the furnace and beaten is repeated multiple times until the steel is free from impurities and aligned so that it cannot be broken. At some point, the metallurgist pours the steel into a mold to change its purpose, and as a final step he polishes it. The finished product is incredibly strong and beautiful, and it will remain so indefinitely.
Just so, we are immersed in a baptism of fire that includes heating, pounding, molding and polishing so that we might be purified, sanctified and conformed to the image of God. The Lord has every right to do this. We agreed to it when we entered into the New and Everlasting Covenant. John Taylor wrote, “I heard the Prophet Joseph say, in speaking to the Twelve on one occasion: ‘You will have all kinds of trials to pass through. And it is quite as necessary for you to be tried as it was for Abraham and other men of God, and (said he) God will feel after you, and He will take hold of you and wrench your very heart strings, and if you cannot stand it you will not be fit for an inheritance in the Celestial Kingdom of God.’”
The purified and sanctified to make an offering
When we entered into the New and Everlasting Covenant, we agreed to submit to the Lord’s crucible and allow him to make of us what we could not make of ourselves, and to make an offering in righteousness. We read: “And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.” We qualify as the sons of Levi. When we enter into the Melchizedek Priesthood, we become the sons of Aaron, who was the son of Levi, and the sons of Moses. The offering required of us is a broken heart and contrite spirit–”And ye shall offer for a sacrifice unto me a broken heart and a contrite spirit. And whoso cometh unto me with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, him will I baptize with fire and with the Holy Ghost,” and “a book containing the records of our dead.” The processes of purification and sanctification precede our ability to make this offering in righteousness, which each of us must make if we hope to become Zion and gain the promises of eternity.
Job understood the process and submitted to the Lord’s crucible: “…when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.” Sometimes this process is called trying or chastisement, and we must endure it or forfeit our eternal inheritance: “My people must be tried in all things, that they may be prepared to receive the glory that I have for them, even the glory of Zion; and he that will not bear chastisement is not worthy of my kingdom.” Of interest, chastise means more than to punish; it also means “to make chaste.” Job patiently endured the Lord’s chastisement without murmuring, which is the act of simultaneously believing in God while complaining about how he is managing the affairs of one’s life. On the other hand, Job waited confidently on the Lord’s deliverance from the crucible. He followed the same admonition that Joseph Smith gave to the saints: “Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed.” Whereas murmuring postpones or cancels out blessings, cheerfully submitting in patience summons the Lord’s deliverance.
Only the grace of Jesus Christ enables us to endure the heat of the purifying and sanctifying procedure while trusting him in the process. The Lord will strengthen us and uphold us until we can make an offering unto him in righteousness, which offering brings us finally to where we desired to be when we entered into the New and Everlasting Covenant. Only the Lord’s grace can expunge us of all impurities; only his grace can transform us and give us a new purpose. The promises to the purified and sanctified are unequalled: “And unto him that repenteth and sanctifieth himself before the Lord shall be given eternal life.”
Reference
This article contains information from my upcoming book series, The Three Pillars of Zion.
Helaman 5:12
Chauncey C. Riddle, “The New and Everlasting Covenant,” 1989 Sperry Symposium on the Doctrine and Covenants, Chapter Sixteen, p.228, insert added
See “Grace,” LDS Bible Dictionary, p.697
Bruce R. McConkie, “Justification,” Mormon Doctrine, 2d ed., p.408
See Matthew 5-7; 3 Nephi 12-14
Chauncey C. Riddle, “The New and Everlasting Covenant,” 1989 Sperry Symposium on the Doctrine and Covenants, Chapter Sixteen, p.234
Bruce R. McConkie, “Purity,” Mormon Doctrine, 2d ed., p.612
See 2 Nephi 31:13-14; D&C 20:41; 33:11; 39:6
Bruce R. McConkie, A New Witness for the Articles of Faith, p.316
Chauncey C. Riddle, “The New and Everlasting Covenant,” 1989 Sperry Symposium on the Doctrine and Covenants, Chapter Sixteen, p.236-37
Bruce R. McConkie, The Mortal Messiah: From Bethlehem to Calvary, vol. 4:114
See Alma 13:11-12; 3 Nephi 27:19-21; D&C 84:33
Joseph A. Cannon, “Sanctify,” Mormon Times, June 12, 2008
See 2 Nephi 31:13-14; D&C 20:41; 33:11; 39:6
John Taylor, Journal of Discourses, vol. 24:197
“Chastening,” Encyclopedia of Mormonism, p.264
Yet another brilliant, thoughtful and motivational article. Thank you!