19 For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.
Are people fundamentally evil? I don’t think so. I believe there is a spark of divinity in each of us which inspires us to seek out the good, the beautiful, the just and holy.
And yet we are clothed in mortal bodies, with desires and impulses which, left unchecked, will lead us away from God and away from our eternal happiness. This is more than entropy. It is genuine friction or resistance, like running with ankle weights. As immortal beings in a mortal state, we have needs and desires which outpace our natural capacities, and we are capable of responding to eternal laws and truths which transcend the principles of earthly success.
When the angel told King Benjamin that “the natural man is an enemy to God,” he was urging us to recocognize our divine potential and to rise above the limitations of “this frail existence” (“O My Father,” Hymns, 292). I’m grateful for this powerful Book of Mormon message, which teaches me that I can be more than my earthly self. I’m grateful to know that I can choose to “[put] off the natural man and [become] a saint through the Atonement of Christ the Lord.”
Leave a Reply