“Dust thou art,” God said to Adam, “and unto dust shalt thou return” (Genesis 3:19). Whatever happened to make Adam and Eve mortal, it accentuated their earthiness. Instinctive constraints, driven by primal needs such as survival and procreation, would fundamentally affect their mortal experience.
As King Benjamin prepared to address his people near the end of his life, he received good news from an angel. Very soon, God, the Creator of all things, would come to earth and “dwell in a tabernacle of clay.” He would suffer “pain of body, hunger, thirst, and fatigue, even more than man can suffer, except it be unto death.” His death and resurrection would make salvation available to everyone (Mosiah 3:5-10).
After affirming these prophecies, which must have been familiar to Benjamin from the writings of his ancestors, the angel proceeded to explain the interaction between this redemptive sacrifice and Adam and Eve’s transgression.
First, the blood of Jesus “atoneth for the sins of those who have fallen by the transgression of Adam, who have died not knowing the will of God concerning them, or who have ignorantly sinned” (Mosiah 3:11). This appears to be what Augustine would call actual sin—wrongful deeds committed by individuals—not original sin—guilt inherited from their progenitors. Either way, it’s gone, eliminated by the sacrifice of Jesus.
Second, little children are not culpable. “If it were possible that little children could sin they could not be saved; but I say unto you they are blessed; for behold, as in Adam, or by nature, they fall, even so the blood of Christ atoneth for their sins” (Mosiah 3:16). The angel makes room for children to make wrong choices but again affirms that the Savior has removed accountability for those mistakes, which arise from their mortal tendencies.
Finally, everyone else—all those who know right from wrong—must intentionally overcome these inborn tendencies by allowing Christ to change them:
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.
Mosiah 3:19
This description does not invalidate humanity’s divine origin; it describes their quandary when clothed in mortal bodies with improper inclinations (yetzer hara’). The individual is still the agent, as evidenced by their ability to “put off the natural man.” In fact, the Holy Spirit entices them to do so, counterbalancing inborn impulses and thereby placing them in a position to choose. But the character traits which enable the person to do that consistently are not a product of their efforts alone. They are available “through the atonement of Christ the Lord.” Like the ignorant, those who have knowledge are saved by Christ, but not automatically. For them, overcoming the natural man is a deliberate choice.
Today I will “yield to the enticings of the Holy Spirit.” I will remember that many of my improper tendencies are inherent to the human condition, but that God provides encouragement to overcome those tendencies and has created a way for me to become a saint.
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