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The Book of Mormon teaches that Christ is called the Son of God because
he is God dwelling in flesh, living among us as a mortal human being (Mosiah
15:1-4). A number of LDS teachers—B. H. Roberts, David O. McKay,
and Lowell L. Bennion, among others—have spoken of Jesus Christ as the
“revelation,” “expression,” or “manifestation”
of God in the world. Christ shows us by his life the kind of person that
God is. Above all, Christ’s coming into the world reveals God’s
love (D&C 138:1-3).
D&C 93 teaches that Christ is called the Son of God because he grew
from grace to grace until he received God’s fullness. The same revelation
tells us that we too can grow in grace until we receive the fullness of
God’s glory (D&C 93:1-20). As God’s
Son, Christ sets the pattern for the spiritual growth of all who, through
him, are begotten sons and daughters to God (D&C
76:23-24). By revealing the kind of person God is, Christ also
reveals the kind of person each of us can be.
At the simplest level, to say that Christ is God's Son is to say that
Christ is God's image and our exemplar. In more mystical terms: Christ
invites us to share his Sonship through union with him, so that we may
stand in the same intimate relationship with God that he does and may
inherit with him every blessing that God has to offer. Like Christ, all
who are baptized are declared sons or daughters
of God (Moses 6:64-68; Matt. 3:16-17).
| He Sent His Son (Children's
Songbook 34-35) |
| B. H. Roberts: The Lord
Jesus Christ is not only the express image of the Father's person,
and the brightness of the Father's glory, as the scriptures declare,
but also He is a complete revelation of God, of all that is divine.
So that we know God through the revelation of Himself in the person
of Jesus Christ . . . |
| Conference
Report, October 1912, 30-31 |
| B. H. Roberts: He is
the Love-manifested Power of God's universe; for the one great thing
above all others in the mission of the Christ was to give assurance
and demonstration of the Love of God for the inhabitants of the earth. |
| Conference
Report, April 1924, 79 |
| David O. McKay: The Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, accepting Christ as the revelation
of God to man, believes that Jesus in his life and teachings reveals
a standard of personal living, and of social relations, which, if
fully embodied in individual lives and in human institutions, would
not only ameliorate the present ills of society, but bring happiness
and peace to mankind. |
| Conference
Report, October 1937, 100 |
| Lowell L. Bennion: Christ
came to earth to reveal to us the character of God. He is the revelation
of God to human beings, teaching us by precept and example the meaning
of faith, humility, integrity, and love. |
| Legacies
of Jesus (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1990), 61 |
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