Justification and sanctification through learning about and living like Jesus

Footnotes

Reconciliation to Jesus is an event and a process

Living the gospel of Jesus Christ consists of an initiatory event of justification followed by the lifelong process of sanctification. You are justified by reconciling yourself to what you already know about God. You are sanctified as you learn more about God while remaining reconciled to him.

Justification is an event, but sanctification is a process. The Lord described justification and sanctification using himself as a metaphor. He called himself the gate, explaining how walking through him was an event, and he explained himself as a path, the traversal of which was a process.¹ By reconciling your life to your present understanding of how Jesus is, you enter the gospel gate. As you continue along the strait and narrow way, you progress in the gospel process.

Justification

Justification is the decision to submit to God.² Those who perfectly follow the example of Jesus as they understand him to be are called justified.³ Justification is a condition of perfectly replicating your understanding of how Jesus would be in your place. We are justified if we continuously live according to how we believe God would live in our situation. Justification through Christ means living in a state where you completely and constantly reconcile your desires, thoughts, and actions to your current, sincere idea of what is best, and as such, is a synonym for blamelessness. Justification occurs when you scrutinize your life, admit where your desires, thoughts, and actions deviate from the example of Christ, and improve to reconcile yourself to his example.

Justification is an event. It occurs in the moment you decide to follow God, and is maintained as long as you continue to follow him. When you determine to choose God’s purpose as your own, and subdue all other interests to his, you are justified. Justification is a gospel doctrine that has been significantly distorted by common Christians. An unfortunate number of Christians believe righteousness is a question of God’s decree upon a person in response to their statement of belief in him, rather than a description of how they actually are compared to their belief about how Jesus is. God can’t and won’t bestow upon you the rewards of righteousness while you continue to willingly sin against him. Justification is a property, not a decree. God does not lie,⁴ and because righteousness is a measure of similarity to God, he cannot declare anyone righteous except through their conformity to their understanding of how God is, or how he actually is. There isn’t a third option that magically transforms a sinner into a saint. Even when God forgives you, he cannot make you holy except through your choice to follow how he demonstrates himself to be.

Your whole body is full of light when you are justified

There are special blessings available only to those who live in full alignment with God.⁵ Sanctification increases the quality and quantity of blessings to which you have access. All good comes from and leads to God, and the concentration of its value increases as you draw nearer to him. The bandwidth of wisdom, blessings, and power from God available to you is determined not just by whether you are aligned, but by the level of knowledge about God that you are aligned to. As you learn more about him while remaining aligned with him, the amount of good he can send into your life increases.⁶ It is through people who align with God and increase the bandwidth of their connection to him that God establishes his kingdom on earth.⁷ Most of the blessings we read about in the scriptures are among those reserved for those who live in full alignment with God. It is because very few Christians live in alignment with God that so few scriptural blessings are available in the lives of many Christians.

When you are aligned with God, or justified, you open the maximal conduit of wisdom, blessings, and power from God available to you.⁸

You enjoy unparalleled peace.⁹ You can stand in the presence of God.¹⁰ You are sustained by God without any impedance.¹¹ Nothing good is withheld from you.¹²

Falling out of alignment with what you understand God to be like disqualifies you from further revelation of how he is,¹³ and will also result in the loss of the grace you have received until now.¹⁴ Each way in which you think, feel, or act less than the best you know creates impedance between you and God.¹⁵ Every difference between how you are and how you believe God to be creates an obstruction in the flow of God’s goodness to and through you.

Sanctification

Sanctification is the process of becoming holier through learning more about God while continuing to live all we know. To be sanctified is to gain more of the joy, knowledge, beliefs, power, and glory of God. Sanctification requires learning more about Jesus than you knew before. Justification requires sacrificing what cannot remain, but sanctification requires becoming better than you were before.

Sanctification is the process of iteratively obtaining a better understanding of God while applying that understanding to your life. This is a cyclic process that consists of:¹⁶

Learning more about God’s character.
Consummately applying what you understand about God’s character in your life.
Repeating this process as God teaches you more about himself.

Sanctification is the process of learning more while remaining reconciled to what you learn. Sanctification occurs as you maintain complete conformance to the will of God in thoughts, words, deeds, desires, and character as you are exposed to greater challenges in life. There will always be more to know about God, and each increment of learning brings an opportunity to live what you have learned or turn away from it. You choose whether to remain reconciled to God or not. Those who choose to remain reconciled to God as they learn more about him remain justified and become more sanctified.

Justification can happen through the intervention of another, but sanctification requires you to improve

Sanctification cannot occur outside of the choice and capacity¹⁷ of the individual. Little children are involuntarily justified through the atonement of Jesus Christ,¹⁸ but like everyone else, they cannot be sanctified except through learning¹⁹ and choosing to live a greater law.²⁰

If children were sanctified against their will, it would be preferable to die as an infant. The truth is that this life provides a unique opportunity for sanctification,²¹ which is why the earth was created in the first place.²²

While we are forgiven or punished according to what we believe is good, we can only be blessed inasmuch as we have learned and lived up to what is actually good.

Greater knowledge brings greater accountability, but you can’t obtain greater blessings without greater knowledge. Those faithful to a little knowledge receive the blessings of having a little knowledge. Those faithful to a lot of knowledge receive the blessings of having a lot of knowledge.

We are still subject to the temporal consequences of our ignorance, even if we are forgiven of the moral consequences of our ignorance. A baby is subject to the same gravity as an average adult or engineer, and while the adult can better avoid falling off a cliff than the baby, only the engineer will be able to design a plane to fly off of it.

When you follow Jesus as far as you understand him, he reveals more about himself to you

Justification is a binary state—you are either justified or you are not—but sanctification is by degrees. You are justified all at once, but you are sanctified line upon line. Justification is a question of whether you are reconciled to all you know. Sanctification is a question of how much you know. You must be justified to be sanctified to any degree.

Sanctification is the process of obtaining greater degrees of eternal life²³ by learning more about²⁴ and becoming more like God.²⁵ We grow proportional to the degree of heed and diligence we exercise in obtaining more information²⁶ about God while living up to everything we already know.²⁷ As you make every reasonable attempt to learn more about the character of God and as you are completely obedient to your present understanding, God will teach you more about himself.²⁸ You draw nearer to Christ incrementally as you follow his incrementally revealed example.²⁹

Finding out more about how Jesus is begins by living as you believe he would given what you already understand about him.³⁰ If you live according to your present understanding of how Jesus is,³¹ he will teach you more about himself.³² As you consistently live up to what you believe Jesus would think, feel, and do in your place, he will reveal to you more about how he is.³³ As long as you remain consistent in fully following his example, you will continue in the process of refinement, incrementally increasing in your similitude to Jesus.³⁴

You will learn more about God line upon line as you live up to what you already know.³⁵ The path to God is a path of correction. In each step, you learn that God would think, feel, or act differently than you if he were in your place. You implement the suggested improvement, and the cycle repeats with some new lesson. When the rich young ruler asked Jesus what he needed to do to be saved, Jesus responded by telling him what he would do differently if he were in his place.³⁶ The next step in the gospel is always the next thing you know but do not do. How fast and far you progress in the development of your character will depend solely on your ability to focus fully on the changes he has already suggested to you: ways you think, feel, or act that don’t match your current understanding of what is best. As you fill your life with the light God has already revealed to you, greater knowledge about God will come to you daily like dew on the morning grass.³⁷

Maintaining your relationship with God requires more than just maintaining your obedience to what he has already revealed to you.

Your relationship with God is always either growing or decaying. It will never be the case that one living up to their beliefs will remain stagnant over time.³⁸ God always sends the next increment of truth to those who live up to what they have.³⁹

To abide with God, you have to instantly change when corrected

Jesus said our work is to “believe on him whom [God] has sent.”⁴⁰ Believing in Jesus means learning more about how he is and implementing his example in your own life. When you reconcile yourself to God, you enter into a state of alignment with him. When you are aligned with God, there is no part of you that lies outside of how he would be, up to the limits of your capacity, opportunity, and understanding.⁴¹ You align with God by seeking and pursuing his will in all things, all of the time.⁴² To be fully aligned with God requires you to be an integrated, honest person whose central, transcendent purpose is to learn and accomplish the will of God.

Maintaining alignment with God requires your continual reconciliation with God. We are innocent of the transgressions we unknowingly commit.⁴³ However, we are accountable for every time we fall short of the best we know.⁴⁴ Increased knowledge of God brings with it the opportunity to become more like him and receive more of his blessings, but also the accountability for living up to a higher standard.⁴⁵ When you disconnect yourself from Jesus in anything, you distance yourself from him in everything. In order to continue receiving God’s grace for what you do not know, you must continue living up to everything you do know.⁴⁶

To remain aligned with God requires constant improvement. How willing are you to change your mind about how you believe Jesus to be? Greater knowledge about God does not just consist of additional ideas that stand apart from or build upon what you already believe about him. A great deal of what remains for you to learn about God will include ideas that directly contradict what you already believe about him.

How would you discover limits in your beliefs about Jesus? Discovery of limitations in belief can only come through so many sources; you must be willing to listen to the arguments of others, willing to experiment with their beliefs, and willing to fully live up to their beliefs while honestly assessing if they deliver the promised outcomes. There is no other way of discovering limits in belief, but for most Christians, all three vectors of learning are heretical, and they therefore never discover or correct the limits in their beliefs about Jesus.

Meanwhile, many non-Christians do an excellent job at becoming more like Jesus and gaining reasons for why to do so, at least as far as they can without actually knowing about or believing in Jesus. They do so in the name of improvement—all of which is inseparable from God, whether they realize it or not.⁴⁷ Just as modern Christians cannot progress to better outcomes until they recognize and progress in attention to how to become more like Jesus and why to do so, nonChristians who are oriented toward improvement will only continue to find it by learning that Jesus is real, that everything good they have found in life is from him, and that everything better that remains is found through explicit belief in him.

Maintaining a growing relationship with God requires you to constantly learn more about him than you knew before and to remain aligned with all he reveals to you.⁴⁸ To abide with Jesus, you must reach for anything in him that is better than you and let go of anything in you that is less than him.⁴⁹ If you want to abide with God, you have to constantly seek and do his will,⁵⁰ instantly changing any time you realize that your present path deviates from what he would think, feel, or do in your place. Correction can come at any moment.⁵¹ Disciples of Christ stand ready to receive them, watching and ready to hear and obey⁵² anything he might say.⁵³ From the moment you rise until you retire, proactively pursue his purpose and be prepared to receive further instructions.

It is possible to live in constant reconciliation with God. Perfection is dismissed by many as an unattainable goal, in spite of Jesus commanding us to be perfect.⁵⁴ In the scriptures, perfect is a synonym for blameless. It means a person who is living the best that they know. This is not meant to be an exceptional situation.⁵⁵ Several well-known people attained this state as described in scripture.⁵⁶ It is meant to be the state in which Christians continuously live. All disciples of Christ are commanded to be perfect.⁵⁷

It is possible to be in a state where you can’t identify anything in your life that God would handle differently than you do.⁵⁸ To achieve this state is not the same as being exactly as Jesus is, but to be precisely as you understand him to be.

Footnotes

1. Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. (Matthew 7:13-14) ↩
2. To justify (Strong’s 1344 dikaioó ) means to achieve the state described by Strong’s 1342 ( dikaios ), which means righteous, innocent, correct, conforming to God’s standard. ↩
3. For all have sinned in falling short of the glory of God. But all can be rendered innocent from past disobedience to God and present limits of his fullness through the gracious act of redemption in and through Jesus Christ, Whom God prepared before the world as the atoning sacrifice for sin, to demonstrate his righteousness to the world, that through learning how he is and living how he would, man might be justified. (Romans 3:23-26, Author’s Reflection) ↩
4. In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began; (Titus 1:2) ↩
5. 22 The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light (Matthew 6:22) Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord. (Psalms 119:1) ↩
6. The Lord loves righteousness and justice; when these are in place, God’s love flows unimpeded to fill the earth. (Psalm 33:5, Author’s Reflection) ↩
7. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. (Isaiah 9:7) The Lord is exalted; for he dwelleth on high: he hath filled Zion with judgment and righteousness. (Isaiah 33:5) ↩
8. The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light (Matthew 6:22) ↩
9. Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace. (Psalms 37:37) Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. (John 14:27) ↩
10. Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill? He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart. (Psalm 15:1-2) Let thy bowels also be full of charity towards all men, and to the household of faith, and let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God; and the doctrine of the priesthood shall distil upon thy soul as the dews from heaven (D&C 121:45) ↩
11. Whoever walks blamelessly will be saved, But he who is perverse in his ways will suddenly fall. (Proverbs 28:18, NKJV) The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings? He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil; He shall dwell on high: his place of defence shall be the munitions of rocks: bread shall be given him; his waters shall be sure. (Isaiah 33:14-16) ↩
12. For the Lord God is a sun and shield: the Lord will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. (Psalms 84:11) ↩
13. For we labor diligently to write, to persuade our children, and also our brethren, to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God; for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do. (2 Nephi 25:23) ↩
14. ...But there is a possibility that man may fall from grace and depart from the living God; (D&C 20:31-32) And now, verily I say unto you, I, the Lord, will not lay any sin to your charge; go your ways and sin no more; but unto that soul who sinneth shall the former sins return, saith the Lord your God (D&C 82:7) ↩
15. For I the Lord cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance; (D&C 1:31) ↩
16. For you shall live by every word that proceedeth forth from the mouth of God. For the word of the Lord is truth, and whatsoever is truth is light, and whatsoever is light is Spirit, even the Spirit of Jesus Christ. And the Spirit giveth light to every man that cometh into the world; and the Spirit enlighteneth every man through the world, that hearkeneth to the voice of the Spirit. And every one that hearkeneth to the voice of the Spirit cometh unto God, even the Father. And the Father teacheth him of the covenant which he has renewed and confirmed upon you, which is confirmed upon you for your sakes, and not for your sakes only, but for the sake of the whole world. And the whole world lieth in sin, and groaneth under darkness and under the bondage of sin. And by this you may know they are under the bondage of sin, because they come not unto me. For whoso cometh not unto me is under the bondage of sin. And whoso receiveth not my voice is not acquainted with my voice, and is not of me. And by this you may know the righteous from the wicked, and that the whole world groaneth under sin and darkness even now. (D&C 84:44-53) ↩
17. Behold, ye are little children and ye cannot bear all things now; ye must grow in grace and in the knowledge of the truth. (D&C 50:40) ↩
18. The following scripture contains an understandable but mistaken conflation of justification and sanctification by Joseph Smith: “But little children are holy, being sanctified through the atonement of Jesus Christ; and this is what the scriptures mean.” (D&C 74:7) A more correct rendering would be: “But little children are innocent, being justified through the atonement of Jesus Christ.” ↩
19. For all who will have a blessing at my hands shall abide the law which was appointed for that blessing, and the conditions thereof, as were instituted from before the foundation of the world. (D&C 132:5) ↩
20. And again, verily I say unto you, that which is governed by law is also preserved by law and perfected and sanctified by the same. (D&C 88:34) ↩
21. And if a person gains more knowledge and intelligence in this life through his diligence and obedience than another, he will have so much the advantage in the world to come. (D&C 130:19) ↩
22. And there stood one among them that was like unto God, and he said unto those who were with him: We will go down, for there is space there, and we will take of these materials, and we will make an earth whereon these may dwell; And we will prove them herewith, to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them; And they who keep their first estate shall be added upon; and they who keep not their first estate shall not have glory in the same kingdom with those who keep their first estate; and they who keep their second estate shall have glory added upon their heads for ever and ever. (Abraham 3:24-26) ↩
23. Yea, I say unto you come and fear not, and lay aside every sin, which easily doth beset you, which doth bind you down to destruction, yea, come and go forth, and show unto your God that ye are willing to repent of your sins and enter into a covenant with him to keep his commandments, and witness it unto him this day by going into the waters of baptism. And whosoever doeth this, and keepeth the commandments of God from thenceforth, the same will remember that I say unto him, yea, he will remember that I have said unto him, he shall have eternal life, according to the testimony of the Holy Spirit, which testifieth in me. (Alma 7:15-16) ↩
24. ...press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life. (2 Nephi 31:20) ↩
25. And unto him that repenteth and sanctifieth himself before the Lord shall be given eternal life. (D&C 133:62) ↩
26. ...It is given unto many to know the mysteries of God; nevertheless they are laid under a strict command that they shall not impart only according to the portion of his word which he doth grant unto the children of men, according to the heed and diligence which they give unto him. And therefore, he that will harden his heart, the same receiveth the lesser portion of the word; and he that will not harden his heart, to him is given the greater portion of the word, until it is given unto him to know the mysteries of God until he know them in full. (Alma 12:9-10) ↩
27. And if a person gains more knowledge and intelligence in this life through his diligence and obedience than another, he will have so much the advantage in the world to come (D&C 130:19) ↩
28. For if you keep my commandments you shall receive of his fulness, and be glorified in me as I am in the Father; therefore, I say unto you, you shall receive grace for grace. (D&C 93:20) And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace. (John 1:16) Wherefore, my beloved brethren, reconcile yourselves to the will of God, and not to the will of the devil and the flesh; and remember, after ye are reconciled unto God, that it is only in and through the grace of God that ye are saved. (2 Nephi 10:24) And thus we see that the commandments of God must be fulfilled. And if it so be that the children of men keep the commandments of God he doth nourish them, and strengthen them, and provide means whereby they can accomplish the thing which he has commanded them; wherefore, he did provide means for us while we did sojourn in the wilderness. (1 Nephi 17:3) Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God. (Moroni 10:32) ↩
29. For these reasons I implore you, brethren, that you continuously offer yourselves as an evermore holy sacrifice to God, increasingly reconciled to God’s increasingly revealed word, by the mercies of God. And be not changed to be more like this world, but be changed to be more like God, through improved reason and understanding, through searching and learning what is of the greatest worth and benefit, towards the complete stature of God. (2 Thessalonians 12:1-2, Author’s Reflection) ↩
30. The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him; and he will shew them his covenant. (Psalms 25:14) ↩
31. Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. (1 John 4:17) ↩
32. Continuously one with God through obedience to how we imagine him to be, as our belief yields to firsthand experience with him, until we become a perfected man, filled with the complete character of Christ. (Ephesians 4:13, Author’s Reflection) ↩
33. But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. (Proverbs 4:18) ↩
34. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. (1 John 3:2-3) ↩
35. And no man receiveth a fulness unless he keepeth his commandments. He that keepeth his commandments receiveth truth and light, until he is glorified in truth and knoweth all things. (D&C 93:27-28) ↩
36. And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life? And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. He saith unto him, Which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet? Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me. But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions. (Matthew 19:16-22) ↩
37. Let thy bowels also be full of charity towards all men, and to the household of faith, and let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God; and the doctrine of the priesthood shall distil upon thy soul as the dews from heaven. (D&C 121:45) ↩
38. ...there are many who observe not to keep my commandments. But unto him that keepeth my commandments I will give the mysteries of my kingdom, and the same shall be in him a well of living water, springing up unto everlasting life. (D&C 63:22-23) Do ye not remember the things which the Lord hath said?—If ye will not harden your hearts, and ask me in faith, believing that ye shall receive, with diligence in keeping my commandments, surely these things shall be made known unto you. (1 Nephi 15:11) ↩
39. And he said unto them, Take heed what ye hear: with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you: and unto you that hear shall more be given (Mark 4:24) ↩
40. Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent. (John 6:28-29) ↩
41. And the Lord said unto Moses, I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken: for thou hast found grace in my sight, and I know thee by name. (Exodus 33:17) ↩
42. Counsel with the Lord in all thy doings, and he will direct thee for good; yea, when thou liest down at night lie down unto the Lord, that he may watch over you in your sleep; and when thou risest in the morning let thy heart be full of thanks unto God; and if ye do these things, ye shall be lifted up at the last day. (Alma 37:37) ↩
43. Wherefore, he has given a law; and where there is no law given there is no punishment; and where there is no punishment there is no condemnation; and where there is no condemnation the mercies of the Holy One of Israel have claim upon them, because of the atonement; for they are delivered by the power of him. (2 Nephi 9:25) ↩
44. As it is written, “You will justify all those who live up to their knowledge of your character, and will vindicate all who so do.” And all who say otherwise are wrong. If, however, our unrighteousness continues in spite of the revelation of God’s righteousness, we have no defense. God would be unrighteous to withhold his wrath from such. And for this very thing, the judgment of the world will come. Those who continue faithful to the best they know while their unknown imperfections are revealed through the continuation of the truth of God are free from sin. But those who knowingly do less than the best they know are neither innocent of unknown imperfections nor forgiven of past sins. (Romans 3:4-8, Author’s Reflection) ↩
45. For of him unto whom much is given much is required; and he who sins against the greater light shall receive the greater condemnation. Ye call upon my name for revelations, and I give them unto you; and inasmuch as ye keep not my sayings, which I give unto you, ye become transgressors; and justice and judgment are the penalty which is affixed unto my law. (D&C 82:34) ↩
46. For we labor diligently to write, to persuade our children, and also our brethren, to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God; for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do. (2 Nephi 25:23) ↩
47. For behold, the Spirit of Christ is given to every man, that he may know good from evil; wherefore, I show unto you the way to judge; for every thing which inviteth to do good, and to persuade to believe in Christ, is sent forth by the power and gift of Christ; wherefore ye may know with a perfect knowledge it is of God. (Moroni 7:16) ↩
48. I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. (John 15:1-4) ↩
49. And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall believe on the Son of God, the same shall have everlasting life....And if ye believe on his name ye will repent of all your sins, that thereby ye may have a remission of them through his merits. (Helaman 14:8, 13) ↩
50. The Father will remove from me anyone who ceases to continue to bear fruit, even if they did in the past; He will purge every branch that bears fruit, so that it continues bear more and better fruit. I have purged you through the word that I have spoken to you. Now remain reconciled to and growing in me, that I may remain reconciled to you, and cause you to grow. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, if it does not abide in the vine, nor can you if you do not abide in me. I am the vine; you are branches. I will abide with him who remains reconciled to and growing in me, and he will bear abundant fruit. There is no power apart from me. Anyone who deviates from me is removed as an unwelcome shoot; they dry out and are thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain reconciled to me in every way as I teach you more of my words, you will seek everything you desire, and you will find everything you seek. (John 15:2-7, Author’s Reflection) ↩
51. 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. (D&C 136:31) ↩
52. But ye are commanded in all things to ask of God, who giveth liberally; and that which the Spirit testifies unto you even so I would that ye should do in all holiness of heart, walking uprightly before me.... (D&C 46:7) ↩
53. But now, O Lord, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand. (Isaiah 64:8) ↩
54. Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect (Matthew 5:48) ↩
55. And now my beloved brethren, I have said these things unto you that I might awaken you to a sense of your duty to God, that ye may walk blameless before him, that ye may walk after the holy order of God, after which ye have been received. (Alma 7:22) Let your heart therefore be perfect with the Lord our God, to walk in his statutes, and to keep his commandments, as at this day. (1 Kings 8:61) I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way. O when wilt thou come unto me? I will walk within my house with a perfect heart. (Psalms 101:2) ↩
56. For example, “These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.” (Genesis 6:9) When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless. (Genesis 17:1, NKJV) ↩
57. Thou shalt be perfect with the Lord thy God. (Deuteronomy 18:13) Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. (Matthew 5:48) Therefore I would that ye should be perfect even as I, or your Father who is in heaven is perfect. (3 Nephi 12:48) ↩
58. In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight: (Colossians 1:22) Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus: (Colossians 1:28) ↩

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