2 Nephi 2

This year I started reading the Book of Mormon again. I’ve found lots of great things so far, and I thought I’d share one of them.

When I read 2 Nephi 2 this time through, the beginning of the chapter struck me rather differently than it had before. I guess I never really paid much attention to it, instead looking forward to “the good stuff” about the Savior in verses 6–8 and about opposition, etc., in verses 11 onward. But this time, it struck me that Lehi spends a lot of time establishing the idea that it can never be by our own merits that we are saved:

...I know that thou art redeemed, because of the righteousness of thy Redeemer (verse 3)

...the way is prepared from the fall of man, and salvation is free (verse 4)

...by the law no flesh is justified; or, by the law men are cut off (verse 5)

...he [Christ] offereth himself a sacrifice for sin, to answer the ends of the law, unto all those who have a broken heart and a contrite spirit; and unto none else can the ends of the law be answered (verse 7)

It is especially interesting that Lehi uses this idea to set up his teachings on the doctrine of agency. If it is really Christ’s merits that save us, rather than our own actions, how does our dependence on Christ reinforce Lehi’s teachings on agency?

I believe Lehi’s teachings on agency reach their culmination in verse 27:

Wherefore, men are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient unto man. And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil; for he seeketh that all men might be miserable like unto himself.

So, one thing Lehi teaches is that knowledge is an important feature of agency. I like to think of Heavenly Father’s plan as The Plan of Education. The most important things we gain here on Earth are the knowledge Heavenly Father has and the desire to choose righteously. Because Adam understood the importance of agency, he chose to partake of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil—and while the action may have been symbolic, its effects are quite literal.

And so, verse 27 teaches us about the one decision that is ours to make, the one decision that matters: choosing God or Satan. The Light of Christ educates all men and women sufficiently that they can make that choice, and do so according to their own will, thereafter “to be judged of him [Christ] according to the truth and holiness which is in him” (verse 10). Adam understood the interactions between knowledge of truth, action, and individual judgment.

But to end where we (and Lehi) began, Christ is the only one with the power to save us. That means that when we make the one critical decision, accepting Christ, we gain access to His power to save us: “...and they that believe in him shall be saved” (verse 9). On the other hand, we can choose Satan’s power, “which giveth the spirit of the devil power to captivate” (verse 29)—which power he would not otherwise have (were we not to choose him).

Looking at agency as Lehi understood it brings together so many principles of the gospel: faith, obedience, humility, repentance, covenants, and, most importantly, the infinite necessity and power of Christ’s Atonement.