D&C 76:24

The other day in class we went over the scripture found in D&C 76:24 which states, "That by him, and through him, and of him, the worlds are and were created, and the inhabitants thereof are begotten sons and daughters unto God."This verse has two parts, namely that this world was created by, through and of Christ (by His physical labor, through His power, and of Him meaning that this world belongs to Christ). However, I've never really realized that those same prepositions apply to "the inhabitants" of this world.

Brother Perkins pointed out that by Christ we are sons and daughters unto God because Christ is our mediator with the Father, through His atonement we can be brought back to the Father, and we are of Him because of the price He paid for us. We began talking about how nobody ever really gets a happy connotation out of being "owned" by someone else. If you were playing basketball that would be the biggest taunting strategy ever.

However, none of us mind being owned by Christ. I think mostly this boils down to trust. When you trust someone you are willing to put yourself in their control because you know that they will follow through with what they have said they will do. We trust that if we align our will with Christ's we will be brought back to the presence of God through Him.

This relationship reminds me of the relationship between husband and wife, in some small ways. I don't think my husband thinks of himself as having ownership of me, but we have made promises that make me his. I am okay with this. I know that through my husband I have access to the priesthood power and the saving ordinances that are contained there, and I trust him to honor and uphold that power so that both of us can receive the blessings from the ordinances associated with that power. I trust him to be worthy to bless our children, baptize them, heal them when they are sick, and resurrect me when the time comes. Because of this trust I have no problem with not being a priesthood holder, because I have no need for it. I already have access to it through a man that I know will follow through and bring me those promised blessings.

This is like our relationship with Christ because it all comes back to trust. If you trust someone to follow through with their end of the bargain, you would never get all hot and bothered about the fact that they "own you."