Come unto Christ
We do not need to perfect ourselves to come to Christ. We come to Christ to be perfected.
Thirty-nine years ago, President Dallin H. Oaks taught me about the character of Jesus Christ in a way I will never forget.
In 1987, I was a young missionary with only two years in the Church. At the mission office, a sign on the gate read, “Trespassers will be prosecuted.”
President Oaks asked that it be removed to avoid any impression of exclusion. Rather, we invite all to come unto Christ through faith in Him and His Atonement. In that moment, I gained the desire to love others as the Savior does. I love Him. I know He lives. He suffered for me in Gethsemane; “his sweat was as it were great drops of blood.” He suffered for me on the cross at Golgotha. I cannot comprehend that suffering, but I testify of His divinity.
President Oaks taught, “Jesus Christ did all of this because He loves all of the children of God.”
His suffering and atoning sacrifice show us how completely devoted He is to all of us. He invites us to come unto Him. Consider Moroni’s invitation: “Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, … deny yourselves of all ungodliness.”
Three key truths to note:
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Come: It’s an action. We choose to move from our current place to a better place.
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Deny yourselves: Surrender. Let go of the things that are holding us back.
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Be perfected in Him: Come as we are with a willing heart. He will give us a new heart.
We do not need to perfect ourselves to come to Christ. We come to Christ to be perfected.
President Russell M. Nelson taught: “Perfection is pending. It can come in full only after the Resurrection and only through the Lord. It awaits all who love Him and keep His commandments.”
Last June on the way to the airport, President Brian Pace from the Wilmington North Carolina Stake asked, “Can we make one more ministering visit?”
“I have a flight to catch,” I thought. But he was already talking. “Brother Randall Child is a good man. He is trying very hard to stop smoking.”
There I am praying and panicking at the same time—I have never smoked a day in my life. What do I say? “Heavenly Father,” I pleaded, “please put words in my mouth.”
At the Childs’ home, following greetings and introductions, I empathized with his efforts to quit smoking. Then I asked, “Brother Child, how much do you love your wife, Laurin?”
His expression changed. “With all my heart.”
“Would you give up anything for her?” I asked.
My heart pounding, I extended the invitation: “Will you and Laurin go find a quiet room and choose a date to be sealed in the house of the Lord?”
A few minutes later they came back with an answer: “August 5.”
We left after kneeling in prayer. And just two months later they were sealed in the temple.
Sister Child shared this with me later: “I stayed awake all night because I couldn’t bear watching Randall suffer—wanting to be perfect in every way possible. So all night I cried and pleaded with the Lord to help him. In the early hours of the morning, the answer came very clear: ‘Randall doesn’t need to be perfect. He needs to do the very best he can.’”
Randall added: “I had trust in the Lord. But when I heard Laurin praying for me—saying all I needed to do was the best I could—I knew then that she was an answer to my prayers.”
Brothers and sisters, let us consider Laurin’s answer to her prayer. The Lord said, “He needs to do the very best he can.” Randall didn’t perfect himself to come to Christ. He came to Christ—with prayer, with trust, and with a willing heart. The Savior, through His grace, helped him to let go of what was holding him back.
And that is why President Oaks had the sign on the gate taken down: “Trespassers will be prosecuted.” The adversary wants to hang that sign on the gate of our heart. Addiction, doubt, pride, pain, grief, guilt, materialism—or whatever is holding us back—he tells us this makes us unworthy to come unto Christ.
But Moroni taught it. Laurin heard it. Randall lived it. You too can live it. If you will “deny not his power, then are ye sanctified in Christ by the grace of God, through the shedding of the blood of Christ.”
One of our former missionaries wrote me recently and said, “As for my faith, my testimony is not as certain as it once was.”
To him, and to all who feel that same ache, I invite you, please come unto Christ and embrace His promise, “that [His] joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.”
My humble invitation to us all: Will you find one person and invite him or her to come unto Christ by exercising faith to follow His teachings, or invite a friend to meet with the missionaries?
As you lose yourself in helping him or her come unto Christ, you will find solutions to your current problems. Our Savior has promised, “For whosever will save his life shall lose it: and whosever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.” I testify of His divinity in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.