Mosiah 15: Christ as Father and Son and the First Resurrection
I was in the garage last night, trying to figure out why a mortise and tenon joint was not lining up. The tenon was the right size. The mortise was the right size. But when I put them together, something was off. I sat there for a minute, looking at it, and then I realized the problem. I had cut the tenon square to the face of the board, but the mortise was cut square to the edge. They were both right on their own terms. They just were not aligned with each other.
I thought about that while reading Mosiah 15, where Abinadi is standing before the priests of Noah explaining something that sounds like a contradiction. How can Christ be both the Father and the Son? It is the kind of question that makes you stop and look at it from a different angle.
How Is Christ Both the Father and the Son in Mosiah 15
Abinadi does not dodge the question, and I think that is worth noticing before the theology even starts. He walks through it carefully, saying that God himself will come down among the children of men and dwell in a tabernacle of clay, and that is the Son. The physical body, the man who walks and talks and bleeds. But because he is the Eternal Father of our spirits, he is also called the Father.
And they are one God, yea, the Eternal Father of heaven and of earth.
That is verse 4, and Abinadi says it plainly. They are one God. The distinction is not about two separate beings but about what Christ is doing. He is the Father in the sense that he is the source of our spiritual life, and he is the Son in the sense that he took on flesh and subjected his will to the Father. You can read about the cost of Abinadi's testimony in Mosiah 17.
I think about that mortise and tenon joint when I am trying to explain how one board can serve two purposes. The tenon is cut one way and the mortise is cut another, but they are both cut from the same piece of wood. They are the same material, the same grain, the same tree. One is the part that fits in and the other is the part that receives, but that is not two different kinds of wood. It is one board, cut to serve two purposes.
Meaning of Christ's Spiritual Seed in Mosiah 15
Abinadi asks a question that I had never really sat with before. Who shall be his seed? He is talking about the seed of Christ, not biological descendants but spiritual ones.
He says that those who have heard the words of the prophets and believed that the Lord would redeem his people are counted as his seed. The prophets themselves are his seed. Anyone who looks forward to a remission of their sins through faith in Christ becomes part of his family.
I have been thinking about what that means for how I see the people around me. The guy at church who sits in the back row and never says much. The neighbor who does not go to church at all but is the first one to show up when someone needs help. If the seed of Christ is defined by faith and not by membership, then the family is a lot bigger than I usually assume.
Abinadi quotes Isaiah here, talking about the beautiful feet of those who publish peace. I have always liked that image. Not a handsome face or a strong voice, but beautiful feet. Feet that have walked a long way to bring good news. It is the kind of detail that makes you think about what actually matters.
How Does Abinadi Explain the Atonement of Jesus Christ
Abinadi walks through the atonement step by step. He says Christ will suffer temptation, be mocked, scourged, cast out, and crucified. He will yield himself up to death so that he can break the bands of death.
He is the light and the life of the world; yea, a light that is endless, that can never be darkened; yea, and also a life which is endless, that there can be no more death.
That is verse 9. Christ stands between justice and mercy. He satisfies the demands of the law on one side and offers mercy to the repentant on the other. He is the joinery that connects what is broken to what is whole.
I have been working on a dining table that has a crack running through one of the boards. I could have thrown the board away, but I decided to fill the crack with a bowtie joint instead. You cut a shape across the crack and fit a piece of wood into it. The new piece holds the crack together. It does not hide the crack. It makes the crack part of the design instead. That is what the atonement feels like to me. Not covering up what is broken but making it hold, which is something I wrote about differently in Mosiah 16.
What Is the First Resurrection in the Book of Mormon
Abinadi teaches that because Christ has power over death, he brings about the resurrection. The first resurrection includes the prophets, the believers, those who kept the commandments, and those who died without ever hearing the gospel. Little children are included too.
The only ones who do not have a part in the first resurrection are those who willfully rebelled against God and died in their sins. Abinadi is clear about this. God cannot deny justice when it has a claim. Paul describes a similar transformation in 1 Corinthians 15, where the dead are raised with spiritual bodies.
I find a lot of comfort in the part about those who died in ignorance. It tells me that God is fair in ways I cannot always see. People who never had a chance to hear the gospel are not lost. They are redeemed by the Lord because they followed the light they had. That is the kind of God I believe in.
Who Are the Heirs of the Kingdom of God in Mosiah 15
The chapter ends with a warning and an invitation. Those who willfully rebel have no part in the first resurrection. But everyone else is invited. The prophets, the believers, the ignorant, the children. The seed of Christ is anyone who turns to him.
I think about that when I am in the garage working on a piece that is not going well. There is always a moment where I want to give up and start over with a fresh board. But the best pieces I have made are the ones where I kept going. I worked with the crack instead of around it. I let the mistake become part of the design.
That is what the atonement does. It does not throw the board away. It works with what is there and makes something whole out of it.
Frequently Asked Questions
How can Jesus be both the Father and the Son?
Abinadi explains that Christ is the Father because he is the Eternal Father of our spirits and the creator of heaven and earth. He is the Son because he took on a physical body and subjected his will to the Father. They are one God, not two.
Who is considered the seed of Christ in Mosiah 15?
The seed of Christ are those who hear the words of the prophets, believe that the Lord will redeem his people, and look forward to a remission of their sins through faith. It is a spiritual family, not a biological one.
What happens to people who never heard the gospel?
Mosiah 15 teaches that those who died in ignorance, without having the gospel declared to them, are redeemed by the Lord and have a part in the first resurrection. They are judged by the light they had, not the light they never saw.
What is the first resurrection in the Book of Mormon?
The first resurrection includes the prophets, the believers, the righteous, little children, and those who died without knowing the gospel. Those who willfully rebelled against God and died in their sins do not have a part in it.
I got that mortise and tenon joint to work eventually. I had to take the tenon back to the bench and shave a little off one face. It fit after that. Not because either piece was wrong. Because they needed to be adjusted to each other. That is what the atonement does. It adjusts what is broken so it can fit with what is whole.
-- D.