Jesus is the most abused, slandered, misunderstood, underappreciated, disbelieved, misrepresented, and rejected person in history.

Those who choose to follow Jesus, who walk in his footsteps, can expect to be likewise abused, slandered, misunderstood, underappreciated, disbelieved, misrepresented, and rejected. If this has not been your experience, then it is entirely likely that whatever it is you are, you are not very much like Him. But if such is the case, that you are going to be treated like this, why would you want to be?

Jesus desires and invites us to come to know Him completely, infinitely, and eternally; and he has shown us the way whereby we can do so. We are to follow Jesus by doing what he did.

As we come to know Jesus, we will progressively become more and more like Him, and by so doing, we will progressively receive all that He has.

As we follow Jesus, doing what he did, and doing as he bids, we learn of him, and we become like him.

Contrary to popular belief, Jesus is quite comprehensible, knowable, approachable, reachable, touchable, personable, and kind. The more we come to know Him, the more we come to realize that these things are true. Those who disagree with this, do not know Him at all.

Anything we lack in understanding, truth, peace, happiness, joy, personal fulfillment, righteous ability, and upward progression, Jesus Christ offers enthusiastically.

By contrast, we find that in general, religious institutions, religious professionals, and professors of religion, will inevitably disappoint you, deceive you, mislead you, and maybe even abuse you—especially when and as you choose to follow Jesus instead of them. Ultimately, we find we really cannot trust them, because almost all of them teach that which is contrary to the doctrine of Christ. In short, they tell us to follow them instead of Christ, that complete faith in Christ and repentance are not necessary for salvation, and that we can be saved in our sins if we will just trust and follow them. Such as these cannot be trusted; but we can and should, absolutely, implicitly, 100% trust Jesus. He is the only one entirely worthy and qualified to be completely trusted.

We are to follow the Lord’s mortal servants only as we are directed by the Lord to do so. We are to first and foremost trust and follow Jesus Christ. Anyone and anything else must be secondary, subservient, and in complete agreement with Him.

Learning to completely believe and trust Jesus is the greatest test of mortality. This is also the key to personal progression, here and in eternity. This is key in our learning to know, comprehend, and receive Him.

As we learn to completely believe and trust Jesus, learning everything we can about Him, and doing as He asks, we are filled with pure knowledge and truth, we become followers of righteousness, and then greater followers of righteousness, and as we do this we progress in faith, power, and glory, even until we are able to receive and abide a fullness of the glory of God. These are loaded words. Learning to understand these words is part of the test. I am still learning to understand them as well.

The way to know, comprehend, and receive Jesus is to seek out and follow his continual guidance and commandments with all our hearts. We must completely give our minds, hearts, and wills to Him. As we do this, we will be filled with His light and truth. 

As we seek Jesus, He will reveal in our minds and hearts what we need to understand about him and about what we need to do to progress in becoming more like him. This revealing does not, however, come automatically. It requires a great deal of effort, sacrifice, and often a considerable amount of suffering. The further down this path I go, the more I discover how much this is true.

In this world, we tend to view suffering as an evil or bad thing. We tend to view suffering as undesirable. But I think we need to pause now and then to consider the value that can only be found through suffering. Maybe pause reading this long enough to make your own list of benefits and blessings that can be gained by suffering.

Many books have been written and could still be written on the subject of suffering, but suffice it to say that suffering is a phenomenal learning and development tool. There are so many things we cannot learn, there are so many ways we cannot develop, and there are so many attributes and character traits we cannot grow into except through the experiences of suffering.

In the end, we learn that we cannot receive a fullness of joy until after we have experienced a fullness of suffering. This has been the case for Jesus, and it will be the case for many others as well. Of course, it is easy to speak philosophically about it, while it is an entirely different matter to go through it as well!

My shortlist is that by suffering we learn the consequences for sin, we learn empathy, we learn love, and we learn how we can benefit others who are experiencing great suffering. Through our suffering we learn what causes suffering, we learn how to righteously avoid suffering, we learn how to take upon ourselves the suffering of others for their benefit, and we better appreciate the blessings that great suffering brings.

In all our suffering, eventually, we learn that the Lord Jesus does not wipe away the tears from His own eyes until after He has wiped away the tears from our eyes. Becoming as Christ is does not remove suffering from our lives, it makes us fully able to bear it, and to bear the suffering of others as well.

So why do I emphasize suffering so much? Well, so often, so many of us proclaim how much we want to be like Jesus without any comprehension of what that even means. By becoming like Jesus, your suffering for your own past sins will be greatly reduced, but this will be replaced by suffering for the sins and iniquities of others instead. There is no way around that. So if that does not sound good to you, then you will need to reevaluate what exactly you really want in this life and in the next life as well.

Very often, our obedience is at the cost of great sacrifice and suffering.

We are to “covenant by sacrifice.”[1] We are to covenant with the Lord to keep His commandments, and we keep His commandments, so often, by sacrifice and even by suffering.

There are no shortcuts or alternative paths to receiving Jesus Christ. There is only one way: His way.

His way for you will be different than anyone else’s. Each person’s path is tailor-made. But in every case, the same lessons must be learned, and the same principles and laws must be properly approached and satisfied.

Comprehension of God is progressive; it is progressively qualified; and it is hierarchal. A child can comprehend God with a child’s simplicity, then advance in that comprehension, progressively attaining new levels of comprehension and appreciation as he or she gets older and new lessons are learned. Each degree of comprehension requires the fulfillment of prerequisite laws and legal requirements which are revealed and then satisfied systematically. But unless and until you approach God with the faith and trust of a child you cannot receive these things.

It is vital to understand that Jesus, who is the Son of God, is knowable and comprehensible. This understanding enables faith and hope in Christ. The opposite, that God is unknowable and incomprehensible, which is what many Christians believe, destroys faith and hope in Christ.

Also contrary to popular belief, there is no such thing as predestination. You are not saved or damned according to some predetermination or predestination by God. That would destroy agency, accountability, and the need for faith. Rather, we are accountable, and we are admonished, again and again, to choose God by our obedience, repentance, and faith. This underscores the need to understand the principles of agency and accountability. This understanding helps to inform our understanding of how God works and how we must work if we are to receive what He offers. These principles are discussed in great detail in later chapters.

In Christ’s great intercessory prayer, He declared, “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.”[2] We are to literally know God the Father, and his Son, Jesus Christ. This doctrine grants hope and great faith if we follow it. The opposite doctrine, that God is unknowable, unreachable, untouchable, and incomprehensible, destroys hope and faith by depicting a God that is impossibly unknowable, distant, indifferent, and aloof.

Satan does not want us to know or comprehend God, and so he promotes doctrines that paint God as unknowable, unreachable, untouchable, and incomprehensible. Of course, Satan wants that; but God certainly does not!

Jesus Christ is the embodiment of Love. He loves us far more than we love ourselves. This is why He condescended to mortality, lived a perfect life, gave us a perfect example to follow, suffered for our sins in Gethsemane, submitted and was crucified on a cross on Calvary, died, and was resurrected on the third day, that He might be filled with understanding, empathy, and mercy; that He might offer to us a perfect hope by faith on His name, by repentance, and redemption. Anything that we might suffer in this life pales in comparison to what He suffered for us. And he suffered because He loves us and wants us to receive all the blessings and happiness that He has to offer.

It should be obvious that what I have shared here about Jesus is only the tip of the iceberg. If we really want to know Jesus then we need to make a serious study of His life, His history, and His teachings. But most of all, we need to come to Him and allow Him to teach us personally. And we need to follow Him, be guided by Him, and become even as He is. Then we will fully know Him.

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[1] Doctrine and Covenants 97:8

[2] John 17:3

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