The Power to Become

In response to the great question “What manner of men ought ye to be?,” Christ unequivocally declared “even as I am” (3 Nephi 27:27). God’s plan for us is not just that we return to God’s presence to be judged, but that we permanently return as a changed, exalted being who has been “reconciled unto Christ” through the Atonement (2 Nephi 33:9). The Atonement of Jesus Christ not only provides the power to be redeemed from our sins; it provides the power to become like Him.

In his book The Infinite Atonement, Tad R. Callister lays out three main purposes of the Atonement (The Infinite Atonement, Callister 23):

1. To restore all that was lost by the fall of Adam by bringing about the resurrection for all men, thus overcoming physical death, and by restoring all men to the presence of God for the purpose of being judged, thus overcoming what the scriptures call a first spiritual death (Helaman 14:16).

2. To provide for the possibility of repentance so that men might be cleansed from their individual sins and by so doing overcome what the scriptures call a second spiritual death (Helaman 14:8).

3. To provide the power necessary to exalt us to the status of a god.

Callister explains that “these three purposes are designed to help us permanently return to God’s presence and become like Him” (The Infinite Atonement, Callister 24).

We must expand our vision and devote our efforts to applying Christ’s Atonement in our lives so that we might become cleansed of our sins and become like Him.

Christ stated: “as many as have received me, to them have I given to become the sons of God” (3 Nephi 9:17). We must receive Christ through emulating His example and developing Christlike attributes. God wants us “to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God” (2 Nephi 25:23).

It is our sacred duty to “be reconciled unto him through the atonement of Christ” and “become his sons and his daughters” (Jacob 4:11, Mosiah 5:7). This process of becoming is only made possible through Christ’s Atonement. We are to “[put] off the natural man and [become] a saint through the atonement of Christ” (Mosiah 3:19).

Christ’s hope is that “when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is” (Moroni 7:48). Becoming like Christ through His Atonement is central to Heavenly Father’s plan for us. As we become cleansed through the redeeming power of the Atonement and continually draw nearer unto God, we gain greater access to the enabling power of the Atonement so that we might become who we are eternally destined to be. Christ declared that we are to be even as He is. We are to “be gods” through the Atonement of Jesus Christ (D&C 132:20). This is God’s work and His glory: “to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man” (Moses 1:39).