Putting off the Natural Man

n General Conference of October of 2005, President Hinckley shared the following newspaper story:

“How would you feel toward a teenager who decided to toss a 20-pound frozen turkey from a speeding car headlong into the windshield of the car you were driving? How would you feel after enduring six hours of surgery using metal plates and other hardware to piece your face together, and after learning you still face years of therapy before returning to normal—and that you ought to feel lucky you didn’t die or suffer permanent brain damage?

“And how would you feel after learning that your assailant and his buddies had the turkey in the first place because they had stolen a credit card and gone on a senseless shopping spree, just for kicks?

A you may remember, Vicotoria Ruvolo the victim was more interested in salvaging the life of her 19 year old assailant, than in revenge.  As the 19 year old Ryan Cushing  apologized to her and begged for forgiveness outside the courtroom, Victoria embraced him, and was heard by a reporter to say, “it’s OK.  I just want you to make your life the best it can be.

6 months jail time – 5 years probation

One of the people listening to President Hinckley’s talk, was Bishop Chris Williams from Highland.  He said,

“I sat there in that conference and I asked myself the question, ‘Could I do that? Am I the kind of person that could forgive like Victoria Ruvolo?’ And I didn’t know,”

16 months later, he answered that question.  He and his pregnant wife and four children were driving home from a family outing, when a 17 year old drunk driver slammed into the side of their car.

Chris made a decision as he stared out his shattered windshield at the overturned car, fully and painfully aware that his wife, their unborn son, 11-year-old son and 9-year-old daughter were dead.

He knew he had to let it go – “As a disciple of Christ I had no other choice,” he said.

 “The No. 1 question I get is how was I able to do that (forgive and let go)?” I tell people that there was an enabling power that allowed me to do that which I couldn’t do for myself, and so it really wasn’t about how do I get the power to do this, it was about how do I allow a much greater power than me to help move me forward. And that’s an act of faith, and that’s an act of trust in God.

These are two fairly dramatic stories of forgiveness, of not acting or reacting the way most people would probably act.

In the process of selecting and editing the material we now know as the Book of Mormon, the prophet Mormon tells us he chose to include things he found “pleasing.” (W of M 1:4.) Nothing could have pleased him more than the remarkable sermon of King Benjamin: a sermon, which Mormon said was “choice unto me,” among the prophesyings and revelations he found as he “searched among the records which had been delivered into [his] hands.” (W of M 1:3, 6.) How blessed we are that of the less than one-hundredth part chosen from among those numerous records, Benjamin’s sermon was included by Mormon, who knew that these words would be equally choice unto us, his latter-day brethren and sisters. (See W of M 1:6.)

One teaching of King Benjamin’s with which we are all familiar is found in Mosiah 3:19

Elder Neal A. Maxwell said, “this verse has a fulness and specificity unrivaled in all of scripture.  In my opinion, if King Benjamin had uttered only the words in Mosiah 3:19, the verse would still rank among the great gems in all our scriptures.”

Think about these words as I read them to you.

“For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.”

Notice that there are two requirements in this verse – 1. Put off the natural man, and 2. Become a saint.  King Benjamin tells us how we can accomplish this – By yielding to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becoming as a child. These attributes we are told to develop are attributes which are possessed to perfection by the Savior.

The process of putting off the natural man is not typically a one time dramatic event as illustrated by the experiences of Victoria and the frozen turkey, or Chris Williams and his car wreck.  Rather, it is a process – a consciously chosen way of life, one in which we deny ourselves of all ungodliness and we take up the cross daily – not occasionally, not weekly, not monthly.

Years ago, President Hinckley counseled: “It is not so much the major events as the small day-to-day decisions that map the course of our living. … Our lives are, in reality, the sum total of our seemingly unimportant decisions and of our capacity to live by those decisions”

On December 31, 1980, I had spent New Year’s Eve with Melinda’s family at he uncle’s home in Woodland Hills – on the mountain above Payson.  The plan was for Melinda and I to wake up early on New Year’s day and drive to North Logan to spend the day with my moms’ family.  It snowed very heavily during the night, but being young and unafraid, Melinda and I loaded into her Dad’s car and I started down the mountain road.  About 200 yards from the house, the road makes a 90 degree bend – the snow packed icy road had other ideas.  We continued travelling straight and off the road.  We bounced over snow covered vegetation and hit a small tree which the car pushed part way over and came to a stop with the tree bent and the car trying to climb it.  The front wheels were off the ground, and some damage had been done to the front of the vehicle.

 I was terrified – we embarked on what at that point was the longest walk of my life – back to Melinda’s uncles house to wake Lyle, her Dad, and give him the news.  I thought that this could be the end of mine and Melinda’s relationship – I had wrecked her Dad’s car and he would forbid her to see me anymore.  We woke him, and to my surprise, he remained calm.  I know it wasn’t easy – I had a front row seat to witness the struggle to overcome the natural man and react with patience and love.  He asked if we were okay and said that it was no big deal – cars can be repaired.  He hooked us up to a truck pulled us out, and sent us on our way.

Promptings for us to do good come from the Holy Ghost.  The natural man doesn’t automatically think of doing them.

Saints are easily entreated, the selfish person is not.  Christ never brushed aside those in need because He had bigger things to do. 

Saints are the same in private as in public.  Saints magnify their callings without magnifying themselves.  The natural man says “Worship me” and “Give me thine power,” saints seek to exercise power by long-suffering and love unfeigned.  (Moses 1:12, Moses 4:3, D&C 121:41)

The natural man vents his anger, Saints are “not easily provoked.”

(1 Cor. 13:5)   The natural man is filled with greed, Saints “seeketh not their own. (1 Cor. 13:5) The natural man seldom denies himself worldly pleasure, Saints seek to bridle all their passions. (Alma 38:12)  The natural man covets praise and riches, Saints know such things are corrupted by moth and rust.

One of history’s greatest ironies will be that the covenant-keeping unselfish individuals will ultimately receive “all that the Father hath” (D&C 84:38)

The gospel of the Savior is not simply about avoiding bad in our lives; it also is essentially about doing and becoming good. The Atonement provides help for us to overcome and avoid bad and to do and become good. Help from the Savior is available for the entire journey of mortality—from bad to good to better and to change our very nature.

Putting off the natural man can be likened to the “thou shalt not” commandments, which help us to avoid misery by turning us away from that which is enticing but harmful.

Becoming a saint turns us to the “thou shalt” commandments which bring true joy and happiness.  Our active avoidance of wickedness must be followed by an active participation in righteousness.

Very often it is sins of omission which keep us from spiritual wholeness.

Remember the rich, righteous young man who came to Jesus asking, “Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?”

Jesus replied, “If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. …

“All these things have I kept from my youth up” (Matt. 19:16–17, 20).

And then came Jesus’ response: “One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, … and come, … and follow me” (Mark 10:21).

A specific commandment came for that man. It was something he needed to do, not something he needed to stop doing, that kept him from wholeness.

Note the words of the Hymn “Lord, I Would Follow Thee” These include both “Thou Shalt Not” commandments and “Thou Shalt”commandments.

Savior, may I learn to love thee,

Walk the path that thou hast shown,

Pause to help and lift another,

Finding strength beyond my own.

Savior, may I learn to love thee—

[Chorus]

Lord, I would follow thee

2. Who am I to judge another

When I walk imperfectly?

In the quiet heart is hidden

Sorrow that the eye can’t see.

Who am I to judge another?

3. I would be my brother’s keeper;

I would learn the healer’s art.

To the wounded and the weary

I would show a gentle heart.

I would be my brother’s keeper—

4. Savior, may I love my brother

As I know thou lovest me,

Find in thee my strength, my beacon,

For thy servant I would be.

Savior, may I love my brother—

You and I all know individuals who do much quiet good by following the scriptural injunction of lifting up the hands that hang down (see Heb. 12:12; D&C 81:5). Some of those hands which hang down once grasped the iron rod and then let go, having simply given up. Those hands need to be reached for because they will not be offered by such discouraged individuals.

Putting off the natural man allows us to put on the armour of God, and allows us to enjoy the fruit of the Spirit which is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.

This is the great change of heart spoken of in the scriptures.  The change needs to be vigilantly guarded and we look to the atonement of the Savior to keep our hearts pure – as we are taught by the words of the song “Come thou Fount of every Blessing”

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,

Prone to leave the God I love;

Here’s my heart, O take and seal it;

Seal it for thy courts above.

President Gordon B. Hinckley,  “May God help us to be a little kinder, showing forth greater forbearance, to be more forgiving, more willing to walk the second mile, to reach down and lift up those who may have sinned but have brought forth the fruits of repentance, to lay aside old grudges and nurture them no more.

I asked Monson to share his thoughts on putting off the natural man. 

He responded that we do so by studying about Christ – thinking about him, because as a man thinketh, so is he.  His second point of counsel was to pray for the spiritual gif of putting off the natural man.  Pray for the strength to do so.

Nephi is an example of one who knew, understood, and relied upon the enabling power of the Savior and praying fro strength. Recall that the sons of Lehi had returned to Jerusalem to enlist Ishmael and his household in their cause. Laman and others in the party traveling with Nephi from Jerusalem back to the wilderness rebelled, and Nephi exhorted his brethren to have faith in the Lord. It was at this point in their journey that Nephi’s brothers bound him with cords and planned his destruction. Please note Nephi’s prayer: “O Lord, according to my faith which is in thee, wilt thou deliver me from the hands of my brethren; yea, even give me strength that I may burst these bands with which I am bound” (1 Nephi 7:17

Let me close by sharing some thoughts from D&C 121.

Verses 41 and 42 talk about how we gain and maintain power in the Priesthood, and it is by the same virtues we use to put off the natural man – Persuasion, long-suffering, gentleness, meekness, love unfeigned and kindness.  Then in verse 45, the Lord says “Let thy bowels also be full of charity towards all men” – that’s pretty inclusive- all men means everyone.  So why does he say right after that “and to the household of faith?”  Who is he talking about?  I think he is talking about our own households, our husbands, wives, children, father and mothers.  He tells us to have charity towards all men, and then knowing that sometimes the people it is hardest to be charitable towards, or slow to anger with, can be our own families, he adds “and to the household of faith”. Then he closes with the great promise that our confidence will wax strong in the presence of God and the Holy Ghost will be our constant companion.

I know we can put off the natural man as we gain the attributes that the Savior demonstrated during his lifetime.

In the name of Jesus Christ