Gospel Doctrine Commentary
Lesson No. Thirty-Seven
To See with Our Eyes and to Feel with Our Hands
Jesus invited the Nephites to see and to feel the embolisms of his atonement – “Arise and come forth unto me, that ye may thrust your hands into my side, and also that ye may feel the prints of the nails in my hands and in my feet, that ye may know that I am the God of Israel, and the God of the whole earth, and have been slain for the sins of the world” (3 Nephi 11:14).
Twenty-five hundred people (see 3 Nephi 17:25) “did feel the prints of the nails in his hands and in his feet; and this they did do going forth one by one until they had all gone forth, and did see with their eyes and did fell with their hands, and did know of a surety and did bear record, that it was he, of whom it was written by the prophets, that should come” (3 Nephi 11:15).
They “did know of a surety and did bear record.” This means they testified of his divinity. A sure testimony comes only by the Holy Ghost. “No man can know that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost” (TPJS, p. 223). The multitude knew that he “was the God of the whole earth, and [had] been slain for the sins of the world” (3 Nephi 11:14). They knew this by both a spiritual witness (the Holy Ghost) and by a physical witness (feeling with their hands).
The sacrament and the temple allow us to personally experience the atonement – The Nephites were invited to feel the prints in his hands and in his feet. In other words they were invited to have physical contact with the tokens of his suffering and emblems of his atonement.
Likewise, every week as we partake of the sacrament, we have physical contact with the emblems of his suffering. In the temple we are also symbolically reminded of his suffering and his atonement. In these powerful ways we are able to feel and see and know for ourselves, both by physical contact and by the greater spiritual witness of the Holy Ghost, that Jesus is “the God of the whole earth, and [was] slain for the sins of the world.”
We are to help others, especially our family, to personally experience the atonement – When Jesus introduced the sacrament to the Nephites he reminded them that they had seen and felt the emblems of his atonement, and he commanded that this blessing should be shared with others: “And ye see that I have commanded that none of you should go away, but rather have commanded that ye should come unto me, that ye might feel and see; even so shall ye do unto the world” (3 Nephi 18:25).
The commandment to the Nephites to invite others to “come unto [Christ] that they might also “feel and see” applies to us. We are to start with our family. The Lord said: “Therefore I give unto you a commandment to teach these things freely to your children” (Moses 6:58). The thing we are to teach our children “is the plan of salvation unto all men, through the blood of mine Only Begotten who [came] in the meridian of time” (Moses 6:62).
The most acceptable form of worship is emulation – The sacrament and the temple are designed to provide ways so we can often feel and experience for ourselves the reality the Lord’s sacrifice and atonement. These experiences allow us and our families to transform our lives, as it did with the Nephite multitude, so that we may emulate his life and live by his teachings.
We worship Jesus best by emulating him in every way possible. By worthily partaking of the sacrament and attending the temple we not only remember and show gratitude to him, but our lives can be so completely transformed that we can truly worship him by following his example and keeping his commandments.