The attributes of God are what yield eternal life. God is what he is because of how he is, not who he is. If his character were different than it is, he would not be God.6 The character of Christ is what makes him God; it is predefined7 and inalterable.8 The role of God is defined by his character, and that set of qualities is the same from eternity to eternity.9
God is not God for any other reason than that he possesses the precise character of God. God’s attributes, including his knowledge, beliefs, and desires, are precisely what define him. Knowing and living God’s character is what makes God who and what he is. It is because of God’s character that he possesses all things,10 has overcome all things,11 is immortal, is happier than any person, has complete, untouchable peace,12 is able to endure all things that can happen without any anxiety or stress, and never wavers from his character qualities, no matter what situations he encounters.13 Eternal life is the kind of life that God has, and to the degree that you have obtained and live by the same attributes as God, you will experience the same life that God does.14 To the degree that your attributes vary from God’s, you will experience a life less like that of God.
As you consecrate yourself to the will of God, you will find that who you used to be is sequentially replaced15 with your evolving understanding of who God is.16 The scriptures call this process “quickening,”17 but modern people call it “improvement.” You will recognize the effects of quickening as improvements to your actions, feelings, depth of desire, direction of desire, and understanding relative to the past. In every instance, whatever comes from God will be of greater worth and result in greater joy than anything that you had or were before.18 It is through the acquisition of these attributes that we become one with God.19
You become one with God by learning what he is like and doing what he would do in your place.20 You become one with God by learning and living his character. The Lord Jesus is one with the Father because he has perfectly developed the character of the Father within himself by yielding to the words of the Father. Through him, we can do the same, and this is the purpose of life.21 Becoming one with God does not merely consist of obeying him, but of learning what he would do in your place, why he would do it, and using your brain to fill in the gaps. God is with you as you learn and adopt his character within yourself. You are one with the Son and the Father if, when, and as long as you perfectly align yourself with what you believe God would think, feel, and do.22 The Lord once said, “the kingdom of God is within you.”23 You are one with the Father to the extent that the character of the Father is within you.
Footnotes
- 1. For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. (Moses 1:39) ↩
- 2. Wherefore, how great the importance to make these things known unto the inhabitants of the earth, that they may know that there is no flesh that can dwell in the presence of God, save it be through the merits, and mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah, who layeth down his life according to the flesh, and taketh it again by the power of the Spirit, that he may bring to pass the resurrection of the dead, being the first that should rise. (2 Nephi 2:8) ↩
- 3. Now, this restoration shall come to all, both old and young, both bond and free, both male and female, both the wicked and the righteous; and even there shall not so much as a hair of their heads be lost; but every thing shall be restored to its perfect frame, as it is now, or in the body, and shall be brought and be arraigned before the bar of Christ the Son, and God the Father, and the Holy Spirit, which is one Eternal God, to be judged according to their works, whether they be good or whether they be evil. (Alma 11:44) ↩
- 4. O then, my beloved brethren, repent ye, and enter in at the strait gate, and continue in the way which is narrow, until ye shall obtain eternal life. (Jacob 6:11) ↩
- 5. Anyone who follows the example of the Lord will be saved, and only those who follow the example of the Lord will be saved. (Romans 10:13, Author’s Reflection) ↩
- 6. But there is a law given, and a punishment affixed, and a repentance granted; which repentance, mercy claimeth; otherwise, justice claimeth the creature and executeth the law, and the law inflicteth the punishment; if not so, the works of justice would be destroyed, and God would cease to be God. (Alma 42:22) ↩
- 7. For God doth not walk in crooked paths, neither doth he turn to the right hand nor to the left, neither doth he vary from that which he hath said, therefore his paths are straight, and his course is one eternal round. (D&C 3:2) ↩
- 8. For do we not read that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and in him there is no variableness neither shadow of changing? And now, if ye have imagined up unto yourselves a god who doth vary, and in whom there is shadow of changing, then have ye imagined up unto yourselves a god who is not....the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; and it is that same God who created the heavens and the earth, and all things that in them are. (Mormon 9:9-11) ↩
- 9. For I know that God is not a partial God, neither a changeable being; but he is unchangeable from all eternity to all eternity. (Moroni 8:18) His “...ways are righteousness forever.” (1 Nephi 1:19) ↩
- 10. The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand. (John 3:35) ↩
- 11. These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. (John 16:33) ↩
- 12. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. (John 14:27) ↩
- 13. For I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. (Malachi 3:6) ↩
- 14. And as many as have received me, to them have I given to become the sons of God; and even so will I to as many as shall believe on my name, for behold, by me redemption cometh, and in me is the law of Moses fulfilled. (3 Nephi 9:17) ↩
- 15. Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Peter 1:2-8) ↩
- 16. So David waxed greater and greater: for the Lord of hosts was with him. (1 Chronicles 11:9) But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. (2 Corinthians 3:18) I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20) Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. (1 John 3:20) ↩
- 17. For instance: “I beheld the transgressors, and was grieved; because they kept not thy word. Consider how I love thy precepts: quicken me, O Lord, according to thy lovingkindness.” (Psalm 119:158-159) ↩
- 18. Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God; (2 Corinthians 3:5) ↩
- 19. As soon as you live according to how I have shown you I am, you will know that I am in my Father, and that I am in you, and you are in me. He who has my commandments, and obeys them, loves me; and he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him, and show more of how I am to him. And Judas (not Iscariot) asked him, Lord, how can you show us how you are without showing the world at the same time? Jesus answered him: Anyone who loves me will treasure up and obey everything he learns about me, and my Father will love him, and we increasingly reveal ourselves to him in character and presence, and he will increasingly be one with us as he becomes increasingly like us. (John 14:20-23, Author’s Reflection) ↩
- 20. Go forth and do as I have commanded thee, and no man shall pierce thee. Open thy mouth, and it shall be filled, and I will give thee utterance, for all flesh is in my hands, and I will do as seemeth me good. Say unto this people: Choose ye this day, to serve the Lord God who made you. Behold my Spirit is upon you, wherefore all thy words will I justify; and the mountains shall flee before you, and the rivers shall turn from their course; and thou shalt abide in me, and I in you; therefore walk with me. (Moses 6:32-34) ↩
- 21. I have given them thy word....Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth....That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. (John 17:14, 17, 21-23) ↩
- 22. To be one with him is to live in perfect accord with your present understanding of how he would be in your place. Anyone who says they are one with him while willingly deviating from their understanding of what he would do in their place is a liar. They disobey that truth they already perceive; until they repent, they will not receive greater truth, and unless they repent, they will lose even that truth they have already obeyed. Those who keep the word of God will grow toward a full understanding and practice of the love of God, and they will have full confidence that they are one with God. Only those who remain reconciled to their understanding of what God would do in their place at all times can continue to grow in how much of him they see, understand, and become. (1 John 2:3-6, Author’s Reflection) ↩
- 23. Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you (Luke 17:21) ↩