Blogger of Jared

“All human beings—male and female—are created in the image of God. Each is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, each has a divine nature and destiny.”

-The Family: A Proclamation to the World

The doctrine that we have a divine destiny as children of our Heavenly Father is not new. In fact, it has been taught from the earliest times beginning with Adam and Eve. A review of the following verses shows how this thread of truth weaves its way through the entire Bible. We are more like our Heavenly Father than many people realize, and we all have an opportunity to become just like him some day. As a result, it should not seem strange that millions on the earth today desire to become like God and strive to that end.

Genesis 1:26-27
26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

In the beginning, we were created in the image of God. One would expect this considering he is our Father. But in addition to bearing his image, these verses also teach us that we are like him in having similar responsibilities such as exercising “dominion … over all the earth.” This fits with our knowledge that this life is meant to prepare us to become gods like our heavenly parents.

Psalms 82:6
6 I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High.

Literally, we are children of our Heavenly Father. And like many truths in the scriptures, it also has a spiritual or symbolic meaning. By following Christ, we can be “born again; yea, born of God … being redeemed of God, becoming his sons and daughters” (Mosiah 27:25).

Matthew 5:48
48 Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

The original Greek for “perfect” can also be translated as “complete” or “whole” yet the important—just like our Father in Heaven. We are commanded to become complete as he is, and he has provided a way through the Atonement. Elder Neil A. Maxwell spoke of this:

“Not only did the Savior of Mankind work His own way through the second estate, but in the process of so doing He became Our Perfect Exemplar. He and He alone became entitled, thereby, to say to us that we are to become perfect as is the Father. (See Matt. 5:48.) Later, as our perfected and resurrected Lord and Savior, He urged us with full justification to become perfect, even as He and His Father are perfect, by our striving to become “even as I am.” (3 Ne. 27:27; see also 3 Ne. 12:48.)” (Neal A. Maxwell, “The New Testament—A Matchless Portrait of the Savior,” Ensign, Dec 1986, 20)

Romans 8:16-17
16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.

We are children of our Heavenly Father, and as such, we are heirs with Christ to all God has. Elder Bruce R. McConkie wrote of this:

“There is a system ordained whereby the rest of us can become sons of God. Christ is the prototype of salvation. If we walk in his path and follow him, then we do what he did and eventually become like him. This is the reward for all those who are adopted into the family of God the Father and become his sons. Paul says that Christ is the Son and the Heir, and that we are joint-heirs with him. (See Romans 8:17.) That is, if we are faithful, we are able to receive, possess, and inherit jointly with him.” (Bruce R. McConkie, “Households of Faith,” Ensign, Apr 1971, 4)

It is our choice whether to become like our Heavenly Father and inherit all that he has. President Joseph F. Smith spoke on this subject. He said,

“It is left optional with us. We are heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ, and have the privilege of attaining to glory and exaltation in the Kingdom where Jesus and the sanctified dwell, but it is left optional with us to choose or refuse; God has declared that He will require nothing at our hands but what He will enable us to perform.” (“Chapter 32: Liberty through Obedience,” Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph F. Smith, 283)

Galatians 4:4-7
4 But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,
5 To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.
6 And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.
7 Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

As he did in his epistle to the Romans, Paul again reminds us in his letter to the Galatians that we are children and heirs of God through Jesus Christ. Elder Boyd K. Packer wrote, “There is only one Christ, one Redeemer. We accept the divinity of the Only Begotten Son of God in the flesh. We accept the promise that we may become joint heirs with Him” (Boyd K. Packer, “The Pattern of Our Parentage,” Ensign, Nov 1984, 66).

Ephesians 4:11-13
11 And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;
12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:
13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:

“Perfecting” in verse 12 means “complete furnishing” in the original Greek. It’s instructional to look at the root word which means “to perfect, complete, make one what he ought to be.” We ought to become like our Heavenly Father which is the whole purpose of the Plan of Salvation.

“Perfect” in verse 13 also reflects our potential to become like our Heavenly Father as mentioned previously—complete, finished, and full grown in a spiritual sense. In its original Greek, “perfect” in this verse has various possible translations:

1) brought to its end, finished
2) wanting nothing necessary to completeness
3) perfect
4) that which is perfect
a) consummate human integrity and virtue
b) of men
1) full grown, adult, of full age, mature

Hebrews 12:9
9 Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?

Paul reminds us that God is our Heavenly Father, the literal father of our spirit bodies. Referring to this verse and others, the First Presidency in 1916 wrote, “The purport of these scriptures is to the effect that God the Eternal Father, whom we designate by the exalted name-title ‘Elohim,’ is the literal Parent of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and of the spirits of the human race” (“The Father and the Son,” Ensign, Apr 2002, 13). For that very reason, Jesus taught us to address God in prayer as “Our Father which art in heaven” (Matthew 6:9). Elder Thomas S. Monson provided another way for us to see this truth when he wrote, “The spirits of all persons are literally His ‘begotten sons and daughters.’ (D&C 76:24). (Thomas S. Monson, “Invitation to Exaltation,” Ensign, Jun 1993, 2)” As literal children of our father, our divine nature is clear.

1 John 3:2
2 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.

In one of the most beautiful verses in all the scriptures, John the Beloved promises that we, as children of God, will be like him when we see him again. Teaching us of the Atonement, Elder Bruce C. Hafen explains that it “not only enables us to be with God, but also to be like God” (Bruce C. Hafen, “Beauty for Ashes: The Atonement of Jesus Christ,” Liahona, Apr 1997, 39).