The Doctrine of Christ

The “doctrine of Christ” is simply another way of expressing the “gospel of Christ.” This the Prophet Jacob makes clear in his rehearsal of his confrontation with Sherem, the anti-Christ, and the event’s aftermath. “And it came to pass that he came unto me, and on this wise did he speak unto me, saying: Brother Jacob, I have sought much opportunity that I might speak unto you; for I have heard and also know that thou goest about much, preaching that which ye call the gospel, or the doctrine of Christ” (Jacob 7:6). The purpose of this writing is to expand upon the common scriptural declaration of what comprises the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The fourth Article of Faith of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a good starting point: “We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are: first, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second, Repentance; third, Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; fourth, Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost.” That these are the basic elements of the gospel is confirmed by the Lord himself to the Prophet Joseph Smith in October 1830. “Yea, repent and be baptized, every one of you, for a remission of your sins; yea be baptized even by water, and then cometh the baptism of fire and of the Holy Ghost. Behold, verily, verily, I say unto you, this is my gospel; and remember that they shall have faith in me or they can in nowise be saved” (Doctrine and Covenants 33:11-12). Within two years, the Lord declared what the gospel is from a different standpoint. “And this is the gospel, the glad tidings, which the voice out of the heavens bore record unto us--That he came into the world, even Jesus, to be crucified for the world, and to bear the sins of the world, and to sanctify the world, and to cleanse it from all unrighteousness; That through him all might be saved whom the Father had put into his power and made by him” (D&C 76:40-42).

The additional and necessary element that makes these brief declarations concerning the gospel true is the often unspoken but well understood requirement that each of us must remain faithful to our covenants until death. The importance of this additional element is substantiated in the discourses of the resurrected Savior as well as the Prophet Nephi as they preached on very different and distant occasions to the Lord’s Saints living upon the American continent.

Nephi’s sermon on the doctrine of Christ is the thirty-first chapter of 2 Nephi, and it is beautifully compact yet complete. Concerning this fifth element of the gospel, Nephi testifies, “And I heard a voice from the Father, saying: Yea, the words of my Beloved are true and faithful. He that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved. . . .Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life” (2 Nephi 31:15 & 20). The words of the Lord delivered himself to the surviving and humbled Saints are no less clear. “And it shall come to pass, that whoso repenteth and is baptized in my name shall be filled; and if he endureth to the end, behold, him will I hold guiltless before my Father at the day when I shall stand to judge the world. And he that endureth not unto the end, the same is he that is also hewn down and cast into the fire, from whence they can no more return, because of the justice of the Father. . . . And no unclean thing can enter into his kingdom; therefore nothing entereth into his rest save it be those who have washed their garments in my blood, because of their faith, and the repentance of all their sins, and their faithfulness unto the end” (3 Nephi 27:16-17, 19).

What more need be said?