Moral Agency | D. Todd Christofferson | 2006

I greet you warmly on this cold January day. Two years ago in January president Gordon B. Hinckley spoke to the leaders of the church around the world both men and women commenting on current conditions he said no one need tell you that we are living in a very difficult season in the history of the world i do not know that things were worse in the times of sodom and gomorrah at that season abraham bargained with the lord to save those cities for the sake of the righteous notwithstanding is please things were so bad that jehovah

decreed their destruction they and their wicked inhabitants were annihilated we see similar conditions today they prevail all across the world i think our father must weep as he looks down upon his wayward sons and daughters in the church continued president hinckley we are working very hard to stem the tide of this evil but it is an uphill battle and we sometimes wonder whether we are making any headway but we are succeeding in a substantial way we see so many of our youth who are faithful and true and who look to us for encouragement and direction

it was you president hinckley thought of when he looked for signs that we might be succeeding as a church in stemming the tide of evil if as he said you look to us for encouragement and direction i want to offer you some of each i'd like to talk to you about moral agency and offer some counsel about how you use your agency in years past we generally use the term free agency that's not incorrect but more recently we've taken note that free agency does not appear as an expression in the scriptures the scriptures talk of

our being free to choose and free to act for ourselves and of our obligation to do many things of our own free will but the word agency appears either by itself or with the modifier moral as in doctrine and covenants section 101 verse 78 that every man may act in doctrine and principle according to the moral agency which i have given unto him that every man might be accountable for his own sins in the day of judgment when we use the term moral agency then we are appropriately emphasizing the accountability that is an essential part

of the divine gift of agency we are moral beings and agents unto ourselves free to choose but also responsible for our choices what then are the elements of moral agency to me there are three first we there must be alternatives to choose among lehigh described it as opposites or opposition he spoke of righteousness and its opposite wickedness holiness versus misery good versus bad without opposites lehi said all things must needs be a compound in one no life neither death nor corruption nor incorruption happiness nor misery neither sense nor insensibility he further explained that for these

opposites or alternatives to exist there must be law law provides us the options it is by the operation of law that things happen by using or obeying a law one can bring about a particular result and by disobedience the opposite result without law there could be no god for he would be powerless to cause anything to happen neither he nor we would be able to predict or choose a particular outcome by a given action our existence and the creation around us are convincing evidence that god the creator exists and that our more mortal world consists

of both things to act and things to be acted upon in other words choices second for us to have agency we must not only have alternatives we must also know that they exist and what they are if we're unaware of the choices available the existence of those choices is meaningless to us lehigh calls this being enticed by the one or the other he recalls the situation of adam and eve in the garden of eden presented with a choice even the forbidden fruit in opposition to the tree of life the one being sweet and the other

bitter adam and eve's choice of course brought about the fall which brought with it a knowledge of good and evil opening to their understanding a multitude of new choices had they remained in eden they would have remained in a state of innocence having no joy for they knew no misery doing no good for they knew no sin but with the fall both they and we gain sufficient knowledge and understanding to be enticed by good and evil we attain a state of accountability and can recognize the alternatives before us the beauty of the gospel of jesus

christ is that it pours knowledge into our souls and shows things in their true light with that enhanced perspective we can discern more clearly the choices before us and their consequences we can therefore make more intelligent use of our agency too many fall into unanticipated traps and unhappiness because they either lack or ignore the gospel light they're unaware of their options or confused about the outcomes of their choices ignorance in other words effectively limits their agency after the existence of choices and a knowledge of choices the third element of agency is the freedom to make

choices this freedom to act for ourselves in choosing among the alternatives that the law establishes is often referred to in the scriptures as agency itself for this freedom we are indebted to god it is his gift to us the lord said unto enoch behold these thy brethren they are the workmanship of mine own hands and i gave unto them their knowledge in the day that i created them and in the garden of eden gave i unto man his agency king benjamin reminds us that in addition to giving us the freedom to choose god makes it

possible for us to use the gift because he is preserving you from day to day by lending you breath that you may live and move and do according to your own will and even supporting you from one moment to another let's pause and note that freedom of choice is the freedom to obey or disobey existing laws not the freedom to alter their consequences law as mentioned earlier exists as a foundational element of moral agency with fixed outcomes that do not vary according to our opinions or preferences elder dallin h oaks observed in a devotional talk

here that we are responsible to use our agency in a world of choices it will not do to pretend that our agency's been taken away when we're not free to exercise it without unwelcome consequences we recognize the gift of agency as a central aspect of the plan of salvation proposed by the father in the great premortal council and that there was war in heaven to defend and preserve it satan has not ceased his effort to destroy the agency of man he promotes conduct and choices that limit a person's freedom to choose by replacing the influence

of the holy spirit with his own domination yielding to his temptation leads to a narrower and narrower range of choices until none remain and to addictions that leave one powerless to resist while satan cannot actually destroy law and truth he accomplishes the same result in the lives of those who heed him by convincing them that whatever they think is right is right and that there is no ultimate truth every man is his own god and there is no sin of course satan's ongoing opposition is a useful even necessary part of moral agency the scripture states

it must needs be that the devil should tempt the children of men or they could not be agents unto themselves for if they never should have bitter they could not know the sweet remember though that we retain the right and power of independent action god does not intend that we yield to temptation and as jesus we can gain all we need in the way of a mortal experience without yielding we've reviewed the elements of moral agency and its divine origins but we must always remember that agency would have no meaning without the vital contribution of

jesus christ it was necessary in god's plan for our future happiness and glory that we become morally free and responsible for that to happen we needed an experience apart from him where our own choices would determine our destiny the fall of adam provided the spiritual death needed to separate us from god and place us in this mortal condition and also the physical death needed to provide an end to the mortal experience as alma put it and now you see by this that our first parents were cut off both temporally and spiritually from the presence of

the lord and thus we see that they became subjects to follow after their own will without more however these deaths would have defeated the plan after having made it possible death had to be permitted but also had to be overcome or we could not return to the presence of god jacob the brother of nephi explained it this way for as death hath passed upon all men to fulfill the merciful plan of the great creator there must needs be a power of resurrection for behold if the flesh should rise no more our spirits must become subject

to that angel who fell from before the presence of the eternal god and became the devil to rise no more and our spirits must have become like unto him and we become devils angels to a devil to be shut out from the presence of our god and to remain with the father of lies in misery like unto himself oh how great the goodness of our god who prepareth away for our escape from the grasp of this awful monster yea that monster death and hell which i call the death of the body and also the death

of the spirit and thus if our separation from god and our physical death were permanent moral agency would mean nothing yes we'd be free to choose and make choices but what would be the point the end result would always be the same no matter what our actions death with no hope of resurrection no hope of heaven good or bad as we might choose to be we would all end up in jacob's words devils angels to a devil with resurrection through jesus christ the fall can achieve its essential purpose without becoming a permanent death sentence the

grave must deliver up its captive bodies hell must deliver up its captive spirits and the paradise of god must deliver up the spirits of the righteous so that the spirit of the body is restored to itself again and all men become incorruptible and immortal and they are living souls having a perfect knowledge like unto us in the flesh save it be that our knowledge shall be perfect but there was one more thing that christ needed to accomplish in order that moral agency could have a positive potential just as death would doom us and render our

agency meaningless but for the redemption of christ even so without his grace our bad choices or sins would leave us forever lost there would be no way of fully recovering from our mistakes and being unclean we could never live again in the presence of the man of holiness we cannot look to the law to save us when we have broken the law we need a savior a mediator who can overcome the effects of our sins and errors so that they are not necessarily fatal it is because of the atonement of christ that we can recover

from bad choices and be justified under the law as if we had not sinned wherefore redemption cometh in and through the holy messiah for he is full of grace and truth behold he offereth himself a sacrifice for sin to answer the ends of the law and to all those who have a broken heart and a contrite spirit professor c terry warner states human agency was purchased with the price of christ's suffering this means that to those who blame god for allowing human suffering latter-day saints can respond that suffering is less important than the gift of

agency upon which everything else depends and that none of us has paid a greater price for this gift than christ the savior's use of moral agency during his ministry and lifetime is an instructive example for us at one point in his teaching he revealed the principle that guided his choices he that sent me is with me the father hath not left me alone for i do always those things that please him i believe that much of the lord's power is attributable attributable to the fact that he never wavered in that determination he had a clear

consistent direction whatever the father desired jesus chose to do john reports the following response to jesus's statement that he did always those things that please the father as he spake these words many believed on him then said jesus to those jews which believed on him if you continue in my word then are ye my disciples indeed and ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free so being jesus obedient disciple as he is the father's obedient disciple leads to truth and freedom then he added if the son therefore shall make you free

ye shall be free indeed to the secular world it seems a paradox that greater submission to god would yield greater freedom they look at things through korahor's lens which is that obedience to god's laws and ordinances is bondage so how do obedience and truth make us free you can easily think of some practical ways in which truth gives us the ability to do things we otherwise could not do or to avoid disasters we otherwise might suffer i was interested to read recently of a young english girl who learned in school about the characteristics of water

along a shoreline that signaled the approach of a tsunami a few weeks later on vacation with her family in thailand she observed those very phenomena and insistently warned her parents and the people around her they escaped to higher ground just in time when the december 26 2004 tsunami hit south asia more than a hundred people owe their lives to that girl's knowledge of certain truths of the natural world but the lord's statement that the truth will make us free has broader significance truth he tells us is a knowledge of things as they are as they

were and as they are to come possession of this knowledge of things past present and future is a critical element of god's glory the glory of god is intelligence or in other words light and truth does anyone doubt that as a consequence of possessing all light and truth god possesses ultimate freedom to be and to do likewise as our understanding of gospel doctrine and principles grows our agency expands first we have more choices and can achieve more and receive greater blessings because we have more laws that we can obey think of a ladder each new

law or commandment we learn is like one more step on the ladder that enables us to climb higher and secondly with added understanding we can make more intelligent choices because we see the alternatives more clearly as well as their potential outcomes as professor daniel h ludlow once expressed it the extent of our agency can be measured in direct proportion to the number and kind of laws we know and keep the lord promises that if in the exercise of our agency we follow his example and do always those things that please him and the father then

we will come to know and understand all things and if your eyes shall be single to my glory your whole body shall be filled with light and there shall be no darkness in you and that body which is filled with light comprehendeth all things these are magnificent promises to be filled with light and truth to comprehend all things to be glorified in truth and know all things to come even to the father i have no doubt regarding the literal fulfillment of these promises in those who exercise their agency to choose obedience but along with you

i recognize that they are not realized in a day there is much of keeping commandments much of practice if you will much of experience required before we will enjoy a fullness we should however be encouraged by what john said of the savior and i john saw that he received not of the fullness at first but received grace for grace and he received not of the fullness at first but continued from grace to grace until he received a fullness so we might presume to follow in his footsteps and receive grace for grace and truth for truth

until we also receive a fullness a consistent effort will educate and refine our desires so that in time just as with jesus our desires will become aligned with the father's desires but we should expect to be tested the gift of agency is intended to give us experience we taste the bitter that we may know to prize the good and jesus though he were a son yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered we learn how to hold on the right way through adversity joseph smith was told to expect some severe opposition despite making

good choices said the lord know thou my son that all these things shall give the experience and shall be for thy good we're in a mortal experience because we cannot become as god without that experience we must prove to him and to ourselves that we can consistently make the right choices and then stick to those choices come what may some think they should be spared from any adversity if they keep god's commandments but it is in the furnace of affliction that we are chosen this is the battle we expected when we shouted for joy at

the prospect of this time on earth i believe the challenge of learning to make and hold on to correct choices in the face of opposition appealed to us when god presented his plan and we should approach that challenge now without fear knowing that we can do it and that he will sustain us and certainly the alternative would not appeal to us as elder james e talmage expressed it but for the opportunity thus given the spirits of god's offspring would have remained forever in a state of innocent childhood sinless through no effort of their own negatively

saved not from sin but from the opportunity of meeting sin incapable of winning the honors of victory because prevented from taking part in the conflict the lord's promise is not to spare us the conflict but to preserve and console us in our afflictions and to consecrate them for our gain donald l hallstrom of the 70 offers a present day example in an article in this month's ensign magazine where he recounts the experiences of brother toshio kawada and his wife miyuki i quote like all of us toshio kawada of the obihiro ward sapporo japan stake has

had to make crucial choices when faced with life's difficulties he joined the church in 1972 and he and his wife miyuki were sealed in the laiye temple in hawaii in 1978 they have two sons more than 20 years ago when his family was still very young brother kawada was working for his father as a dairy farmer tragically one day the large barn where they kept their milk cows and all their equipment burned down financially devastated his father went to the farmer's union for a loan but was turned down subsequently his father and older brother filed

for bankruptcy although not legally responsible brother kawada felt obligated to help pay back all the debts as brother kawada was pondering a solution to his problem he decided to plant carrots he had grown potatoes but he did not know how to grow carrots he planted the seeds and prayed earnestly for his carrots to grow all this time brother kawada faithfully served in the church kept the sabbath day holy and paid his tithing when he and his family dressed in their best clothes and went to their sunday meetings many neighbors scoffed at them it was difficult

to lose one day a week in their fields especially at harvest time it was not always easy for them to pay their tithing but they offered it to the lord obediently and cheerfully fall came and brother kawada's carrots turned out to be unusually sweet and large with an exceptionally rich color he had an abundant harvest and went to the farmers union for help but they refused to sell his carrots through their distribution system he fasted and prayed and felt inspired to try to find a produce distributor in tokyo something that is very hard to do

without introductions or connections brother kawada was blessed to find a large distributor in tokyo since then he's been very successful and has repaid all his father's debts he currently has a large agricultural operation with many employees and he's teaching young farmers how to effectively organize their businesses even in exceptionally trying circumstances brother kawata chose to be true to the promises he made in his baptismal priesthood and temple covenants let me read you some of brother kawada's own words as i show you a picture of him and miyuki sometimes we worked until midnight on saturday to

keep from breaking the sabbath we went to church the next day often without much sleep once we came home from church and a cow had gotten caught in the pasture fence and died there were times when we had millions of yen worth of damage to our cut hay because it had lain in the rain on the sabbath we knew accidents didn't happen because it was sunday if you worry about that kind of thing you'd never be able to keep the sabbath accidents can happen anytime we planted carrots with great success finally we were getting some

kind of order in our lives with carrots it didn't matter if it rained or we took every sunday off we could make our own decision we could serve more easily in any calling we were called to in our business we use a lot of part-time help when we're really busy our employees suggest we work on sundays i tell them we just don't work on sundays when our workers know that they work hard and rarely take days off on sundays the younger workers spend the day with their children and the older workers visit with their grandchildren

i like that exercising agency in a setting that sometimes includes opposition and hardship is what makes life more than a simple multiple choice test god is interested in what you're becoming as a result of your choices he's not satisfied if your exercise of moral agency is simply a robotic effort at keeping some rules your savior wants you to become something not just do some things he's endeavoring to make you independently strong more able to act for yourself than perhaps those of any prior generation you must be able to be righteous even when he withdraws his

spirit or as brigham young said even in the dark using your agency to choose his will and not slackening even when the going gets hard will not make you god's puppet it will make you like him god gave you agency and jesus showed you how to use it so that eventually you could learn what they know do what they do and be what they are remember that with his gift to you of moral agency your heavenly father has graciously provided help in exercising that agency in a way that will yield precious positive fruit in your

life here and hereafter among other resources you have the scriptures parents mentors that love you the voice of prophets and apostles living among you the fullness of the gospel of jesus christ the covenants and ordinances of the priesthood and the temple the gift of the holy ghost and the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints draw upon these resources constantly to guide your choices to do always those things that please god with president hinckley i express my confidence in you i thank god for you i thank god for the gift of moral agency i thank

him for the gift of his son whose life and sacrifice animate that moral agency i testify that jesus christ has redeemed us from the fall that he lives and that through him we are free to choose liberty and eternal life in the name of jesus christ amen you