“Lesson 101—Doctrine and Covenants 88:14–41: Striving to Obey the Celestial Law,” Doctrine and Covenants Seminary Teacher Manual (2025)
“Doctrine and Covenants 88:14–41,” Doctrine and Covenants Seminary Teacher Manual
Lesson 101: Doctrine and Covenants 88
Doctrine and Covenants 88:14–41
Striving to Obey the Celestial Law
In Doctrine and Covenants 88, the Lord revealed truths about the Resurrection and kingdoms of glory including the celestial glory. These truths can unify and bless Church members as they faithfully follow Jesus Christ. This lesson can help students increase their confidence that they can receive celestial glory.
Possible Learning Activities
A goal of celestial glory
Invite students to draw a staircase in their study journals and label the top of the stairs “The Celestial Kingdom.” Ask students to draw where they see themselves on the stairway. Encourage them to record their responses to the following questions:
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Do you feel your current choices are helping you progress toward the celestial kingdom? Why or why not?
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How confident are you that you can ultimately attain celestial glory with the help of Jesus Christ?
Remind students that because Jesus Christ is our Savior, we can rely on Him to help us change, repent, and provide strength as we strive to attain celestial glory.
The Lord’s revelation recorded in Doctrine and Covenants 88 provides divine light to help us understand eternal truths. In section 88, we learn details about our Heavenly Father’s plan, truths about Jesus Christ, and how we can return to Their presence.
You may want to share how you feel about the beauty and grandeur of Heavenly Father’s plan. Encourage students as they study today to seek inspiration to know ways they can act in faith and receive the Savior’s help as they progress toward the celestial kingdom.
Our mortal bodies
Explain that an important part of God’s plan is for us to become like Him, both spiritually and physically. At birth we receive a physical body. This body will one day die and be resurrected.
Consider recording students’ responses to the following question on the board:
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What do you already know about the Resurrection?
If needed, students could use Topics and Questions, “Resurrection,” topics.ChurchofJesusChrist.org to support their responses.
Students could complete the following study activity with a partner. You might display the questions for students to reference, with each partner responsible for answering one of the questions. It may help students to know that the word quicken can mean to make alive or revive.
Read Doctrine and Covenants 88:14–17, 27–31. Ponder the following as you read:
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What do you learn about the Resurrection?
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What do you learn about the three degrees of glory?
Invite students to report what they learned. Listen carefully and ask follow-up questions to help clarify their understanding if needed. If students have additional questions, you could discuss them as a class.
Assessing students’ knowledge: For more practice with this, see the training titled “Always be ready to respond to spiritual promptings about the needs of the learners” found in Teacher Development Skills: Teach by the Spirit. Consider practicing the skill “Ask a question to assess learning before moving on in the lesson.”
Obeying God’s laws leads to glory
Consider inviting students to share what they imagine having a celestial body might be like or why they want to receive a celestial body in the Resurrection.
If students were previously working with a partner, they could work with a different partner for the following study activity.
Read Doctrine and Covenants 88:21–24, 34–36, 38–39, looking for how we can be resurrected with a celestial body. Consider marking words and phrases that stand out to you.
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What do you feel is important to understand in these verses?
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What determines the glory we can receive after the Final Judgment? Why?
Give students time to discuss what they have learned. Students could express a variety of truths, including something like if we obey celestial laws, we will receive celestial glory or in the Resurrection, we will receive glory according to the law we obey. You may want to write these truths on the board.
To help students understand and feel the importance of divine laws, you might share the following statement:
Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles taught:
The law of the celestial kingdom is, of course, the gospel law and covenants, which include our constant remembrance of the Savior and our pledge of obedience, sacrifice, consecration, and fidelity. (D. Todd Christofferson, “Come to Zion,” Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2008, 38)
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What are you learning about Heavenly Father’s love, justice, and mercy?
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What are your feelings about how He works individually with His children?
Help along the way
Invite students to ponder how they would respond to a friend who is discouraged and feels he or she is not good enough to receive celestial glory. You could invite students to read the following verses, then write a short answer to their friend’s concern.
Read 3 Nephi 27:19–20, looking for how Heavenly Father has made it possible for His children to receive celestial glory. You may want to link these verses with Doctrine and Covenants 88:21, 34.
Consider inviting students to mark the words save it be in 3 Nephi 27:19. Point out that these words can mean “except” or ”unless.” You might ask students how this helps them understand Jesus’s words to the Nephites.
To help students recognize the hope and change available to them through Jesus Christ, you could share the following statement:
Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles taught:
Perhaps as much as praying for mercy, we should pray for time and opportunity to work and strive and overcome. Surely the Lord smiles upon one who desires to come to judgment worthily, who resolutely labors day by day to replace weakness with strength. Real repentance, real change may require repeated attempts, but there is something refining and holy in such striving. Divine forgiveness and healing flow quite naturally to such a soul, for indeed “virtue loveth virtue; light cleaveth unto light; [and] mercy hath compassion on mercy and claimeth her own” (D&C 88:40).
With repentance we can steadily improve in our capacity to live the celestial law, for we recognize that “he who is not able to abide the law of a celestial kingdom cannot abide a celestial glory” (D&C 88:22). (D. Todd Christofferson, “The Divine Gift of Repentance,” Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2011, 39)
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How could understanding the Savior’s Atonement influence your belief in attaining celestial glory?
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From what you have studied today, what might you say to someone who fears he or she cannot attain celestial glory?
Invite students to reexamine the staircase they drew at the beginning of class. Encourage them to write on or around the stairway what they have learned that could help them move closer to the celestial kingdom. Students could record their thoughts or feelings about Heavenly Father and Jesus. They might also include how their determination and hope to attain celestial glory has been strengthened or how the truths they learned could influence their choices now and in the future.
As time permits, you might invite one or two students to share their thoughts with the class.