My Testimony of Christ

by President Gordon B. Hinckley

Absolutely basic to our faith is our testimony of Jesus Christ. He is the cornerstone of the church which bears His name.

I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the eternal, living God. I believe in Him as the Firstborn of the Father and the Only Begotten of the Father in the flesh. I believe in Him as an individual, separate and distinct from His Father. …

I believe that in His mortal life He was the one perfect man to walk the earth. I believe that in His words are to be found that light and truth which, if observed, would save the world and bring exaltation to mankind. I believe that in His priesthood rests divine authority—the power to bless, the power to heal, the power to govern in the earthly affairs of God, the power to bind in the heavens that which is bound upon the earth (Ensign, Mar. 1998, 5).

The love of God

It is small wonder that angels sang at [Christ’s] birth and Wise Men traveled far to pay Him homage. …

The magnificent expression of His love came in His death when He gave His life as a sacrifice for all men. That Atonement, wrought in unspeakable pain, became the greatest event of history, an act of grace for which men gave nothing but which brought the assurance of the Resurrection to all who have or would walk the earth.

No other act in all of human history compares with it (Ensign, Nov. 1999, 73).

The simple words—“He is not here, but is risen”—have become the most profound in all literature. They are the declaration of the empty tomb. They are the fulfillment of all He had spoken concerning rising again. They are the triumphant response to the query facing every man, woman, and child who was ever born to earth (Ensign, May 1999, 71).

Of all things of heaven and earth of which we bear testimony, none is so important as our witness that Jesus, the Christmas child, condescended to come to earth from the realms of His Eternal Father, here to work among men as healer and teacher, our Great Exemplar. And further, and most important, He suffered on Calvary’s cross as an atoning sacrifice for all mankind (Ensign, Dec. 1992, 6).

The Chief Cornerstone

Absolutely basic to our faith is our testimony of Jesus Christ as the Son of God. …

With His Resurrection came the promise to all men that life is everlasting, that even as in Adam all die, in Christ all are made alive (see 1 Cor. 15:20–22).

Nothing in all of human history equals the wonder, the splendor, the magnitude, or the fruits of the matchless life of the Son of God, who died for each of us. He is our Savior. He is our Redeemer. As Isaiah foretold, “His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace” (Isa. 9:6).

He is the chief cornerstone of the church which bears His name, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Ensign, Nov. 1984, 51–52).

Live your testimony

[Christ] said: “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15).

As His followers, we cannot do a mean or shoddy or ungracious thing without tarnishing His image. Nor can we do a good and gracious and generous act without burnishing more brightly the symbol of Him whose name we have taken upon ourselves.

Our lives must become a symbol of meaningful expression, the symbol of our declaration of our testimony of the living Christ, the Eternal Son of the living God (Ensign, Apr. 1994, 5).

Read, pray, do

The acquisition of understanding and enthusiasm for the Lord comes from following simple rules. I should like to suggest three of these, elementary in their concept, almost trite in their repetition, but fundamental in their application and most fruitful in their result.

The first step is to read—to read the word of the Lord. I know that with the demands of daily living there is little time to read anything. But I promise you that if you will read that which we call scripture, there will come into your heart an understanding and a warmth that will be pleasing to experience. “Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me” (John 5:39). …

The second step is to pray. Speak with your Eternal Father in the name of His Beloved Son. “Behold,” he says, “I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me” (Rev. 3:20).

This is His invitation, and the promise is sure. It is unlikely that you will hear voices from heaven, but there will come a heaven-sent assurance, peaceful and certain.

The third step is to live the teachings and to serve in the work of the Lord. Spiritual strength is like physical strength; it is like the muscle of my arm. It grows only as it is nourished and exercised.

As you exercise your time and talents in service, your faith will grow and your doubts will wane.

The Lord declared: “If any man will do [the Father’s] will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God or whether I speak of myself” (John 7:17); and He has also declared that as we apply the teachings of God and lose ourselves in his great cause, we find ourselves and we find the truth (Ensign, Apr. 1983, 6–7).

Christ’s healing power

I would that the healing power of Christ might spread over the earth and be diffused through our society and into our homes, that it might cure men’s hearts of the evil and adverse elements of greed and hate and conflict. …

Jesus of Nazareth healed the sick among whom He moved. His regenerating power is with us today to be invoked through His holy priesthood. His divine teachings, His incomparable example, His matchless life, His all-encompassing sacrifice will bring healing to broken hearts, reconciliation to those who argue and shout, even peace to warring nations if sought with humility and forgiveness and love. …

I testify of Him who is the great source of healing. He is the Son of God, the Redeemer of the world, “The Sun of Righteousness,” who came “with healing in his wings” (Ensign, Nov. 1988, 59).

Be believing

To all who may have doubts, I repeat the words given Thomas as he felt the wounded hands of the Lord: “Be not faithless, but believing.” Believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the greatest figure of time and eternity. Believe that His matchless life reached back before the world was formed. Believe that He was the Creator of the earth on which we live. Believe that He was Jehovah of the Old Testament, that He was the Messiah of the New Testament, that He died and was resurrected, that He visited the western continents and taught the people here, that He ushered in this final gospel dispensation, and that He lives, the living Son of the living God, our Savior and our Redeemer (Ensign, Apr. 1989, 2).

The way, the truth, and the life

On Calvary’s hill [Christ] gave His life for each of us. “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” (1 Cor. 15:55).

We honor His birth. But without His death that birth would have been but one more birth. It was the redemption which He worked out in the Garden of Gethsemane and upon the cross of Calvary which made His gift immortal, universal, and everlasting. His was a great Atonement for the sins of all mankind. He was the resurrection and the life, “the firstfruits of them that slept” (1 Cor. 15:20). Because of Him all men will be raised from the grave.

We love Him. We honor Him. We thank Him. We worship Him. He has done for each of us and for all mankind that which none other could have done. God be thanked for the gift of His Beloved Son, our Savior, the Redeemer of the world, the Lamb without blemish who was offered as a sacrifice for all mankind (Ensign, Dec. 1997, 4).

My Redeemer Lives

by President Gordon B. Hinckley

I know that my Redeemer lives,
Triumphant Savior, Son of God,
Victorious over pain and death,
My King, my Leader, and my Lord.
He lives, my one sure rock of faith,
The one bright hope of men on earth,
The beacon to a better way,
The light beyond the veil of death.
Oh, give me thy sweet Spirit still,
The peace that comes alone from thee,
The faith to walk the lonely road
That leads to thine eternity.

(Hymns, no. 135)

Photography by Matt Reier. Electronic composition by Charles M. Baird