“Line upon Line: Moses 1:39,” New Era, September 2015, 39
Line upon Line
Moses 1:39
The Lord revealed His grand purpose to Moses.
39 For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.
My work
God’s works are endless (see Moses 1:4). He created the universe, “worlds without number” (Moses 1:33), including worlds whose “inhabitants … are begotten sons and daughters unto God” (D&C 76:24). And these sons and daughters of His are the focal point of His work—His overriding purpose in all He does.
“My work is not yet finished; neither shall it be until the end of man, neither from that time henceforth and forever.”
My glory
Glory—honor; splendor, beauty; greatness, magnificence.
“God himself, finding he was in the midst of spirits and glory, because he was more intelligent, saw proper to institute laws whereby the rest could have a privilege to advance like himself. … He has power to institute laws to instruct the weaker intelligences, that they may be exalted with himself, so that they might have one glory upon another.”
Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith (2007), 210.
Immortality
Immortality—unending life; life without death; life as a resurrected being.
Because of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, all people who have ever lived will be resurrected.
“Men are, that they might have joy.”
“Spirit and element, inseparably connected, receive a fulness of joy.
“And when separated, man cannot receive a fulness of joy.”
Eternal life
Eternal life—exaltation in the highest degree of the celestial kingdom; living as God lives; living in the presence of God in a family unit.
The Atonement of Jesus Christ makes it possible for us to inherit eternal life through “obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel” (Articles of Faith 1:3).
“Eternal life … is the greatest of all the gifts of God.”
“And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.”