Jesus the Christ, by James E. Talmage#

This classic of Mormon literature was authored in the Salt Lake Temple by an Apostle of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It is part of the `Missionary Library'---the set of books recommended to be read by missionaries. It is available for free online in audio format from lds.org.#

I find these comments on the state of religion during Jesus' time very interesting---particularly for their comparison with the time of the Restoration.#

The religion of the time was a matter of ceremony and formality, of ritual and performance; it had lost the very spirit of worship, and the true conception of the relationship between Israel and Israel's God was but a dream of the past [p. 65]

Many generations had passed in Jewry since any visible presence other than mortal had been manifest within the temple, either in the Holy Place or the Holy of Holies; the people regard personal visitation of heavenly beings as occurrences of the past; they had come almost to believe that there were no longer prophets in Israel. [p. 72]

This is a very succinct description of the purpose of Satan's temptation of Christ, and I think it contains lessons about the roll of faith and miracles in our own lives.#

Hungry as Jesus was, there was a temptation in Satan's words even greater than that embodied in the suggestion that He provide food for His famishing body---the temptation to put to proof the possible doubt implied in the tempter's "If." The Eternal Father had proclaimed Jesus as His Son; the devil tried to make the Son doubt that divine relationship. Why not prove the Father's interest in His Son at this moment of dire necessity? [p. 121]

Related is the peccability of Christ---if he could be tempted.

A really honest man will neither take nor covet his neighbor's goods, indeed it may be said that he cannot steal; yet he is capable of stealing should he so elect. His honest is an armor against temptation; but the coat of mail, the helmet, the breastplate, and the greaves, are but an outward covering; the man within may be vulnerable if he can be reached. [p. 127]

I really enjoyed this explication a particular statement of Christ's:#

To Simon and Andrew Jesus said: "Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men." The contrast thus presented between their former vocation and their new calling is strikingly forceful. Theretofore they had caught fish, and the fate of the fish was death; thereafter they were to draw men---to a life eternal. [p. 186]

The relation between the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Mosaic Law:#

The gospel may be said to have destroyed the Mosaic law only as the seed is destroyed in the growth of the new plant, only as the bud is destroyed by the bursting forth of the rich, full, and fragrant flowers, only as infancy and youth pass forever as the maturity of years develops. Not a jot or a title of the law was to be void. [p. 218]

A lesson on truth being in all things:#

Take a lesson from even the dishonest and the evil; if they are so prudent as to provide for the only future they think of, how much more should you, who believe in an eternal future, provide therefor! [p. 432]

An explanation of the parable of the fig tree:#

The leafy, fruitless tree was a symbol of Judaism, which loudly proclaimed itself as the only true religion of the age, and condescendingly invited all the world to come and partake of its rich ripe fruit; when in truth it was but an unnatural growth of leaves, with no fruit of the season, nor even an edible bulb held over from earlier years, for such as it had of former fruitage was dried to worthlessness and made repulsive in its worm-eaten decay. The religion of Israel had degenerated into an artificial religionism, which in pretentious show and empty profession outclassed the abominations of heathendom. As already point out in these pages, the fig tree was a favorite type in rabbinical representation of the Jewish race, and the Lord had before adopted the symbolism in the Parable of the Barren Fig Tree, that worthless growth which did but cumber the ground. [p. 490]

(BTW, this is Talmage at his most critical of the Jewish religion and not par for the course.)

On Caesar and God...#

One may draw a lesson if he will, from the association of our Lord's words with the occurrence of Caesar's image on the coin. It was that effigy with its accompanying superscription that gave special point to His memorable instruction, "Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's." This was followed by the further injunction: "and unto God the things that are God's." Every human soul is stamped with the image and superscription of God, however blurred and indistinct that line may have become through the corrosion or attrition of sin; and as unto Caesar should be rendered the coins upon which his effigy appeared, so unto God should be given the souls that bear His image. [p. 507]

The thoroughness of this book is amazing. Less than a hundred pages of Gospel have been turned into almost 800 pages of commentary guided by other scriptures and histories. It's quite incredible.#