by White Wolf (Phil Shapley)
This is demonstrated in many ways, especially in His paying the penalty of our sins.
According to 1 John 4: 16: “God is love”. He demonstrates this in many ways:
1) He supervised the creation of beautiful Mother Earth.
2 )He teaches us the way to happiness in the Scriptures and by His exemplary life.
3) Though He wants us to be happy, He will not force it on us-- He lets us choose whether or not we will be happy:
- forcing people to live His teachings does not internalize the changes we need to make in our basic nature if we are to be happy.
- compelling people causes resentment.
- when we choose to live His teachings, we internalize them in our basic personality which leads to happiness.
4) He helps us learn happiness through the experiences we have-- often He generates experiences that help us learn:
- difficult experiences are necessary for the development of a higher human nature-- to develop empathy, patience, understanding, charity, etc.
- when we experience adversity, we appreciate the peace and wisdom of God.
- we learn to call on God for what we can’t do on our own, such as to develop higher levels of patience, strength, charity, faith, to solve problems, to overcome adversity, to understand matters, to develop our higher potential which requires God's help and more.
5)He answers all sincere prayers of those that seek to learn and practice His teachings-- He shows His love by not always answering our prayers when or in the way we want, but in the way and at the time that will be most beneficial.
6)He imparts knowledge through His scriptures and by impressions of His spirit.
7)He gives us strength to handle life's challenges, helps us feel that we can succeed, convinces us that we are beings of great worth and potential plus much more.
8)Most important of all, He paid the penalty of our misdeeds, violations of the Commandments, indiscretions. When Man goes against God's wisdom, His teachings, negative energy is generated which hurts all of Nature. Justice demands that Man pay a penalty for the harm done. Most of this is paid in the post-Earth life in the Spirit world. If it is not paid, Nature will rebel and the Creation will fall apart. Christ suffered each of our individual penalties so that we would not need to pay ourselves if we accept Him and work to improve ourselves. He paid in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the Cross. In the Garden, He sweat blood because of the pain (Luke 22: 49)-- “Which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit” (Latter Day Saint Doctrine and Covenants 19: 18). All Nature was shocked at the agony of their beloved Creator-- rocks broke up, earthquakes, the sky darkened, great storms… (Bible and Book of Mormon). Spiritual impressions are needed to start to comprehend the extent of His suffering.
Christ has done all possible to teach us the way of happiness, even suffering the harsh penalty of each transgression.* This is love at the highest level!! For a deeper explanation, see The Basic Truths Behind Christ's Teachings on this site.
* Happiness cannot be imposed. People become happy when they live the right wayThis is demonstrated in many ways, especially in his paying the penalty of our sins.
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