Mosiah 3: 9

In Mosiah 3:9 the angel foretells how Christ will "come unto His own" because it will be His own people who were promised He would come. (Gen. 49: 10.) Therefore, to perform on the promise, the Lord must be sent, but it will be His own who reject Him. Indeed, only His own people would consider rejecting and killing Him, because no other people would be hard-hearted enough to kill their God. (2 Ne. 10: 3.) Only those who are given the truth, and harden their hearts against it, can be blinded enough by the devil to pervert the truth. It takes exposure to and rejection of the light for men to sink into rejecting the Lord.

This is the pattern throughout God's dealing with His own. Whenever He sent a true messenger, the established order was offended at them. They always behave in this manner. (Matt. 5: 10-12.)

This is how salvation comes. There is always authentic tension between good and evil, between the true and the false. The stage is always set with conflict between established tradition that has strayed and inspired messages to clarify. We always see the temporary defeat of truth followed by persistent success of error so the Lord can try the souls of men. Truth returns, within a sea of error, and the humble followers of Christ recognize it. Therefore, through this means "salvation comes unto the children of men" (Mosiah 3: 9).

This stage is where the participants must choose between the two "through faith." Tradition and community error will not bring you to Christ. In every generation we are required recognize Him, and accept "His name" or, more correctly, His names; for they are many. The angel has been giving some of them. Isaiah gave others. Joseph Smith gave yet more. Those who come to know Him come to know His names, for they are know by His friends.

Even after all the truth represented by our Lord, men will say about Him that He is "a man, and say that he hath a devil." (Mosiah 3: 9.) They call what is good, bad. They insist that what has been sent from heaven is in fact of the devil. By calling God's offering something of the devil, they clarify whose side they are on, and become the servant of the one who leads them. As servants and children of the devil, they earn their condemnation by condemning the things of God. Hence the condemnation of suffering described in D&C 76: 99-105, because they have followed the devil while claiming to have followed prophets and apostles. They worship men, and traditions of men, but have not received a testimony of Jesus.

To establish the truth and the authority of His commission, the Lord left His suffering as a mark of His authenticity. It would be required for Him to endure both verbal and physical persecution for the sake of His ministry. That will operate as a seal upon His testimony, because only through enduring the opposition of this world can we know for certain the message is not from this world. Only by this world's rejection can we have the certification that the message came from above.

Ultimately, as the angel foretells, the Lord will be "crucified." This clarifies that the Lord in His death would be ceremonially cursed and unclean. (Deut. 21: 22.) King Benjamin knew the Lord God omnipotent would condescend not only to come and live here among men, but to become cursed and slain for their sake.

What manner of love does our Lord have that He should suffer so? How long suffering and patient is He that He would live a life in this manner? How great a God is it who will forsake this world's success, endure this world's curses in order to remain true and faithful to His great commission?

It would have been interesting to observe the angel as He explained, and King Benjamin as he heard this promise of the Lord's future life and ministry. Who would believe such a report, even though given by an angel? (Isa. 53: 1.) Even today, who can believe the Lord's dealings with men?