“Having Subjected the Flesh to the Will of the Father”

The will of the Son was swallowed up in the will of the Father. That is, the flesh became subject to the Spirit, the mortal subject to the immortal. “I seek not mine own will,” Jesus explained, “but the will of the Father which hath sent me” (John 5:30). Further, “I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me” (John 6:38). In short, Jesus did what Elohim would have him to do: he carried out to the full extent the terms and conditions of the plan of the Father, of which he (Christ) was the chief advocate and proponent in premortality.

“Subjected the Flesh to the Will of the Father”

Christ: Father by divine investiture of authority. Jesus explained in the meridian of time: “I am come in my Father’s name” (John 5:43). Christ acted and spoke on behalf of his Father, such that he could proclaim: “My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me” (John 7:16). Christ is therefore known as Father “by divine investiture of authority,” meaning that “the Father, Elohim, has placed his name upon the Son, has given him his own power and authority, and has authorized him to speak in the first person as though he were the original or primal Father” (Promised Messiah, p. 63).

Doctrinal Commentary on the Book of Mormon, Vol. 2

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