D&C 20:68-84

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Summary

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Relationship to Section 20. The relationship of Verses 20:68-84 to the rest of Section 20 is discussed at D&C 20.

Story.

Message. Themes, symbols, and doctrinal points emphasized in Verses 20:68-84 include:

Discussion

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• D&C 20:75-79: The sacrament prayers. The change in wording from the prayer on the bread to the prayer on the water communicates a profound message about the atonement: it is the Savior who empowers us to do the good we would, but can’t. The prayer on the bread says that we “are willing” to always remember the Savior. The prayer on the water says that we “do” always remember him. Why this change from “willing” to “do”? What does it signify?

One answer is that the change in the sacrament prayers signifies a critically important transition from acting alone to acting in Christ, with the corresponding increase in our capacity for righteousness. Before we bond ourselves to the Savior through broken-hearted contrition, we may have the will but do not have the self -discipline and strength of character to do what we should. After we symbolically make Christ part of us by partaking of the bread, his flesh, “the enabling power of the Atonement” (Elder Bednar) becomes active in our lives, and we have the power to do that which we were willing but unable to do on our own--“always remember him, and keep his commandments which he has given [us]” (D&C 20:77). Thus, the key difference between the prayer on the bread and the prayer on the water is that Christ is not part of us during the first prayer but is during the second because we have now partaken of his flesh.

So the prayer on the bread is about willing, the prayer on the water about doing. And yet, the prayer on the water says only, we “do always remember him,” not that we “do keep his commandments which he has given [us].” Why is there no statement about keeping the commandments in the second prayer? The answer is that such a statement would be redundant. Those who fully and continually remember Christ are born again. They “have no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually” (Mosiah 5:2). It follows that they "do keep his commandments which he has given them.” Of course, ability to always remember him is itself a gift of grace, as the prayers indicate. We bring to Christ a willing heart. He produces in us a broken-hearted and contrite remembrance of his sacrifice on our behalf, a remembrance that empowers us to keep his commandments and, thus, sanctifies us.

Partaking of the sacrament is a symbolic, not a magical act. So there is no suggestion in this analysis that there is an actual transition from will to act that occurs after one eats the bread but before one drinks the water. The suggestion is that the sacrament prayers and the partaking of the bread and water quite precisely and beautifully signify the process by which the atonement sanctifies a willing soul.

Unanswered questions

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Prompts for life application

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Resources

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Notes

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