In his talk, Ye Are the Temple of God, Elder Bednar said, “The very elements out of which our bodies were created are by nature fallen and ever subject to the pull of sin, corruption, and death. Thus, the Fall of Adam and its consequences affect us most directly through our physical bodies” (emphasis added).
Some Christians argue that Adam & Eve partaking of the fruit ruined God’s plan. If they had not given in to Satan they would have stayed in the garden paradise in an immortal state. It is true that they would have remained immortal; however, we know that Satan “knew not the mind of God” (Moses 4:6). It wasn’t God’s intention or plan for Adam and Eve to remain immortal. Brad Wilcox said, “If all we needed was an immortal body, God could have given us one from the start” (The Continuous Atonement, 75). So why, then, is our mortal body so important?
Elder Bednar said this, “Now, I do not claim to know the complete answer to the question of why a physical body is so important. But let me share with you a few basic reasons why a body is essential to our spiritual development and our eternal progression.
“Reason no. 1. Obtaining a tabernacle of flesh is an essential step in the process of becoming like our Heavenly Father. Our physical bodies make possible a breadth, depth, and intensity of experience that simply could not be obtained in our premortal estate. As President Boyd K. Packer...has taught, ‘Our physical body is the instrument of our spirit’ (Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled [1991], 211). Thus, our relationships with other people, our capacity to recognize and respond to truth, and our ability to obey the principles and ordinances of the gospel of Jesus Christ are amplified through our physical bodies. In this classroom of mortality we experience tenderness, kindness, happiness, sorrow, disappointment, pain, and even the challenges of physical limitations in ways that prepare us for eternity. Simply stated, there are lessons we must learn and experiences we must have, as the scriptures describe, ‘according to the flesh’ (1 Ne. 19:6; Alma 7:12–13)” (emphasis added).
We have different experiences in our mortal bodies than are possible with only our spirits. I love how Elder Bednar described it! Have you ever stopped to think about this? What would life be like without a body---not just physically, but emotionally and spiritually as well? Although some aspects of being mortal can be anywhere from annoying to inconvenient to challenging, our mortal body is necessary for us in order to progress spiritually and come to know our Father in Heaven.
Elder Bednar continues, “Reason no. 2. Our Heavenly Father and His Beloved Son are, by nature, creators. As the sons and daughters of God, we have the potential to become like Them. The Father and the Son have entrusted us with a portion of Their creative power and provided specific guidelines for the proper use of that sacred ability to create life and establish an eternal family. How we feel about and use that sacred power in this life will determine in large measure whether additional creative power will be ours in the life to come.”
We can exercise our procreative power to provide mortal bodies for His other children. Through our obedience to the commandments of the proper use of these powers and our willingness and desire to bear and raise children in righteousness, we can prove our worthiness of eternal increase, or the ability to procreate spirit children hereafter (See the Bible Dictionary under “Abraham, covenant of”). God’s covenant to Abraham, and personally to those who enter into the Abrahamic covenant, is not only for mortality, but also for eternity. Our mortal bodies are essential to our development in regard to eternal increase, or posterity numbering “as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore” (Genesis 22:17).
Lastly, Elder Bednar gives us, “Reason no. 3. As we attempt to answer the question about why we are here on the earth, we usually consider receiving a physical body and being tested as two related but separate parts of the answer. However, an essential part of the test of mortality is having and properly using a physical body.”
In this same vein, Elder Melvin J. Ballard said, “[My body] is the house I live in, the tabernacle of flesh and the great conflict is between ‘me’ and ‘it’. …
“Our weak [point] is in the flesh … and when [the devil] undertakes to capture a soul he will strike at the weak point. …
“It is not bodies, it is immortal spirits that the devil wants. And he tries to capture them through the body, for the body can enslave the spirit, but the spirit can keep the body a servant and be its master.” (“The Struggle for the Soul,” Address delivered in the Salt Lake Tabernacle, 5 May 1928, in Melvin J. Ballard—Crusader for Righteousness, Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1966, pp. 178–79, 181 emphasis added).
Now that we have established a bit of a foundation to this aspect of the Fall, let's next discuss three common pitfalls that many of us encounter in regards to our physical bodies.
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