Where we are
Three generations back, a man named Zeniff led a group of Nephites back to the land of Nephi — the same territory Mosiah I had abandoned in Omni 1:13 under divine warning, fleeing north to Zarahemla. Since then, nothing. No word. Three generations of silence.
Now King Mosiah II — the same king whose father Benjamin just finished the great covenant sermon of Mosiah 2–5 — gives leave to a strong man named Ammon (not the son of Mosiah; this is an earlier Ammon, descended from Zarahemla, v. 3: a strong and mighty man, and a descendant of Zarahemla) and sixteen of his brethren to go up and find whatever is left of the lost colony.
The chapter moves in four parts. First, the expedition sets out and discovers the colony in bondage (vv. 1–16). Second, Limhi gathers his people at the temple and explains, in a kind of confession, how they got here (vv. 17–25). Third comes a short but staggering excursus on a slain prophet — and with it, the chapter's central Christological claim (vv. 26–28). Fourth, Limhi lays out the deliverance pattern itself, closing with the invitation to turn to the Lord with full purpose of heart (vv. 29–33).
Five verses carry unusual weight here. Verse 15 states the bondage plainly and with a kind of grim clarity: it is better that we should be slaves to the Nephites than to pay tribute to the king of the Lamanites. Verse 19 recites the Exodus as the colony's own pattern: the Lord did deliver them out of bondage by his power. Verse 26 names a prophet the colony killed — a prophet who preached the coming of Christ, and does so before that prophet, Abinadi, has even been introduced in the narrative. Verse 27 gives what may be the Book of Mormon's clearest pre-Pauline statement of image Christology: Christ will take upon him the image of man, and it should be the image after which man was created in the beginning. And verse 33 gives the deliverance formula itself: if ye will turn to the Lord with full purpose of heart… he will, according to his own will and pleasure, deliver you out of bondage.
The expedition and the discovery (verses 1–16)
And now, it came to pass that after king Mosiah had had continual peace for the space of three years, he was desirous to know concerning the people who went up to dwell in the land of Lehi-Nephi, or in the city of Lehi-Nephi; for his people had heard nothing from them from the time they left the land of Zarahemla; therefore, they wearied him with their teasings. — Mosiah 7:1
Notice the timing. This is the same three years of peace mentioned in Mosiah 6:7 — no contention among the people. The expedition to find the lost begins out of rest, not out of anxiety. You go looking for what's missing after the home front is settled, not before. Acts 1:14 shows the same order — prayer and waiting in the upper room before Acts 2's mission to the world. Mark gives it too: "come ye yourselves apart… and rest a while" precedes the feeding of the five thousand.
And it came to pass that king Mosiah granted that sixteen of their strong men might go up to the land of Lehi-Nephi, to inquire concerning their brethren. — Mosiah 7:2
Sixteen men. The number sits there unadorned — the Book of Mormon has a habit of counting things without turning the count into a symbol, the same restraint 2 Samuel shows cataloguing David's mighty men by name without embellishing each one into a sermon.
And it came to pass that on the morrow they started to go up, having with them one Ammon, he being a strong and mighty man, and a descendant of Zarahemla; and he was also their leader. — Mosiah 7:3
Here's something easy to miss. Ammon is a descendant of Zarahemla — meaning he traces to the Mulekites, the Davidic line that survived Jerusalem's fall and was absorbed into the Nephite nation generations earlier (Omni 1:14–16). So the man God sends to recover the lost Nephites is himself descended from Judah, not Joseph. It reads like Ezekiel's two sticks, joined in one hand: "take thee one stick… for Judah… then take another stick… for Joseph… and they shall become one in thine hand" (Ezek. 37:16–22). Judah recovers Joseph, three centuries after Zarahemla first took Mulek's people in.
And now, they knew not the course they should travel in the wilderness to go up to the land of Lehi-Nephi; therefore they wandered many days in the wilderness, even forty days did they wander. — Mosiah 7:4
They didn't even know which way to go. That detail matters — this isn't a confident forty-day march, it's forty days of not knowing the course, wandering because the way itself was lost along with the colony. And forty is the one number in this chapter the text doesn't leave bare, because forty is already loaded — Moses forty days on the mount (Ex. 24:18), Israel forty years wandering (Num. 14:33), Elijah forty days to Horeb (1 Kgs. 19:8), Christ forty days fasting (Matt. 4:2). Forty is the wilderness number, the trial-before-revelation number, and here it belongs to a search party that has to grope its way toward the very people it's trying to save.
And when they had wandered forty days they came to a hill, which is north of the land of Shilom, and there they pitched their tents. — Mosiah 7:5
Geography stays sparse here — the text cares far more about who gets found than where. Luke does the same with Emmaus: "about threescore furlongs" from Jerusalem, a placeholder, not an allegory.
And Ammon took three of his brethren, and their names were Amaleki, Helem, and Hem, and they went down into the land of Nephi. And behold, they met the king of the people who were in the land of Nephi, and in the land of Shilom; and they were surrounded by the king's guard, and were taken, and were bound, and were committed to prison. — Mosiah 7:6–7
Ammon picks three companions — Amaleki (likely named for the earlier Amaleki of Omni 1:12–30, the small-plates voice; the colony has kept its Mulekite family names alive), Helem, and Hem. Three plus a leader is the pattern of intimate witness throughout scripture — Peter, James, and John plus Christ himself in Matthew 17:1.
And then, immediately, everything inverts. The rescuers are taken. Bound. Imprisoned. Recovery begins in shared bondage — the deliverers have to taste the captivity of the people they've come to free before they can free them. That's the logic behind Philippians 2:7, Christ taking "the form of a servant," and Hebrews 2:14–18, "that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death." The one who delivers must first be bound.
And it came to pass when they had been in prison two days they were again brought before the king, and their bands were loosed; and they stood before the king, and were permitted, or rather commanded, that they should answer the questions which he should ask them. — Mosiah 7:8
Two days in prison, then loosed. The text doesn't make anything of the number, but the resurrection shadow is hard to miss for anyone paying attention — Paul and Silas spend two days in the Philippian jail before an earthquake loosens their bands at midnight (Acts 16:23–34).
And he said unto them: Behold, I am Limhi, the son of Noah, who was the son of Zeniff, who came up out of the land of Zarahemla to inherit this land, which was the land of their fathers, who was made a king by the voice of the people. — Mosiah 7:9
Limhi gives his genealogy without flinching: son of Noah, son of Zeniff. He names his father — the prophet-killer — openly. This is one of the Book of Mormon's first "father was a wicked king" moments, and Limhi's honesty about it is itself part of his repentance. Compare Manasseh's son Amon (2 Kgs. 21:19–23) or Asa's son Jehoshaphat (1 Kgs. 22:43) — sons who rule under the shadow of what their fathers were.
Notice too the phrase came up… to inherit this land — an echo of Deuteronomy's language of possessing the promised land (Deut. 1:8). Zeniff's return was itself a kind of covenant claim on inheritance, though whether it was rightful or overreaching stays an open question here; Zeniff himself will later call it "over-zealous" (Mosiah 9:3).
And now, I desire to know the cause whereby ye were so bold as to come near the walls of the city, when I, myself, was with my guards without the gate? — Mosiah 7:10
A king asking out of genuine curiosity, not menace — the same posture Herod takes with Christ in Luke 23:9, "he questioned with him in many words," except here the curiosity turns toward grace rather than mockery.
And now, for this cause have I suffered that ye should be preserved, that I might inquire of you, or else I should have caused that my guards should have put you to death. Ye are permitted to speak. — Mosiah 7:11
Ammon is alive because Limhi wanted to know. The same curiosity that sent Mosiah's expedition out is what saves it once it arrives.
And now, when Ammon saw that he was permitted to speak, he went forth and bowed himself before the king; and rising again he said: O king, I am very thankful before God this day that I am yet alive, and am permitted to speak; and I will endeavor to speak with boldness; — Mosiah 7:12
Boldness born of survival. Ammon speaks freely because he could easily not be speaking at all. Acts 4:13 catches the same thing in Peter and John: "when they saw the boldness of Peter and John… they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus."
For I am assured that if ye had known me ye would not have suffered that I should have worn these bands. For I am Ammon, and am a descendant of Zarahemla, and have come up out of the land of Zarahemla to inquire concerning our brethren, whom Zeniff brought up out of that land. — Mosiah 7:13
A formal introduction, and a quiet reassurance: the colony was never forgotten. Someone walked forty days to find them. It's the same tenderness in Luke's woman searching for her lost coin, "searching diligently till she find it" (Lk. 15:8–10).
And now, it came to pass that after Limhi had heard the words of Ammon, he was exceedingly glad, and said: Now, I know of a surety that my brethren who were in the land of Zarahemla are yet alive. And now, I will rejoice; and on the morrow I will cause that my people shall rejoice also. — Mosiah 7:14
Three generations of not knowing, and then relief — the same "now I know of a surety" language Peter uses after his own deliverance in Acts 12:11.
For behold, we are in bondage to the Lamanites, and are taxed with a tax which is grievous to be borne. And now, behold, our brethren will deliver us out of our bondage, or out of the hands of the Lamanites, and we will be their slaves; for it is better that we be slaves to the Nephites than to pay tribute to the king of the Lamanites. — Mosiah 7:15
Here's the chapter's most self-aware verse. Bondage has a hierarchy, and Limhi knows exactly where his people sit on it. Being subject to their own brethren is preferable to tribute paid to a foreign king. Compare Judah's tribute to Babylon as the deepest form of national humiliation in 2 Kings 24, or Lamentations 5:8 — "servants have ruled over us." This one line opens a window onto three generations of deepening misery.
The phrase taxed with a tax which is grievous to be borne echoes both Acts 15:10's "grievous yoke" and Matthew 23:4's "heavy burdens, grievous to be borne." Extractive rule leaves the same fingerprints wherever scripture records it.
And now, king Limhi commanded his guards that they should no more bind Ammon nor his brethren, but caused that they should go to the hill which was north of Shilom, and bring their brethren into the city, that thereby they might eat, and drink, and rest themselves from the labors of their journey; for they had suffered many things; they had suffered hunger, thirst, and fatigue. — Mosiah 7:16
The king's first act after learning who Ammon is isn't a speech. It's hospitality. He sends for the rest of Ammon's brethren waiting up on the hill and gets everyone fed, watered, and rested. Limhi names the suffering plainly — hunger, thirst, fatigue — before he does anything else. Whatever theology follows in the temple sermon, it follows a meal. Compare the angel feeding Elijah before any word of commission comes (1 Kgs. 19:5–8), or Christ cooking breakfast for exhausted fishermen on the shore before Peter's threefold restoration (Jn. 21:9–15). Restoration, in scripture, tends to start at the table.
Limhi gathers his people at the temple (verses 17–25)
And now, it came to pass on the morrow that king Limhi sent a proclamation among all his people, that thereby they might gather themselves together to the temple, to hear the words which he should speak unto them. — Mosiah 7:17
Even in three generations of bondage, the colony has kept some form of a temple, and it is still where the corporate news gets delivered. Limhi is consciously following Benjamin's pattern — Mosiah 2:5–6's tower-by-the-temple gathering — the colony's own king doing what the home king has just done.
And it came to pass that when they had gathered themselves together that he spake unto them in this wise, saying: O ye, my people, lift up your heads and be comforted; for behold, the time is at hand, or is not far distant, when we shall no longer be in subjection to our enemies, notwithstanding our many strugglings, which have been in vain; yet I trust there remaineth an effectual struggle to be made. — Mosiah 7:18
"Lift up your heads and be comforted" — comfort arriving before deliverance, not after. Luke uses almost the same words centuries later: "when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh" (Lk. 21:28).
And notice the honesty in "strugglings, which have been in vain." Limhi doesn't pretend the colony's past efforts worked. He names the failure plainly and then trusts that something different — an effectual struggle — still lies ahead. Paul catches the same movement in Romans 8:20: creation "made subject to vanity… by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope." Repeated failure, it turns out, can be the very thing that prepares a heart for a deliverance it didn't manufacture itself.
Therefore, lift up your heads, and rejoice, and put your trust in God, in that God who was the God of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob; and also, that God who brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt, and caused that they should walk through the Red Sea on dry ground, and fed them with manna that they might not perish in the wilderness; and many more things did he do for them. — Mosiah 7:19
Limhi preaches the Exodus to a people presently living their own Egypt. What God did then becomes the promise of what God will do now — the historical recital is the comfort. It's the same logic behind Deuteronomy's Shema recital (Deut. 6:20–25), Stephen's speech in Acts 7, and the recitals of faith in Hebrews 11. Remembering the past deliverance is itself an act of hope in the present.
And again, that same God has brought our fathers out of the land of Jerusalem, and has kept and preserved his people even until now; and behold, it is because of our iniquities and abominations that he has brought us into bondage. — Mosiah 7:20
The God who delivers is the same God who disciplines. Bondage here isn't the absence of covenant — it's covenant correction. Deuteronomy 28 lays out blessings and curses from the very same covenant; Lamentations asks, "out of the mouth of the most High proceedeth not evil and good?" (Lam. 3:38). Captivity, in this reading, is a schoolmaster, not an abandonment.
And ye all are witnesses this day, that Zeniff, who was made king over this people, he being over-zealous to inherit the land of his fathers, therefore being deceived by the cunning and craftiness of king Laman, who having entered into a treaty with king Zeniff, and having yielded up into his hands the possessions of a part of the land, or even the city of Lehi-Nephi, and the city of Shilom; and the land round about— — Mosiah 7:21
Limhi names the specific mechanism of the bondage, not just the fact of it. His grandfather Zeniff was over-zealous — the same word Zeniff himself will use of his own conduct in Mosiah 9:3 — and that zeal made him easy prey for king Laman's cunning. Laman offered a treaty and let Zeniff's people occupy Lehi-Nephi and Shilom, then used that very treaty as the trap. Limhi's honesty here matches his honesty about his father Noah two chapters back: the king doesn't dress up the colony's history, he traces the bondage back to its actual root, a zeal for inheritance that outran discernment.
And all this he did, for the sole purpose of bringing this people into subjection or into bondage. And behold, we at this time do pay tribute to the king of the Lamanites, to the amount of one half of our corn, and our barley, and even all our grain of every kind, and one half of the increase of our flocks and our herds; and even one half of all we have or possess the king of the Lamanites doth exact of us, or our lives. — Mosiah 7:22
Fifty percent — of grain, of flocks, of everything. First Samuel 8:14–17 warns Israel that a king will take a tenth; here the rate is five times that warning. The prophetic caution wasn't just fulfilled. It was exceeded. And Limhi is careful to name the purpose behind it: Laman's whole design, from the treaty onward, was subjection. The trap was built before the tribute was ever collected.
And now, is not this grievous to be borne? And is not this, our affliction, great? Now behold, how great reason we have to mourn. — Mosiah 7:23
Mourning gets named and authorized by the king himself. It isn't a failure of faith; it's the proper response to real affliction. "A time to weep… a time to mourn" (Eccl. 3:4). The pastor-king names the grief instead of suppressing it.
Yea, I say unto you, great are the reasons which we have to mourn; for behold how many of our brethren have been slain, and their blood has been spilt in vain, and all because of iniquity. — Mosiah 7:24
Not all death carries the same weight. Iniquity, Limhi says, made this blood spilled in vain — the colony's defenders died because of the colony's sins, not in defense of the colony's righteousness. Lamentations mourns the same thing: "for the sins of her prophets… that have shed the blood of the just in the midst of her" (Lam. 4:13).
For if this people had not fallen into transgression the Lord would not have suffered that this great evil should come upon them. But behold, they would not hearken unto his words; but there arose contentions among them, even so much that they did shed blood among themselves. — Mosiah 7:25
Internal division came first — before the Lamanite bondage. The outer enemy is the consequence of the inner one. "The children of Judah prevailed, because they relied upon the Lord God of their fathers" (2 Chr. 13:18) says the same thing from the opposite direction: a house divided against itself falls to itself before it falls to anyone else.
The slain prophet and the chapter's central Christology (verses 26–28)
And a prophet of the Lord have they slain; yea, a chosen man of God, who told them of their wickedness and abominations, and prophesied of many things which are to come, yea, even the coming of Christ. — Mosiah 7:26
Here's where the chapter does something remarkable. It names a slain prophet — a prophet who preached Christ's coming — and this happens before that prophet, Abinadi, has been introduced anywhere in the narrative. He doesn't actually appear until Mosiah 11. What you're reading is Mormon, the record's editor, writing back through history with full knowledge of who the prophet is and what he preached, naming him Christologically in the king's sermon before you ever meet him. It's the same technique the Gospels use in their opening prologues — Mark 1:1, John 1:1–18 — announcing, before the story starts, exactly what the story means.
And the pattern of slain prophet followed by national bondage runs throughout the Hebrew Bible. Christ names it in Matthew 23:35: "from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias… whom ye slew between the temple and the altar." Second Chronicles 24:20–22 records the killing of Zechariah, right before the army of Syria comes up against Judah. Stephen puts it plainly in Acts 7:52: "which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted?" What's happening in this small Mesoamerican colony is the same pattern the Hebrew Bible records again and again.
For he said unto them that Christ was the God, the Father of all things, and said that he should take upon him the image of man, and it should be the image after which man was created in the beginning; or in other words, he said that man was created after the image of God, and that God should come down among the children of men, and take upon him flesh and blood, and go forth upon the face of the earth— — Mosiah 7:27
This is the verse to slow down on. Christ will take the image of man — and it is the very image after which man was created in the beginning. That ordering matters enormously. The incarnation isn't Christ putting on something foreign to himself. It's Christ stepping into the pattern he already was — man was made after Christ's image, so when Christ takes on flesh, he's wearing his own original form. Paul will say much the same thing centuries later: Christ is "the image of the invisible God" (Col. 1:15), "the image of God" (2 Cor. 4:4), "the express image of his person" (Heb. 1:3), the one who, "being in the form of God… took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men" (Phil. 2:6–8). This verse, sitting quietly inside a colonial king's confession, may be the Book of Mormon's clearest pre-Pauline statement of image Christology — and its strongest case that the incarnation recovers an original pattern rather than assuming a foreign one.
And now, because he said this, they did put him to death; and many more things did they do which brought down the wrath of God upon them. Therefore, who wondereth that they are in bondage, and that they are smitten with sore afflictions? — Mosiah 7:28
The colony killed the prophet over this exact message, and the cause of their bondage is named without softening. Stephen is stoned for his vision of the Son of Man in Acts 7:52–60, and persecution follows immediately in Acts 8:1. The pattern repeats.
The deliverance pattern and the invitation to turn (verses 29–33)
For behold, the Lord hath said: I will not succor my people in the day of their transgression; but I will hedge up their ways that they prosper not; and their doings shall be as a stumbling block before them. — Mosiah 7:29
God withholds rescue during transgression — not out of cruelty, but because the obstruction itself is a mercy meant to turn people back. Hosea uses the same image: "I will hedge up thy way with thorns… that she shall not find her paths" (Hos. 2:6).
And again, he saith: If my people shall sow filthiness they shall reap the chaff thereof in the whirlwind; and the effect thereof is poison. — Mosiah 7:30
The harvest matches the seed. Hosea again: "they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind" (Hos. 8:7); Paul: "whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap" (Gal. 6:7).
And again he saith: If my people shall sow filthiness they shall reap the east wind, which bringeth immediate destruction. — Mosiah 7:31
The east wind is the desert wind — the destroying breath in Hosea 13:15 and Ezekiel 19:12, the same wind God used to part the sea in Exodus 14:21. When sown filthiness comes due, it arrives suddenly.
And now, behold, the promise of the Lord is fulfilled, and ye are smitten and afflicted. — Mosiah 7:32
Even the curse is a kept promise. God's faithfulness shows up in judgment as surely as in blessing — Jeremiah's "I will hasten my word to perform it" (Jer. 1:12) applies both ways. The affliction is evidence the covenant is still active, not evidence God has walked away.
But if ye will turn to the Lord with full purpose of heart, and put your trust in him, and serve him with all diligence of mind, if ye do this, he will, according to his own will and pleasure, deliver you out of bondage. — Mosiah 7:33
Here is the formula, in four parts: turn to the Lord, with full purpose of heart, put your trust in him, serve him with diligence. All four sit on the human side of the ledger. What happens next — "according to his own will and pleasure" — sits entirely on God's. Joel says it too: "turn ye even to me with all your heart" (Joel 2:12); so does Jeremiah: "ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart" (Jer. 29:13). The timing, though, isn't negotiable — "it is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power" (Acts 1:7). Repentance doesn't set God's calendar.
The chapter's shape
The chapter runs in four straight panels, not a chiasm. Verses 1–16 give the expedition and the discovery of bondage. Verses 17–25 give Limhi's gathering and confession. Verses 26–28 give the slain prophet and the Christology it triggers. Verses 29–33 give the deliverance pattern and the invitation to turn. The theological weight falls hardest on two verses held together — verse 27's statement of who Christ is, paired with verse 33's statement of how to turn to him.
Structurally, the whole thing works as a sermon inside a narrative. The expedition story (vv. 1–16) sets the stage for Limhi's embedded sermon (vv. 18–33), which functions as a kind of colonial companion piece to Benjamin's tower sermon. Limhi does what Benjamin just did — gathers the people, tells the history, confesses the sin, recites the Exodus, names the prophet, names the coming Christ, and calls for repentance — except Limhi does it under conditions of active bondage, as the son of the very king who killed the prophet he's now naming.
This is also the Book of Mormon's first bondage-and-restoration text. The pattern that will govern Mosiah 7–24 gets laid out right here: a colony in bondage, a king who names the cause, a people who turn to the Lord, and a deliverance that comes on God's own timetable. Chapter 7 sets the formula. Chapters 21–22 will narrate its fulfillment.
How this sits in the literature of its time
Hidden providence
Three threads run underneath the surface of this chapter.
The first is Ammon's own name. Three centuries earlier, Mosiah I led a remnant out of the land of Nephi to Zarahemla under divine warning (Omni 1:12–13). That remnant absorbed the Mulekites, Davidic-line survivors of Jerusalem's fall (Omni 1:14–16). Now, generations later, a man descended from that Mulekite line — not from Lehi — leads the expedition that recovers the Nephite remnant who went back the other way. Judah, in effect, recovers Joseph at the precise moment Joseph cannot recover itself. It reads like Ezekiel's two sticks joined into one hand.
The second is the timing of the Christology. Mosiah 7:26–28 names Abinadi's death and its cause before Abinadi has appeared anywhere in the story — he won't show up until Mosiah 11. Mormon, compiling the record generations later, is teaching you to read the entire Abinadi cycle as already determined: the bondage in chapter 7 is the consequence of the prophet-killing in chapter 17, and the cause is announced long before the effect is narrated. It's the same move the Gospels make in their opening lines, framing the whole story before it unfolds.
The third is where verse 27 points forward. Its image Christology is the Book of Mormon's clearest cross-reference to Ether 3:14–16 — a text written centuries later in the order of compilation, but describing events two thousand years earlier in the order of history. Mosiah 7:27 says Christ will take "the image of man… the image after which man was created in the beginning." Ether 3:14–16 shows exactly what that means: "this body, which ye now behold, is the body of my spirit; and man have I created after the body of my spirit." Together the two texts establish one doctrine — the pre-incarnate Christ's spirit body is the pattern man was made after, and the incarnation is Christ stepping into his own original form. Abinadi, the Brother of Jared, and Paul all converge on the same truth across three thousand years.
Where this lands
Three practices worth carrying with you.
First, when you find yourself in bondage — of any kind — do what Limhi did. Gather the people who matter to you, name the cause honestly, recall what God has done before, and invite the turning. Don't skip the confession. When a marriage, a family, or a community is suffering, the deliverance doesn't begin with a strategy session. It begins the way Limhi's did — with an honest naming of what went wrong. Nehemiah's Levitical recital in chapter 9 works the same way, coming before the covenant renewal of chapter 10.
Second, turn to the Lord with full purpose of heart, and then let go of the timing. Verse 33 gives you four things to do — turn, full purpose of heart, trust, diligent service — and all four are yours to do. The timing belongs to God alone. Limhi's people do all four starting here in Mosiah 7; the actual deliverance doesn't come until Mosiah 22, some twelve years and fifteen chapters later. The gap between turning and deliverance is not always short, and that's not a sign anything has failed.
Third, remember what verse 27 is actually claiming about you. Christ took on the very image after which you were made. That means your own humanity — your face, your form — carries a Christological pattern built into it from the beginning. Human dignity isn't something salvaged despite the fall; it's rooted in the pre-incarnate Christ as the original pattern. Live like someone wearing the form Christ himself wears. It's the same instinct behind the doctrine of theosis in the Eastern tradition — becoming by grace what Christ is by nature — and behind D&C 132:20's promise that the faithful "shall be gods, because they have all power, and the angels are subject unto them."