3 Nephi 15–16 Overview

In the chapters 15–18, the ministry of Jesus among the people at Bountiful continues throughout the rest of that first day. Here are a few questions regarding the words of Jesus in chapters 15–16:

How have old things become new without being destroyed?
How do the words of Jesus in these verses shape the Latter-day Saint view of divine law, of the law of Moses, and the mission of Jesus Christ?
How is this information important for the world in general and to you in particular?
Why and what does Jesus speak to the Nephite disciples about God remembering His sheep?
What can one learn about the relationships between God and Jesus, between God and all His people who are of the House of Israel, and between God and the Gentiles in these verses?
How does that knowledge strengthen your relationship with the Father and His Son?

· How does that knowledge strengthen your relationship with the Father and His Son?

While Jesus re-uses several phrases from chapters 11–14 in 3 Nephi 15 and 16, there is more going on in this summation and application than a mere recapitulation. The essence of the Sermon was well understood and clearly applied. The Sermon on the Mount has not been just dropped into the Book of Mormon in a clumsy kind of way. But it belongs here in brilliant ways that Jesus will now review, explicate, and apply. Notice that Jesus reused His own words. Having initially taught them, He now enlightened them, going through in the reverse order, as follows:

In chapter 12, Jesus had introduced four things in this order:

If the salt shall lose its savor (12:13),
	Be the light of this people (12:14),
		Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets (12:17), and
			In me it hath all been fulfilled (12:18).

In chapters 15 and 16, Jesus emphasizes and elaborates these specific points in the opposite order, as follows:

			The law in me is fulfilled (15:4),
		I do not destroy the prophets (15:6–7),
	Ye are a light unto this people, who are a remnant of the house of Joseph (15:12), and
Those who will not turn to Christ will be as salt that has lost its savor (16:15).

Obviously, Jesus knew how to use the structural and rhetorical power of introducing ideas in one order and then going back through those in the opposite order to finish where he started. It was a powerful and an organized way of presenting ideas. It is a recognizable chiastic structure with which these people were well familiar. The structure may indicate that these passages were most likely not just being casually repeated, but were being embedded deliberately in a holy two-way covenant-making context.

Further Reading

John W. Welch Notes

References