Mosiah 3: What the Angel Told Benjamin About Christ, the Natural Man, and Little Children
My youngest came into the garage the other day while I was jointing a board. She stood at the door and watched for a minute, then asked if she could help. I handed her a scrap piece and a block plane. She pushed it across the bench a few times, looked at the shaving curling off the blade, and smiled. She did not know what she was doing. She just trusted that I would not hand her something dangerous.
I thought about that later while reading Mosiah 3, where King Benjamin is recounting what an angel told him about the coming of Christ. The language is heavy. The Lord Omnipotent, the angel says, will come down from heaven and dwell in a tabernacle of clay. He will suffer pain and hunger and thirst and bleed from every pore. And all of this is for us.
But the part that stayed with me was what the angel said about children.
What Does the Book of Mormon Teach About Little Children
The angel tells Benjamin that little children are blessed. The blood of Christ atones for them automatically. Even if they could sin, the angel says, they could not be saved by their own efforts. But they are saved by the blood of Christ.
Even if it were possible that little children could sin they could not be saved; but I say unto you they are blessed.
I read that verse and thought about my daughter with the block plane. She is not worried about whether she is good enough. She is not keeping a ledger of her mistakes. She just trusts. And the angel says that is exactly the condition the Atonement covers without any extra steps.
For parents, this is a quiet kind of relief. You do not have to worry that your child's eternal standing depends on your ability to teach them perfectly. The Atonement covers them. Your job is to point them toward the One who already has them covered.
Meaning of Natural Man in Mosiah 3
The angel does not stop with children. He also gives one of the clearest definitions in scripture of what is wrong with the rest of us.
The natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord.
I have read that verse dozens of times. What hit me this time was the word putteth off. It is active. You do not drift into becoming a saint. You have to take something off, like a coat that does not fit anymore.
The natural man is not a monster. It is just the raw version of us. The version that wants what it wants when it wants it. The version that gets defensive, that keeps score, that resents being told what to do. I see it in myself more than I would like. I see it when I snap at one of the kids for no good reason, or when I hold onto an argument longer than I should.
The angel says the only way out is to yield to the Spirit and put that version of yourself aside. Not once. Over and over.
How Does the Blood of Christ Atonement for Children
The doctrine here is specific. The angel says the blood of Christ atones for those who have fallen by the transgression of Adam, and also for those who have ignorantly sinned. Children fall into that second group. They do not have the knowledge or the intent that makes sin willful.
But the angel goes further and says that salvation comes only through the name of Christ, and there is no other name given. That sounds narrow until you read the next part, which says that little children are covered by that name automatically. The same blood that covers the repentant adult covers the child who has not yet reached the age of accountability.
I think about this when I watch my kids sleep. They are not perfect. They fight over toys and hide vegetables under the edge of the plate. But they are not standing in opposition to God. They are just small people learning how to be people. And the Atonement has them covered while they figure it out.
What Is a Tabernacle of Clay in LDS Scripture
The angel describes the body Christ will take upon himself as a tabernacle of clay, and it is a striking image. The Lord Omnipotent, who created everything, will live inside a fragile human body. He will get tired and hungry and feel pain, just like the rest of us.
I work with wood, and I know what it means to work with a material that has limits. Wood splits and warps and has grain that fights you. But you work with it anyway because the material is the point. You cannot make a chair out of something that does not have the capacity to be shaped.
Christ took a body with limits so that he could be shaped by the same things that shape us. Hunger, fatigue, temptation, grief. He experienced them all so that he would know how to help us through ours.
How to Put Off the Natural Man and Become a Saint
The angel gives a list of what it looks like to become as a child. Submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things the Lord sees fit to put upon you.
That is a hard list. I am not naturally submissive or patient. I have to work at those things the same way I work at a dovetail joint. Cut, check, adjust, cut again.
But the angel does not say you have to be perfect at it. He says you have to yield to the Spirit and let the Atonement do the refining. The natural man is an enemy to God, but he does not have to stay that way. He can be put off, piece by piece, until what is left is something that looks more like the person God intended.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why are little children considered blessed in Mosiah 3?
They are blessed because the Atonement of Jesus Christ covers them automatically. Even if they were capable of sinning, the blood of Christ atones for them by nature. They do not need to reach a certain age or perform certain works to be saved.
What does the natural man mean in Mosiah 3?
The natural man is the fallen human nature that is inclined toward selfishness and resistance to God. It can only be overcome by yielding to the Holy Spirit and applying the Atonement of Christ. It is not a permanent condition but something you put off, like an old coat.
What does it mean to become as a little child for an adult?
It means adopting the qualities of a child. Humility, patience, trust, and a willingness to submit to the Father's will. This is not about being simple or naive. It is about having the kind of heart that does not need to be in control all the time.
How does the Atonement cover those who sin ignorantly?
The angel says the blood of Christ atones for those who have ignorantly sinned. This includes people who did not fully understand what they were doing, including children. The Atonement covers the gap between what we know and what we do, as long as we are willing to let it.
I put the block plane back on the shelf and picked up my daughter's scrap piece. The shaving was thin and uneven. She had not planed it square. But she had tried, and she had trusted me when I said she could do it.
That is what the angel was telling Benjamin. Trust matters more than precision, and the natural man wants to earn his way. A child just trusts. And the Atonement meets us at the point of trust, not at the point of perfection.
-- D.