Helaman 14

Helaman 14:30-31

And now remember, remember, my brotheren, that whosoever perisheth, perisheth unto himself; and whosoever doeth iniquity, doeth it unto himself; for behold, ye are free; ye are permitted to act for yourselves; for behold, God hath given unto you a knowledge and he hath made you free.

He hath given unto you that ye might know good from evil, and he hath given unto you that ye might chose life or death; and ye can do good and be restored unto that which is good, or have that which is good restored unto you; or ye can do evil, and have that which is evil restored unto you.

I think verse 30 was one of the first scriptures I memorized on my mission. It is one of my favorite ideas in the gospel. God has given us freedom to choose what we will be in this life. This freedom is given to us through the atonement of Jesus Christ.

2nd Nephi 2:26

And the Messiah cometh in the fulness of time, that he may redeem the children of men from the fall, and because they are redeemed from the fall they become free forever, knowing good from evil; to act for themselves and not to be acted upon, save it be by the punishment of the law at the great and last day, according to the commandments which God hath given.

So we are redeemed from the fall, redeemed from death, but we each must choose for ourselves whether we will fall into spiritual death on our own or whether we will rise above into eternal life through the atonement. We are given freedom to choose for ourselves between life or death. (Does this have implications for suicide or is it only speaking about spiritual death. That is a serious question.)

We are free to become like Christ if we wish, through faith and repentance ...which faith and repentance bringeth a change of heart... (Helaman 15:7) or to become any other thing. The other corollary of this freedom we have been given, is that at the end of our lives, we will be exactly who we have chosen to become. No one will make us be anything, but we, through exercising our agency at all times to choose, will create ourselves. And we can either create ourselves in the image of God, as he originally created us, which is eternal life, or we create ourselves in the image of something else, which is eternal damnation.