- In life, each person will need to choose what matters most to them. Followers of Jesus Christ should choose Christ daily.
- Agency is key to God's plan, as no one can be forced to be righteous.
- Only Christ can perfect believers, they cannot save themselves.
When Julius Caesar made the fateful decision to cross the Rubicon River with one of his legions in January 49 B.C., he knew exactly what the act meant.
The crossing was an act of treason that would incite civil war against Rome. Nevertheless, Caesar marched forward, reportedly declaring, “Alea iacta est,” or “the die is cast.”
Elder Alexander Dushku, a General Authority Seventy and General Counsel of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, recounted Caesar’s pivotal choice and ultimate victory during his Tuesday devotional address to BYU students.
He clarified that Caesar was no role model, but said that his actions indicate Caesar understood a powerful truth: “The time comes when you and I must choose what matters most to us.”
In a time of great opportunities and great challenges, “now is the time to cross the Rubicon of faith and never look back,” Elder Dushku said. “Now is the time to decide to be all in for the Lord.”
Elder Dushku urged BYU students to “choose Christ” daily, echoing the apostolic invitation that Elder Neil L. Andersen issued to BYU students a week earlier.
“I’m here as another witness to that powerful message,” Elder Dushku said. Life passes quickly, and “now is the time to choose Christ over everything.”
The power of knowing ‘the full Christ’
Elder Dushku told students that daily choosing Christ “over the world” will grow easier as they come to know him and what he offers more fully.
“When I say choose Christ, I mean choose the living Jesus Christ, the full Christ, the Christ of the Restoration,” Elder Dushku said, “not the watered-down Jesus society sometimes purports to admire for being kind, saying wise things and caring for the poor.
“A kind, wise, caring Jesus would certainly be admirable,” he said, “but Jesus the Christ is no mere guru of kindness or life coach or social worker. He is infinitely more than that.”
Elder Dushku declared that Jesus Christ is the Creator, the Alpha and Omega, “the beginning of our spiritual journey and its glorious end and everything in between.”
He taught that Christ is “our advocate with the Father, the Rock of our salvation, and the Good Shepherd who is relentlessly seeking us.”
Jesus is “the Christ, the Messiah, our Savior and Redeemer,” Elder Dushku testified. As such, the Savior “took upon him death,” suffering the pains, afflictions and temptations of his people so he would know how to succor them and rush to their aid.
“The core of Heavenly Father’s plan to save and exalt us is the gift of his Son Jesus Christ, who is full of love for each of us and mighty to save. The question for you and for me is whether we will choose to receive that gift, whether we will receive him and allow him to be with us,” Elder Dushku taught.
Why Satan’s plan for humankind was ‘dumb’
Christ repeatedly invites his children to walk with him. He relentlessly seeks intimate communion with them, but he cannot force that communion.
Satan’s suggested plan for humankind — which sought to remove choice — was both “immoral and dumb,” Elder Dushku said, because “destroying someone’s agency is evil” and “no one can be forced to be righteous.”
“Not even God can save or exalt us by external force,” Elder Dushku taught. The change must come voluntarily, but requires relying fully on the Lord.
“We sometimes feel all this pressure to perfect ourselves when the truth is that only Christ can perfect us,” he said. “The question is whether we’ll choose to let him. … (The plan was never) for us to do it alone. We can’t save ourselves.”
Ways to choose Christ over the world
Elder Dushku shared he has personally found strength to choose Christ daily by simply praying, “Heavenly Father, I choose thy plan and my Savior Jesus Christ.”
He listed several ways individuals can choose to center their lives around Christ, including:
- Praying with real intent.
- Feasting upon Christ’s words in the scriptures.
- Choosing to repent of sin and return to Christ.
- Choosing to keep covenants and obey God’s commandments out of love and loyalty.
- Partaking of the sacrament with a broken heart and a contrite spirit.
- Choosing to always remember Christ.
- Choosing to love and serve others in Christ’s name.
Christ’s loving invitations are constant and always personal, Elder Dushku said. The “fundamental choice” each has to face is between Christ and the world.
“When the adversary presses in and temptations come,” he said, “we must remember that we are choosing in that moment what we love most.”
“Choose Christ” daily and in those moments, Elder Dushku pleaded. Choose Christ “because he loved you first, and because you love him most.”
Elder Dushku’s complete devotional can be found here. A summary of Elder Andersen’s invitations to BYU students last Tuesday can be found here.