I’ve always understood that I have two identities: a human identity & an eternal identity. But I often get frustrated when the two don’t match up. I struggle to intentionally choose to believe in my innate & inherent value & goodness.
In speaking of the Pauline theology of the natural man, Brigham Young said,
“It is fully proved in all the revelations that God has ever given to mankind that they naturally love and admire righteousness, justice and truth more than they do evil. It is, however, universally received by professors of religion as a Scriptural doctrine that man is naturally opposed to God. Paul says, in his Epistle to the Corinthians, ‘But the natural man receiveth not the things of God,’ but I say it is the unnatural ‘man that receiveth not the things of God.’... The natural man is of God. We are the natural sons and daughters of our natural parents, and spiritually we are the natural children of the Father of light and natural heirs to his kingdom; and when we do an evil, we do it in opposition to the promptings of the Spirit of Truth that is within us. Man, the noblest work of God, was in his creation designed for an endless duration, for which the love of all good was incorporated in his nature. It was never designed that he should naturally do and love evil. When our first parents fell from their paradisiacal state, they were brought in contact with influences and powers of evil that are unnatural and stand in opposition to an endless life. So far as mankind yield to these influences, they are so far removed from a natural to an unnatural state—from life to death.”
It’s a tactic of the adversary to make us believe that we are bad, that we are unworthy, that it is not naturally within us to do good.
But we are innately good.
Further reading:
“Our Identity and Our Destiny” Tad R. Callister (devotional address)
“Our Identity” Mind. Body. Purpose. (podcast)
“He Will Place You on His Shoulders and Carry You Home” Dieter F. Uchtdorf (conference talk)
“Roots and Branches” Russell M. Nelson (conference talk)