The Law in our Hearts

This drama of breaking the law of God and feeling the punishment of remorse of conscience is all in our inner self. The law of God is also in our inner self. “[T]he Spirit giveth light to every man that cometh into the world” (D&C 84:46) and the Spirit of Jesus Christ and light are the same thing (D&C 84:45). This “light which is in all things . . . is the law by which all things are governed” (D&C 88:13). So we have the law in us because of the spirit or light of Christ that we are all given when we are born into this life. Even though we may not have ever been formally and explicitly taught the law, it is still in our psyche, or written on our hearts, so that we can feel or sense what the law is. Paul noticed this about the Gentiles of his day:

13) For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.

14) For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves:

15) Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another (Romans 2:13-15)

 
Enoch explained that the Spirit “is given to abide in you … and hath all power according to wisdom, mercy, truth, justice, and judgment” (Moses 6:61), implying that the justice of God, which brings a remorse of conscience, is in you. It seems that there are various levels of God’s law that are written in our hearts. A basic level of the law is given to us at birth. As we advance in the gospel, greater and more difficult levels of the law are successively given to us. The prophet Jacob quoted Isaiah talking about people who had advanced far enough in the gospel that they “[knew] righteousness”, saying, “Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart I have written my law, fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid of their revilings.” (2 Nephi 8:7). There are three levels of spirit and law described in Doctrine and Covenants 88. The three levels are, not surprisingly, called Telestial, Terrestrial, and Celestial (D&C 88:28-39).