The gospel to Jesus Christ is ultimately really simple. We are to love God and our fellowmen.

If we love God, then we are eager to play on His team in bringing about His purposes and objectives.

All of His children are His jewels. He deeply desires to have everyone back. But He cannot force us to return. We have to choose that of our own free will and choice.

While on earth, each of us can do a lot that will go a long ways in bringing others either closer to our Father, or further from Him. Furthermore, our actions will often ripple through multiple generations in ways we will never comprehend.

In short, to play on the Lord’s team in bringing about His purposes is not that complicated. It requires one to forget themselves and to get to work in bringing honor and glory to our Father and His Kingdom.

It requires selflessness over selfishness. It requires one to build up the Lord’s Kingdom over one’s vain ambitions – money, power, personal fame and glory.

It requires selfless service. Often it requires one to focus on the one. It is not about the masses or cultivating a following.

It is simply about love, grace, keeping the commandments so one can have the Holy Ghost in one’s life, to actually listening to the promptings of the Holy Ghost and acting in faith on these promptings … which more often than not involve lifting and serving those around.

And that is what was so hard for the Pharasees.

We need a Savior because we are all sinners and we have all fallen short. We need the Atonement so that we can be redeemed. The Atonement requires us to love others and to serve – to show grace.

But what if you don’t want to have to love others?

What if there is another way?

What if you can just keep the commandments perfectly so you have no need for a Savior, the Atonement, or the requirement to love and serve others?

And that was the irony for the Pharasees. In attempting to bypass having to love others (because to them this was so onerous and undesirable) … they created a “law” that in itself was beyond onerous and undesirable (who wanted to be limited to only being able to take so may steps on the Sabbath day, etc).

To the Pharasees, if they could keep the law perfectly, then in their minds they would have no need to be redeemed, which would have required them to have loved their neighbor as theirselves, and to have rendered meaningful service, love, and grace.

And hence they missed the mark.