"Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." ~ John 14:6
~ "Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." ~ John 8:12

When Thomas asked the Lord, 'How can we know the way?' Jesus stated to Thomas the He, the Christ', was the way, the truth, and the life. In this and from other scriptural understanding we have come to see Jesus Christ as out Ensample of what we are to be and to become in obtaining our Gospel Salvation. But not only was Jesus Christ a living example of what to do, his life also contained many shadows, types and similitudes as to what men must do in order to gain salvation and exaltation. And it is in these similitudes and parallels that we can find further corroborating evidence that Jesus was both Messiah ben Joseph and Messiah ben David.

In the Gospel Plan, man has both a literal Father of his spirit, who is God the Father from the previous time and an adoptive Father who is his Father according the the Law of God. That is God the Father was Adam's literal Father of his spirit and Jesus Christ was his adoptive Gospel Father according to the symbolic rebrith of the ordinance of Baptism. In this similitude and parallel, the ancestry of Jesus Christ has two fathers.

His literal father in his Old Testament ancestry was Boaz and thus was Christ of the bloodline of the Jews, Boaz being a descendant of Judah. But there is a further parallel in that according to God's Law of the Kingdom of Israel, Obed, who is a simititude of Christ, was also an surrogate son, that is according to the Law of God, Obed being the first born of Ruth, the wife of Mahlon, Obed was actually born to be the legal and rightful seed of the covenant unto Mahlon and the house of Elimelech, who were Ephrathites, meaning Ephraimites and of the house of Joseph.

Like Adam, like Jesus Christ, by the ordinance of the Law of God, we too are adoptive children, legal and rightful heirs through Jesus Christ, who is of the blood of Judah, unto him as children of the covenant and heirs of the Kingdom of God. Jesus Christ is that adoptive redeeming parent even as was Boaz the redeeming surrogate parent of Obed, fathering him 'back' to being of his rightful and legal house of Joseph, that house of the covenant. And so are we so redeemed by Jesus' baptismal birth and adoption enabled to be legal and rightful heirs of the House and Kingdom of God the Father. As Boaz brought Obed into the covenant house of Elimelech and Mahlon, so does Jesus Christ so vicariously through the atonement and the adoptive symbolic rebirth of baptism redeem us as heirs to our true parent and Father, God the Father of Spirits.

And thus Jesus Christ is of both houses and of dual ancestry which is a shadow and a type of that dual birth and ancestry the children of men must so particpate in God's Gospel Plan. We become sons and daughters of Jesus Christ by vicarious ordinances and performances according to the Laws of God in order that we might become heirs unto the house of our 'true' Father.

Now in the New Testament this is also so shadowed and typed again in the dual ancestry of Jesus Christ. But this time with a twist in a different consideration. Here God the Father is the literal parent and Joseph the Capenter is the adoptive parent. And Joseph so adopts Jesus, the firstborn son of Mary, so as that Jesus becomes heir to the earthly Kingdom of the House of Joseph. Now true the Royal lineage was that of Mary's father as set out by Matthew's genealogy and as further given according to Luke in what was Joseph's natural parentage as reported by Luke.

But at any rate, Joseph the Carpenter's traditional Jewish adoption of Christ, in recognizing him as his own firstborn son and teaching him the trade of being a carpenter like unto his 'father', is that which conforms the legal and rightful adoption of Jesus Christ as being the legal and rightful heir to the Kingdom of David. And this 'adoption' has a secondary level, in that it was Mary's Father's adoption of Mary's husband as his 'one true son', he being without male heir, by which the Kingdom of David did come, and Christ was that heir of David legally and rightfully in every respect.

And there again, in every respect, because of that adoptive process we undergo through our symbolic birth of baptism, we also become as heirs to the earthly as well as heavenly Kingdom of David and of God through Jesus Christ our Lord becoming as it were our surrogate vicarious performing father unto our own salvation and exaltation.

Now as with all 'parables', parallels, similitudes, types and shadows of one thing by another, one is not to search in every detail a significants, but in the overall general similitude of the symbolism is to be found the truth. Christ was of two houses, of God's and man's, of the covenant and of the vicarious performing parent. Just as Boaz the Jews was the more distant 'maternal kinsman', in parallel to Mary's role, of Elimelech who performed as 'redeemer' in order that the House of Elimelech would have child of the House of Elimelech which was of the covenant house and line of the Firstborn from Abraham to Issac, from Issac to Jacob, from Jacob to Joseph and Joseph's son Ephraim, the firstborn of the covenant according to Jeremiah (Jeremiah 31:9) and through and by whom the covenant blessings did remain (D&C 27:10). And then from Ephraim to Nun, from Nun to Joshua, and from Joshua to Elimelech and Mahlon and Mahlon's adoptive son of the covenant through the vicarious performing Boaz to Obed. In this Obed was legally and rightfully of the House of Joseph and heir to all the covenant blessing, even of that of the ancestry of the Savior. And thence from Obed to Jesse and from Jesse to David and from David to Jesus Christ. Who again by similar adoptive processes was heir to the Kingdom of David and heir to the Covenant of Abraham and of God through Joseph of Egypt.

Now one may ask, where in is the parallel that we of that covenant today are also of the lineage of the promised seed, Christ being already born? Well we become of that ancestral linage of Christ, through whom all men must be connected to God the Father. And we, rather than being progenitors of him, he becomes the progenitor unto us and we become as it were as being his children, that is children of the promised seed as children of Christ. We are as it were his progeny even his prodigy, being that 'wonder' of his performance unto God the Father. That by him and through him we become even as his is, children of God and heirs to the kingdom anew. We are his 'marvelous' 'work' and a 'wonder'. His working being to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man, which work is a marvelous work to behold how in that all men are saved and redeemed unto the Father through him. And the 'wonder', the 'prodigy' is found in the children of God, who have now become even as God, in the fulness and the glory of the Father.