A Thoughtful Gospel Principles. Chapter 12: The Atonement

Jesus Jesus declared he is the Messiah

Isaiah 61:1-3

“…the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord… to comfort all that mourn… to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness…”

From www.mormon.org/becauseofhim

The night before His death, Jesus visited a garden called Gethsemane, just east of the walls of Jerusalem. Leaving His Apostles at the edge of the garden, He trod through the dewy grass and past gnarled olive trees, walking farther inward. He had prepared His entire life for this moment, carefully following His Father’s commands in every step of His life, in every breath He took. Now the time had come. Even as He prayed, “Father, if it be thy will, remove this cup from me,” He accepted that this was His burden, and His alone, to bear. He was the only one who could free us from the awful consequences of our sins. In the coolness of the night, He knelt and began to pray. Though we don’t fully understand how, He willingly took upon Himself our sins and sorrows, suffering in body and spirit for every sin, every sadness, every mistake and imperfection of every single one of us. The pain that came was crushing, exquisite and infinite. Blood oozed from His pores as this impossibly heavy weight caused Him to tremble with pain. The cruelties of the next day have echoed throughout the ages: the cries of “Crucify Him!” as He stood before Pilate, wrists bound like a common criminal… At the summit of Golgotha, soldiers stretched Jesus’ arms along a wooden cross. Their hammers clanged dully as they drove thick nails into His palms and wrists... Tired, sweaty, bloodied, Jesus did only what a Redeemer could do: He forgave His murderers, comforted the criminal suffering next to Him, and trusted in His Father. When His sacrifice was complete, Jesus willed Himself to die as only God’s Son could do. He gave up the ghost, but His death wasn’t an end. It was the beginning for all of us. The empty tomb in that Jerusalem garden is a reminder that when the women who so lovingly cleaned, anointed, and wrapped his body came to observe the tomb, His body was gone, and in His place were two angels… “He is not here: for He is risen.”

 The church has released a new video emphasising the effect on both the next life and this life:

We often talk of the eternal impact of Christ’s sacrifice. We sometimes emphasise that it helps us live again with God in the next life. I want to focus the lesson on the very real and immediate effect of the atonement: the chance to live again today.

In John 10:10 Jesus said: “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”

In the March 2011 Ensign, Geoge Bonnet, an aid worker in Burundi, Rwanda and Somalia wrote:

There’s no doubt that the world’s conditions create many forms of despair, but none are beyond the reach of the Redeemer to heal. All of us can have the sure hope that through the Atonement of Christ our hearts can be bound up and made whole. With this knowledge, I could go on in my work, knowing that His efforts always succeed.

Elder Boyd K. Packer spoke of the importance of the Atonement now during the April 2001 conference:

For some reason, we think the Atonement of Christ applies only at the end of mortal life to redemption from the Fall, from spiritual death. It is much more than that. It is an ever-present power to call upon in everyday life. When we are racked or harrowed up or tormented by guilt or burdened with grief, He can heal us. While we do not fully understand how the Atonement of Christ was made, we can experience “the peace of God, which passeth all understanding.” 

…If Christ had not made His Atonement, the penalties for mistakes would be added one on the other. Life would be hopeless. But He willingly sacrificed in order that we may be redeemed. And He said, “Behold, he who has repented of his sins, the same is forgiven, and I, the Lord, remember them no more.” (D&C 58:42, Hebrews 17:10)

 Terryl Givens, a writer for the church, taught that we are natural products of our own choices but that through the process of choice and change we can try and try again to be better people. He said the following:

We are… the product of our own choices. God’s role in our salvation is to maximize our opportunities to choose… with a knowledge of what we are choosing, and the guarantee that our choices entail predictable consequences. The atonement allows us to choose, and then choose again, as often as we in good faith (that is, with sincere moral purpose) persevere in reorienting our moral compass according to True North.

The Book of Mormon tells the story of a man, Alma, who discovered the impact of embracing the principles of the atonement in life, not just in death (Alma 36).

Alma had an experience that made him realise the impact of his negative behaviour on other people and on himself. He realised that sin is the negative choices that are hurtful to ourselves, to others and to our relationship with God.

He said “I saw that I had rebelled against God.” He realised his example had led many people “away unto destruction.” He imagined, at that moment, having to meet God and the thought of it “did rack my soul with inexpressible horror.”

The pain of this negative behaviour on others made him want to stop existing completely. This wasn’t a fleeting grief. He says that “for three days and for three nights was I racked, even with the pains of a damned soul.”

And then something changed… while he was “racked with torment” he suddenly remembered a lesson taught by his father about “the coming of one Jesus Christ, a Son of God, to atone for the sins of the world.”

When he thought of this he said, in his heart, “O Jesus, thou Son of God, have mercy on me, who am in the gall of bitterness, and am encircled about by the everlasting chains of death. And now… when I thought this, I could remember my pains no more; yea, I was harrowed up by the memory of my sins no more. And oh, what joy, and what marvelous light I did behold; yea, my soul was filled with joy as exceeding as was my pain!”

Alma’s reaction to this wonderful experience was to celebrate it and share it. He worked, from that time forward, to help other people “…taste of the exceeding joy of which I did taste; that they might also be born of God, and be filled with the Holy Ghost… and… the Lord doth give me exceedingly great joy in the fruit of my labors.”

Like Elder Packer and many other religious writers, I don’t understand how the atonement works, but it doesn't matter to me. I wasn't there 2000 years ago. I didn't see him die, I didn't see the empty tomb. I can't know for certain what happened and how it worked. Even though I don’t know how it works, I know that it does work. 

I also don’t know for certain what happens after we die. I have a sincere hope that the atonement will work to enable our eternal opportunities. What I can be sure of is the effect of applying the principles of the atonement today. The atonement teaches us to recognise negative behaviour and the consequences on ourselves and others; feel genuine regret for the impact of that behaviour; make changes to rectify those impacts on ourselves and others; seek and feel forgiveness; embrace the opportunity to put the past behind us and keep moving forward to develop our best possible self.

The church website shared an article with the youth by Brad Wilcox. He spoke of embracing the atonement today when he said:

When a young pianist hits a wrong note, we don’t say he is not worthy to keep practicing. We don’t expect him to be flawless. We just expect him to keep trying. Perfection may be his ultimate goal, but for now we can be content with progress in the right direction. Why is this perspective so easy to see in the context of learning piano but so hard to see in the context of learning heaven? Too many are giving up… because they are tired of constantly feeling like they are falling short. They have tried in the past, but they continually feel like they are just not good enough. They don’t understand grace. There should never be just two options: perfection or giving up… Growth and development take time. Learning takes time. When we understand grace, we understand that God is long-suffering, that change is a process, and that repentance is a pattern in our lives. When we understand grace, we understand that the blessings of Christ’s Atonement are continuous and His strength is perfect in our weakness (see 2 Corinthians 12:9). When we understand grace, we can, as it says in the Doctrine and Covenants, “continue in patience until [we] are perfected” (D&C 67:13). God’s grace is sufficient. Jesus’s grace is sufficient. It is enough. It is all we need. Don’t quit. Keep trying. Don’t look for escapes and excuses. Look for the Lord and His perfect strength. Don’t search for someone to blame. Search for someone to help you. Seek Christ, and, as you do, you will feel the enabling power and divine help we call His amazing grace.

This process is part of an ongoing elevation. Growing in this life does, ultimately, lead to a hope of being able to grow in the next life. In an August 2012 talk, Elder Tad R. Callister quoted the writer C. S. Lewis who said:

God is not merely mending, not simply restoring a status quo. Redeemed humanity is to be something more glorious than unfallen humanity would have been…  And this super-added glory will, with true vicariousness, exalt all creatures… The command Be ye perfect is not idealistic gas. Nor is it a command to do the impossible. He is going to make us into creatures that can obey that command. He said that we were “gods” and He is going to make good His words. . . . The process will be long and in parts very painful; but that is what we are in for. Nothing less. He meant what He said.