Atonement

Talks

Quotes

Nothing compares in any way in importance with the most transcendent of all events as the atoning sacrifice of our Lord.  It is the most important single thing that has ever occurred in the entire history of created things; it is the rock foundation upon which the gospel and all other things rest.  Indeed our prophet Joseph Smith said, “all things which pertain to our religion are only appendages to it.” – Bruce R. McConkie

Christ could have stopped his grief at any point, but he thought of you and kept going.  He thought you were worth it.

“O God of second chances and new beginnings – here I am again.”

Jesus Christ died so that the men who killed him could receive forgiveness and live with him forever.

While no other success of ours can compensate for our failures within or outside our homes, there is a success that can compensate when we cannot, after we conscientiously do all we can.  That success is the Atonement of Jesus Christ, which can mend what for us is beyond repair. (Bruce C. Hafen – Beauty for Ashes – The Atonement of Jesus Christ)

“There is a critical point that each of us needs to understand.  Sin is not the only thing covered by the Atonement of Jesus Christ.  The Savior’s victory can compensate not only for our sins, but also for our inadequacies; not only for our deliberate mistakes but also for our sins committed in ignorance, our errors of judgment, and our unavoidable imperfections. We make many judgment – call choices that lead to pain or trouble – either for ourselves of for other people.  Some of our judgments are wise, and some are not so wise.  Think of accidents caused by carelessness, such as dozing at the wheel.  They can have devastating effects, as tragic as deliberate violence.  Think of unkind words and forgotten promises between spouses or among family members.  Such incidents are never admirable, but not all of them are the result of conscious sin.  Still, some of life’s uglier consequences may flow from them.

Think also of the tragedy of what we might call a pure accident.  I know of a man who ended the life of a college student at an intersection when the brakes on the man’s pickup truck failed through no fault of his own.  He returned to the scene of the accident alone, night after night, weeping and pleading with God to help him know what he could possibly do to make up for this terrible loss of life.  “I can never forgive myself,” he lamented.  He felt heartrending guilt, but in what he had done he found neither true sin nor real relief.

We might think of the degree of our personal fault for the bad things that happen in our lives as a continuum ranging from sin to adversity with the degree of our fault dropping from high at one end of the spectrum to zero at the other.  Between the poles of sin and adversity along this fault-continuum are such intermediate points as unwise choices and hasty judgments, in which it is often unclear just how much personal fault we bear for the bitter fruits we may taste or cause others to taste.  Bitterness may taste the same, whatever its source, and it can destroy our peace, break our hearts, and separate us from God.” – Bruce Hafen

The prayer in Gethsemane made our prayers of forgiveness possible.

“We all make mistakes.  We can all identify with Nephi when he said, “O wretched man that I am!  Yea, my heart sorroweth because of my flesh; my soul grieveth because of mine iniquities.  I am encompassed about, because of the temptations and the sins which do so easily beset me.  And when I desire to rejoice, my heart groaneth because of my sins; nevertheless, I know in whom I have trusted.” (2 Nephi 4:17-19)

“Even though Nephi was discouraged and depressed by his inability to live perfectly, he trusted the Savior to get him to the kingdom anyway.  He trusted the Savior and was confident in the Savior’s love.  Nephi was saying, “No, I’m not perfect.  Yes, my faults bother me, and yes, I wish I did a better job.  Nevertheless, I have faith in Jesus Christ, I trust him. He says he can get me into his kingdom despite my imperfections, and I believe him.  I know he loves me, and I trust him to continue saving me from all my enemies.” (Stephen Robinson Believing Christ pg 22)

If we had any idea of its (the atonement) great significance, we would stand in awe and not even consider sin as an alternative. – Howard W. Hunter

Christ is the dispenser of both justice and mercy.  Mercy because he performed the atonement; justice because he is a God and a God must be just or he would cease to be God.

Jesus Christ – You can’t know him until you come to need him – Chris Nelson

We many never comprehend howChrist performed the Atonement, but we must understand why he did it.

I once heard a story about a woman from Europe who scrimped and saved for a voyage to America.  Because of her limited resources, she carefully rationed the food she brought throughout the voyage.  Toward the end of the trip, however, she ran out of food and politely asked the captain for help.  He informed her that food had been included in the price of her ticket and would have been provided free of charge throughout the journey.

I think that many of us will get to the end of our lives and feel much like his woman did.  After spending years and years white –knuckling it, trying to overcome our sins and weaknesses by ourselves, paying the price for our mistakes, hoping that we’ll somehow be “good enough” to be saved, we will realize that the price has already been paid. – Shannon Williams

Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles said, “I suspect that we are much more familiar with the nature of the redeeming power of the Atonement than we are with the enabling power of the Atonement.” He suggested that most of us understand that Christ came to earth to die for us, to pay the price for our sins, to make us clean, to redeem us from our fallen state, and to enable every person to be resurrected from the dead.

But, Elder Bednar said, “I frankly do not think many of us ‘get it’ concerning the enabling and strengthening aspect of the Atonement, and I wonder if we mistakenly believe we must make the journey from good to better and become a saint all by ourselves through sheer grit, willpower, and discipline, and with our obviously limited capacities.”

The belief that through our own “sheer grit, willpower, and discipline” we can manage just about anything seems to be widespread these days.  This simply is not true.  Heavenly Father and the Savior can inspire, comfort, and strengthen us in our time of need, if we remember to cast our burdens at Their feet.  (The Enabling Power of the Atonement by Carolyn J. Rasmus – based on an address given at the Brigham Young University Women’s Conference in Provo, Utah, USA, on May 5, 2006.)

Colleen C. Harrison in her book He Did Deliver Me From Bondage talks about spiritual dyslexia.  “In Moroni 10:32 it plainly states “come unto Christ, and be perfected in him,” before it continues with the otherwise impossible charge to “deny yourselves of all ungodliness.”  Some Latter-Day Saints, however, believe “Deny yourselves of all ungodliness and (then) come unto Christ.”  Having read it in that order, we launch off on a campaign of self-improvement, sincerely striving, knuckles white, to deny ourselves of all ungodliness.  With set jaw and a countenance that would scare a child, we set about to “clean house” ourselves, meanwhile ignoring the gentle knock of Him who is like “a refiner’s fire, and like fuller’s soap” (3 Nephi 24:2)

Our church leaders have always stressed self-reliance in temporal concerns.  But often we misinterpret this to mean that we must also be self-reliant in our own spiritual salvation.  We’ve all heard a two or three-year old yell “I do it by myself!”  As they strive for independence, this is to be expected.  However in adults, this attitude is known as pride.”

“The first step in submission is recognizing our own nothingness.  Like Moses said after seeing the burning bush, “Man is nothing, which thing I had never supposed.” (Moses 1:10). That is what this life is all about – not to teach us self-reliance and self-sufficiency, but to bring us to a place of complete humility; to consider ourselves fools before God.” (Harrison, He Did Deliver Me From Bondage, pg. 11)

“We are here on earth for the very purpose of either breaking or softening our hearts in order that they might be turned to God and godliness.  We can either resist the laws of God, in which case our hearts will inevitably be broken, or we can try with all our hearts to live the law and gradually realize that no matter how hard we try, we can’t do it perfectly.  Only after truly internalizing the fact of our own nothingness and powerlessness without God, can we hope to be endowed with the power of God.  Meanwhile, whether we come to a broken heart by sinning, being sinned against or struggling futilely to perfect ourselves, we must all come to a place where we are humble enough to acknowledge that without “Him we are nothing and can never answer the “ends of the law’ ourselves.” (Harrison, He Did Deliver Me From Bondage, pg. 19)

When we understand the enabling power of the atonement, we will be changed; we will have access to strength beyond our natural abilities; our weaknesses can be turned to strengths, and we can know that “in the strength of the Lord’ we can “do all things.”

In Ether 12:27 we read, “And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness.  I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.”

Wonderful excerpts from the book He Did Deliver Me From Bondage –by Colleen Harrison. “Do you have a problem?  An insurmountable problem of any nature?  Is there some aspect of your life in which you are out of control, unable to “govern” yourself or your life? Is it alcohol or some other drug, legal or illegal?  Is it a compulsive sexual behavior pattern?  Is it your weight or a disordered behavior towards food and eating?  Is it compulsive use of money?  Or excessive work commitments that consume you and your family’s lives?  Or is your downfall a desperate obsession with trying to help and control and fix other people and their mistakes, cover all their needs or die trying?” (Harrison, pg. 96).  You have two alternatives – you can try to overcome it yourself, or recognize your powerlessness and access the power of the Savior’s Atonement.

“On our own, the best we can accomplish is a sort of “white knuckle” uptight feeling of resistance to our desire to sin.  The fact is that internally, nothing has been changed, and we still want to “do it” (whatever our sin is) just one more time.  This state of constant struggle is not the best we can hope for.  Life was not meant to be a long, slow, torturous journey of constant tension, fear and guilt.” (Harrison, pg 98-99)

Now, think of the alternative.  “Wouldn’t it be wonderful to stop overeating simply because you have no more desire to do it?  Wouldn’t it be a miracle if you could stop losing your temper, not because you bit your tongue or went somewhere alone and slugged a pillow, but because you have no more disposition to strike out at others?  Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you could live on a budget, not because you had no charge cards, but because you didn’t desire to overuse them?  Or to stop looking at pornography on the Internet, not because you’ve installed a content filter or cancelled your service, but because you have no more desire to look at it.  And finally, …wouldn’t it be wonderful to know that “peace which passeth understanding?” (Phillipians 4:7) (Harrison, pg 95)

The only way to achieve long term-success is to go to the root of the problem. True self -mastery comes from turning our “self” over to the Master.(Harrison, pg 17-18)

Overcoming our weaknesses by turning our lives over to the Savior is not only the best way; it’s the only way.  Just like it says in Mosiah 3:17 “There shall be no other name given nor any other way nor means whereby salvation can come unto the children of men, only in and through the name of Christ, the Lord Omnipotent.”

But you must come to him.  “God will always respect our will.  He will send the Holy Spirit to guide us.  He may inspire others to help us.  Over and over, He will attempt to persuade us to His truth, but He will do nothing to, or even for, us without our permission, without our consent.  He will never force us.” (Harrison, pg. 101)

“Christ stands ready with outstretched arms as He waits for us to come unto Him and be encircled in the arms of His love.  It is here that we can be healed, nourished, loved, enabled, strengthened, and made whole.  Although the trial may be hard and the relief may not be immediate, we need to learn to allow God to help carry our burdens.  We can do this by turning to Him regularly to seek His enabling power.” (David A. Bednar – The Enabling power of the Atonement, Ensign March 2013)

Each week we come before the Lord as we prepare for the sacrament and say essentially, “Heavenly Father, I wasn’t perfect again this week, but I repent of my sins and reaffirm my commitment to keep all the commandments.  I promise to go back and try again with all my heart, might, mind and strength.  I still want and need the cleansing that comes through faith, repentance, and baptism.  Please extend my contract, my covenant of baptism, and grant me the continued blessings of the Atonement and the companionship of the Holy Ghost.” (Stephen Robinson, Believing Christ pg 52)

Too many of us are saying to ourselves, “When I’ve done it, when I’ve perfected myself, when I’ve made myself completely righteous, then I’ll be worthy of the Atonement.  Then Christ can do his work and exalt me.”  But this will never happen, for it puts the cart before the horse.  It’s like saying, “When my tumor is gone, then I’ll call the doctor.  I’ll be ready for him then.”  This is not how things are designed to work either in medicine or in the gospel.  “They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.” (Matt 9:12) Stephen Robinson, Believing Christ

Let me share some excerpts from a talk given by Elder Craig A Cardon in April 2013: “We do well to remember that with very few exceptions, the Lord’s “seventy times seven” does not limit forgiveness according to the seriousness of the sin…….He has said that “he who sins against the greater light shall receive the greater condemnation.”  Yet, in His mercy, He allows for improvement over time rather than demanding immediate perfection.  Even with the multitude of sins occasioned by the weakness of mortality, as often as we repent and seek His forgiveness, He forgives again and again…..As we consider our own lives and the lives of our loved ones and acquaintances, we should be equally willing to forgive ourselves and others.”

That is why it’s called the infinite atonement.  It’s not like a warranty we receive when we buy a new appliance that has certain restrictions.  It is infinite – there is nothing the Atonement of Jesus Christ cannot heal.”

One of my favorite stories is called “The Scars of Life.”  To paraphrase, there was a boy in south Florida who decided to go swimming.  He jumped off the dock into a swimming hole just as an alligator began to swim toward the shore.  The boy’s father saw it and tried to warn his son, but was too late.  Just as the father grabbed the boy’s arms, the alligator grabbed his legs.  A tug of war ensued.  A nearby farmer saw the commotion, grabbed his gun and shot the alligator.  Later, a newspaper reporter interviewed the boy and asked him to show him the scars on his leg.  The young man did so and then said, “But you should see the scars on my arms –  from where my father dug his fingernails in to save me.”  Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ will never let go of you. 

“We do not know, we cannot tell, no mortal mind can conceive, the full import of what Christ did in Gethsemane.  We know he sweat great gouts of blood from every pore as he drained the dregs of that bitter cup his Father had given him.  We know he suffered, both body and spirit, more than it is possible for man to suffer, except it be unto death.  We know that in some way, incomprehensible to us, his suffering satisfied the demands of justice, ransomed penitent souls from the pains and penalties of sin, and made mercy available to those who believe in his holy name.” (“The Purifying Power of Gethsemane,” Elder Bruce R. McConkie)

Alma 26:12 “Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things.

We need to understand that Christ doesn’t atone for all of us at once, en masse.  He atones for us one person at a time.  He cleanses us one heart at a time, and He loves us one at a time as choice and unique individuals.  (Colleen Harrison He Did Deliver Me From Bondage pg 35)

But behold, he did deliver them because they did humble themselves before him, and because they cried mightily unto him he did deliver them out of bondage; and thus doth the Lord work with his power in all cases among the children of men, extending the arm of mercy towards them that put their trust in him. – Mosiah 29:20\

“Beginning in the spiritual anguish of the Garden of Gethsemane, moving to the Crucifixion on a cross at Calvary, and concluding on a beautiful Sunday morning inside a donated tomb, sinless, pure, and holy man, the very Son of God Himself, did what no other deceased person had ever done nor ever could do.  Under His own power, He rose from death, never to have His body separated from His spirit again. Of His own volition, He shed the burial linen with which He had been bound, carefully putting the burial napkin that had been placed over His face “in a place by itself”, the scripture says.

“That first Easter sequence of Atonement and Resurrection constitutes the most consequential moment, the most generous gift, the most excruciating pain, and the most majestic manifestation of pure love ever to be demonstrated in the history of this world.  Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God, suffered, died and rose from death in order that He could, like lightning in a summer storm, grasp us as we fall, hold us with His might, and through our obedience to His commandments, lift up to eternal life.” – Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, Gen Conf. April 2015

Mosiah 26:30 “Yea, and as often as my people repent will I forgive them their trespasses against me.”

The depth and breadth and height of His willingness to work with us are infinite, limited only by our willingness (or lack of willingness) to work with Him.  Again and again in the scriptures we find the testimony that His love will outlast the process of perfecting us, no matter how long it takes. (Colleen Harrison, He Did Deliver Me From Bondage, pg. 137)

We must realize that it takes time to rid ourselves of the “old ways.”  Our nature has been changed, not our past.  Neither have our bodies been changed.  We are still subject to hunger, fatigue, etcetera.  We must give ourselves allowance for these imperfections and be willing to admit them and accept them.  When we relapse we must not get discouraged or despair that these principles do not work.  We must keep trusting in God, realizing that often His pattern is to ease our burden before relieving our bondage altogether. (Colleen Harrison He Did Deliver Me From Bondage pg A 17)

Stephen Robinson in his book “Believing Christ” says the following: Isaiah 1:18 “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord; though your sings be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” I would like to expand upon this scripture just a little bit to make sure that the significance of it doesn’t get past us.  What the Lord is saying here is this: “It doesn’t matter what you did.  Whatever it was, no matter how horrible or vile, is not the issue.  The issue here is that whatever your sin was or is, I can erase it, I can clean you up and make you innocent, pure and worthy, and I can do it today, I can do it now.”

Unfortunately, there are many members of the church who simply do not believe this.  Though they claim to have testimonies of Christ and of his gospel, they reject the witness of the scriptures and of the prophets about the good news of Christ’s atonement.  Often these people naively hold on to mutually contradictory propositions without even realizing the nature of the contradiction.  For example, they may believe that the church is true, that Jesus is the Christ, and that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, while at the same time refusing to accept the possibility of their own complete forgiveness and eventual exaltation in the kingdom of God.  They believe in Christ, but they do not believe Christ.  He says, “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.  I can make you pure and worthy and celestial, “ and they answer back, “No, you can’t.  The gospel only works for other people; it won’t work for me.”

The first Article of Faith specifies that we must have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.  We often think that having faith in Christ means believing in his identity as the Son of God and the Savior of the world.  But believing in Jesus’ identity as the Christ is only the first half of it.  The other half is believing in his ability, in his power to cleanse and to save – to make unworthy sons and daughters worthy.  Not only must we believe that he is who he says he is, we must also believe that he can do what he says he can do.” ( Stephen Robinson Believing Christ pg 9-10)

“He, by choice, accepted the penalty for all mankind for the sum total of all wickedness and depravity; for brutality, immortality, perversion and corruption, for addiction; for the killings and torture and terror – for all of it that ever had been or all that ever would be enacted upon this earth.”  – Boyd K. Packer

President Monson said, “Look to the lighthouse of the Lord, There is no fog so dense, no night so dark, no gale so strong, no mariner so lost but what its beacon light can rescue.” 

Colleen Harrison said, “When the pain of the problem gets worse than the pain of the solution, you’ll be ready to change. (If you are puzzled over the meaning of that statement and need an example of what it means, just think how desperately ready to face labor and deliver the ninth month of pregnancy makes most women.) In other words, if you find yourself not really willing to put forth the effort to (repent), don’t worry.  Life will eventually bring you to a place of readiness to accept the truth that God and His ways are the only solution that works.” (Harrison, He Did Deliver Me From Bondage  pg 11)  You can choose to be humble or be compelled to be humble.

David A. Bednar said,  “Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have the power and the desire to help us overcome our feelings of grief, despair, inadequacy, discouragement, pain and temptation.  They constantly offer us comfort, peace, hope, love, and strength.  They can heal our feelings of fear, distrust, anger, self-doubt, sorrow, discouragement, and inadequacy.  They can be the best resource we have to help us get through difficult days and trying times.  If we but come unto Christ, He will lead us to the Father and a fullness of joy in Their presence. (The Enabling Power of the Atonement, Ensign March 2013)