The Atonemnet of Jesus Christ

The following is the text of a Sacrament Meeting Talk presented by me on 19 April 2009 at the Danville, IL Ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:

Brothers and Sisters, I have been asked to speak today about the most important event in the history of the world. I can say that it is the most important event because without it, there would have been no purpose in creating the Earth.

Because we are all human, we all sin. Sin is lawlessness (1 Jn. 3: 4); it is a refusal on men’s part to submit to the law of God (Rom. 8: 7). By transgression man loses control over his own will and becomes the slave of sin (Rom. 7: 14), and so incurs the penalty of spiritual death, which is alienation from God (Rom. 6: 23). And because sin separates us from the presence of our Heavenly Father, it was necessary that there should be an atonement, in other words, a way provided whereby our sins could be forgiven. From the time of Adam to the death of Jesus Christ, true believers were instructed to offer animal sacrifices to the Lord. These sacrifices were symbolic of the forthcoming death of Jesus Christ, and were done by faith in him (Moses 5: 5-8).

It is important to note at this point that during the time that animal sacrifice was practiced, the blood of the slaughtered animal (usually a lamb) did not effect a forgiveness of sins. The sacrifice of the lamb was done in similitude of the atonement that would come later. Jesus Christ, as the Only Begotten Son of God and the only sinless person to live on this earth, was the only one capable of making an atonement for mankind. By his selection and foreordination in the Grand Council before the world was formed, his divine Sonship, his sinless life, the shedding of his blood in the garden of Gethsemane, his death on the cross and subsequent bodily resurrection from the grave, he made a perfect atonement for all mankind.

Our sins were bought for a price, the most expensive price ever paid for anything. Our sins were paid for by the suffering and death of the Savior. I want to spend a little time this morning talking about what the Savior went through for us.

After He and His disciples left the upper room, “…he came out, and went, as he was wont, to the Mount of Olives; and his disciples also followed him” (Luke 22:39).

“And he was withdrawn from them about a stone’s cast, and kneeled down, and prayed,
Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done” (Luke 22:41-42).

But it was not the Father’s will that the cup should be removed; so the Savior began the process of taking upon himself the sins of all the world. We cannot completely understand how He was able to do it, but, somehow, the weight and burden of all the sins that had ever been committed or that would ever be committed were laid upon his shoulders.

In returning, for a moment, to the practice of animal sacrifice, we all understand that when the lamb was brought to the altar, the lamb had no comprehension or understanding of what was happening. But I believe that in order for Christ to completely atone for the sins of the world, it was necessary for Him to understand them. I believe that it was necessary for Him to, somehow, experience the horror and terror and guilt and shame of all the murders, adultery, tortures, and cruelty, all the evil and depravity that had or ever would take place from the time of Adam until the end of the world.

And He experienced not only the evil of the world, but also all the pains and suffering that all the children of Our Heavenly Father experience in mortality:

And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities. (Alma 7:12)

How great was His suffering? Luke tells us: “And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground” (Luke 22:44).

In the Doctrine and Covenants the Savior, Himself, explains,

Which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit—and would that I might not drink the bitter cup, and shrink—
Nevertheless, glory be to the Father, and I partook and finished my preparations unto the children of men. (D&C 19: 18-19)

Jesus Christ went through all that for two reasons. The first is because it was an assignment He accepted voluntarily from Heavenly Father. The second reason is because He loves us.

The atonement brought about the resurrection of all mankind. The atonement also makes it possible for our sins to be forgiven and for us to become worthy to someday return to the presence of our Father. The first of these, the resurrection, is unconditional—every individual that has ever lived will rise from the dead with an immortal body. The atonement is conditional, however, so far as each person’s individual sins are concerned, and touches every one to the degree that he has faith in Jesus Christ, repents of his sins, and obeys the gospel.

Every sin that has ever been committed or ever will be committed has been paid for. No matter what evil any of us have done or are going to do, the Savior has already suffered for it. But His pain and suffering, His atonement is of no effect to us unless we accept Him as our personal Savior.

Brothers and Sisters, as your brother in the Gospel of Jesus Christ and as a bearer of the Melchizedek Priesthood, I call upon all of us to examine ourselves daily to see what needs to be corrected in our own lives, to ask Heavenly Father in the name of Jesus Christ to “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us,” and to make the changes in our lives that we need to make so that we can be worthy to return to our Father in Heaven.

I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.