Mormon Musings

“The repenting sinner must suffer for his sins, but this suffering has a different purpose than punishment or payment. Its purpose is  change. ”  Elder Dallin H. Oaks ( The Lord’s Way  [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1991], 223; emphasis in original).

Jesus, our Perfect Exemplar, was astonishingly exemplary even in the hours surrounding the awful but glorious Atonement. The intrigue of Pilate and Herod, for instance, who had earlier been "at enmity" but who "made friends together" because of Jesus, presented opportunities for Jesus to "shrink" from going through with the Atonement (Luke 23:12; D&C 19:18). Herod, who had been desirous "to see [Jesus] of a long season," "hoped to have seen some miracle done by him" (Luke 23:8). Yet Jesus, under heavy questioning from Herod, "answered him nothing" (Luke 23:9; see also Mosiah 14:7). Jesus' integrity and intellect were not for sale! Amid temptation, he maintained his integrity--even in the midst of an opportunity that a lesser individual would have seized to reduce his suffering and to increase the praise of men. Ironically, when Jesus' enemies came for him, the Light of the World, they came with lanterns and t

http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2012/10/the-first-great-commandment?lang=eng&media=video

“The great Mediator asks for our repentance  not  because we must ‘repay’ him in exchange for his paying our debt to justice, but because repentance initiates a developmental process that, with the Savior’s help, leads us along the path to a saintly character”  Elder Bruce C. Hafen ( The Broken Heart  [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1989], 149; emphasis in original).

"I love the Savior. I feel that as he hung upon the cross and looked out over the dark scene, he saw more than mocking soldiers and cruel taunters. He saw more than crying women and fearful friends. He remembered and saw even more than women at wells or crowds on hills or throngs by seashores. He saw more, much more. He, who knows all and has all power, saw through the stream of time. His huge, magnanimous, loving soul encompassed all eternity and took in all people and all times and all sins and all forgiveness and all everything. Yes, he saw down to you and to me and provided us an all-encompassing opportunity to escape the terrible consequences of death and sin.” (Elder John H. Groberg, "The Beauty and Importance of the Sacrament," Ensign, May 1989, 40)

“The Savior, as a member of the Godhead, knows each of us personally… In the garden and on the cross, Jesus saw each of us and not only bore our sins, but also experienced our deepest feelings so that he would know how to comfort and strengthen us...  “The Savior’s atonement in the garden and on the cross is intimate as well as infinite.  Infinite in that it spans the eternities.  Intimate in that the Savior felt each person’s pains, sufferings, and sicknesses.  Consequently, he knows how to carry our sorrows and relieve our burdens that we might be healed from within, made whole persons, and receive everlasting joy in his kingdom”   (emphasis added, Elder Merrill J. Bateman, “The Power to Heal from Within,” Ensign, May 1995, 14).

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I sense in a measure the meaning of His Atonement. I cannot comprehend it all. It is so vast in its reach and yet so intimate in its effect that it defies comprehension. President Gordon B. Hinckley 

A short while before Gethsemane and Calvary, Jesus prayed, "Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour." Then, as if in soliloquy, he said, "But for this cause came I unto this hour" (John 12:27). The awful weight of the Atonement had begun to descend upon him. We next find him in Gethsemane. And they came to a place which was named Gethsemane: and he saith to his disciples, Sit ye here, while I shall pray. And he taketh with him Peter and James and John, and began to be sore amazed, and to be very heavy.  [Mark 14:32–33] The Greek for "very heavy" is "depressed, dejected, in anguish." Just as the Psalmist had foreseen, the Savior was "full of heaviness" (Psalms 69:20). The heavy weight of the sins of all mankind were falling upon him. He had been intellectually and otherwise prepared from ages past for this task. He is the creator of this and other worlds. He knew the plan of salva

The central purpose of all scripture is to fill our souls with faith in God the Father and in His Son, Jesus Christ---faith that They exist; faith in the Father's plan for our immortality and eternal life; faith in the Atonement and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, which animates this plan of happiness; faith to make the gospel of Jesus Christ our way of life; and faith to come to know 'the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom [He has] sent' (John 17:3)." Elder D. Todd Christofferson (Ensign, May 2010, 34)

When  Jesus comes  again  in  rem inding  red attire, there will b e  a spectacular solar display a nd  stars will fall from their  places  in  the heavens. What wil l  then be evoked will not be an   exclamation over the solar di splay. Rather,  from human lips  praise will flow for Jesus' lov ing-kindness,  for His perfect  goodness. Then, the scriptures a ssure us  and tell us how long w e  will go on praising Jesus fo r  that Atonement: "forever  and  ever." (Mosiah 2:24; D&C 128: 23.)  The one thing He will men tion  when He comes again in maj esty  and power will have nothin g  to do with how He suffered in   the scourging, nothing to do  with the vinegar and gall or an y  of those things. Instead, His   voice will be heard to say, " I  have trodden the winepress al one,  and none was with me" ( Isa.  63:3).  Incredible alonene ss  lay at the heart of the Grea t  Atonement, and Jesus endured  it, because He let His will be swallowed up in the will of 

Can we, even in the depths of   disease, tell Him anything at  all about suffering? In ways we   cannot comprehend, our sickne sses  and infirmities were borne   by Him even before they were b orne  by us. The very weight of   our combined sins caused Him t o  descend below all. We have ne ver  been, nor will we be, in de pths  such as He has known. Thu s  His Atonement made perfect Hi s  empathy and His mercy and His   capacity to succor us, for whi ch  we can be everlastingly gra teful  as He tutors us in our tr ials.  There was no ram in the t hicket  at Calvary to spare Him ,  this Friend of Abraham and Is aac.  Neal A. Maxwell (Even As I Am, pp.  116- 17.)

Diluted Christianity is not C hristianity,  it is a feeble att empt  to have Christianity with out  Christ, for it denies the c entral  service of Jesus' life— the  Atonement. Those who call t hemselves  Christians but deny  the divinity of Jesus cannot se em  to tolerate those of us who  accept and proclaim the divini ty  of Christ. No one, brothers  and sisters, would pay us much  heed if we were merely nonsmok ing,  non-drinking humanists. Wit hout  acknowledging the reality  of the Resurrection and the Ato nement,  believing in the minis try  of Jesus would mean slumpin g  into the very Sadduceeism whi ch  Jesus himself denounced. Neal A. Maxwell (" All  Hell Is Moved" p.  17 7.)

Jesus' marvelous meekness pre vented  any "root of bitterness"   from "springing up" in Him ( Heb.  12:15). Ponder the Savior 's  precious words about the Ato nement  after He passed through  it. There is no mention of the  vinegar. No mention of the sco urging.  No mention of having be en  struck. No mention of having   been spat upon. He does decla re  that He "suffer[ed] both bod y  and spirit" in an exquisitene ss  which we simply cannot compr ehend.    (D&C 19:18; see also v.   15.) Neal A. Maxwell (Ensign, May 1989, p.  64. )

There will be no end to the r ipples  of the Resurrection resu lting  from the infinite  Atonement.  Neal A. Maxwell, (Ensign, November 1988, p.   33.)

Nobody becomes perfect in this life…Becoming perfect in Christ is a process.  We begin by keeping the commandments today, and we keep more of them tomorrow…We can become perfect in some minor things…if we chart a course of becoming perfect, and, step by step and phase by phase, are perfecting our souls by overcoming the world, then it is absolutely guaranteed—there is no question whatsoever about it—we shall gain eternal life…If we chart a course and follow it to the best of our ability in this life, then when we go out of this life we’ll continue in exactly the same course…The Prophet Joseph Smith told us that there are many things that people have to do, even after the grave, to work out their salvation. Bruce R. McConkie

His infinite Atonement affected every age, every dispensation and every person (See 2 Nephi 9:7; 25:16).  Hence the appropriate symbolism of Him bleeding at each and every pore--not just some--in order that "as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." (1 Corinthians 15:22). Neal A. Maxwell, Ensign November 1988, p. 33

Ironically, during the moments when in agony He was benefitting billions upon billions of mortals, He was attended by only a faithful few. Neal A. Maxwell, Ensign, November 1988, p. 33

Only He could have carried it all.  I thank the Savior personally for bearing all which I added to His hemorrhaging at every pore for all of humanity on Gethsemane.  I thank Him for bearing what I added to the decibels of His piercing soul-cry atone Calvary. Neal A. Maxwell, Ensign, May 1988, p. 9

Being sinless Himself, Jesus  could not have suffered for per sonal  sin nor known what such   a gony  is—unless He took upon Hi m  our sins, not only to redeem  us and to save us, but also in  order that He might know how " according  to the flesh . . . to   succor his people according to   their infirmities." (Alma 7: 12.)  Neal A. Maxwell (All These Things Shall Gi ve  Thee Experience, p.  35.)