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Showing posts with the label Atonement

the promise of complete forgivness and healing (Packer)

Just as chalk can be removed from a blackboard, with sincere repentance the effects of our transgression can be erased through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. That promise applies in every case.   President Boyd K. Packer, October 2013 General Conference   http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2013/10/the-key-to-spiritual-protection?lang=eng

the Savior can heal our spiritual wounds (Bednar)

"From the Atonement of the Savior flows the soothing salve that can heal our spiritual wounds and remove guilt. However, this salve can only be applied through the principles of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, repentance, and consistent obedience. The results of sincere repentance are peace of conscience, comfort, and spiritual healing and renewal." —David A. Bednar, " We Believe in Being Chaste "

changed by Grace (Wilcox)

I have born-again Christian friends who say to me, “You Mormons are trying to  earn  your way to heaven.” I say, “No, we are not earning heaven. We are  learning  heaven. We are preparing for it (see D&C 78:7). We are practicing for it.” They ask me, “Have you been saved by grace?” I answer, “Yes. Absolutely, totally, completely, thankfully—yes!” Then I ask them a question that perhaps they have not fully considered: “Have you been  changed  by grace?” They are so excited about being saved that maybe they are not thinking enough about what comes next. They are so happy the debt is paid that they may not have considered why the debt existed in the first place. Latter-day Saints know not only what Jesus has saved us from but also what He has saved us for. As my friend Brett Sanders puts it, “A life impacted by grace eventually begins to look like Christ’s life.” As my friend Omar Canals puts it, “While many Christians view Christ’s suffering as only a huge favor He d

development of saintly character (Hafen)

“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).

Christ's Grace is Sufficient to Transform Us (Wilcox)

Christ’s arrangement with us is similar to a mom providing music lessons for her child. Mom pays the piano teacher. How many know what I am talking about? Because Mom pays the debt in full, she can turn to her child and ask for something. What is it? Practice! Does the child’s practice pay the piano teacher? No. Does the child’s practice repay Mom for paying the piano teacher? No. Practicing is how the child shows appreciation for Mom’s incredible gift. It is how he takes advantage of the amazing opportunity Mom is giving him to live his life at a higher level. Mom’s joy is found not in getting repaid but in seeing her gift used—seeing her child improve. And so she continues to call for practice, practice, practice. If the child sees Mom’s requirement of practice as being too overbearing (“Gosh, Mom, why do I need to practice? None of the other kids have to practice! I’m just going to be a professional baseball player anyway!”), perhaps it is because he doesn’t yet see with mom’s

Christ's Grace is Sufficient to Cover Us (Wilcox)

A BYU student once came to me and asked if we could talk. I said, “Of course. How can I help you?” She said, “I just don’t get grace.” I responded, “What is it that you don’t understand?” She said, “I know I need to do my best and then Jesus does the rest, but I can’t even do my best.” She then went on to tell me all the things she  should  be doing because she’s a Mormon that she wasn’t doing. She continued, “I know that I have to do my part and then Jesus makes up the difference and fills the gap that stands between my part and perfection. But who fills the gap that stands between where I am now and my part?” She then went on to tell me all the things that she  shouldn’t  be doing because she’s a Mormon, but she was doing them anyway. Finally I said, “Jesus doesn’t make  up  the difference. Jesus makes all  the difference. Grace is not about filling gaps. It is about filling us.” Seeing that she was still confused, I took a piece of paper and drew two d

Nibley on the Atonement

HUGH NIBLEY, “The Atonement of Jesus Christ,”  Ensign,  July, Aug., Sept., Oct., 1990:                                                                                                PART 1: http://www.lds.org/ensign/1990/07/the-atonement-of-jesus-christ-part-1 PART 2:  http://www.lds.org/ensign/1990/08/the-atonement-of-jesus-christ-part-2 PART 3:  http://www.lds.org/ensign/1990/09/the-atonement-of-jesus-christ-part-3 PART 4:  http://www.lds.org/ensign/1990/10/the-atonement-of-jesus-christ-part-4

“RENEW THE PROCESS OF FORGIVENESS” (Mosiah 4:3) (Packer)

“The sacrament renews the process of  forgiveness . Every Sunday when the sacrament is served, that is a ceremony to renew the process of forgiveness. … Every Sunday you cleanse yourself so that, in due time, when you die your spirit will be clean.” President Boyd K. Packer - Mine Errand from the Lord  (2008), 196; quoted in  Ensign,  Nov. 2012, 105 see Mosiah 4:3

"infinite love for us..." (Benson)

“No mortal being had the power or the capability to redeem all other mortals from their lost and fallen condition, nor could any other voluntarily forfeit his life and thereby bring to pass a universal resurrection for other mortals.  Only Jesus Christ was able and willing to accomplish such a redeeming act of love.  We may never understand nor comprehend in mortality how He accomplished what He did, but we must not fail to understand why He did what He did.  Everything He did was prompted by his unselfishness, infinite love for us.” President Ezra Taft Benson - Ensign , Nov. 1983, 7

the Love of Christ (Romans 8)

35  Who shall separate us from the  a love  of Christ?  shall  b tribulation , or distress, or  c persecution , or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?   36  As it is written, For thy sake we are  a killed  all the day long; we are accounted as  b sheep  for the slaughter.   37  Nay, in all these things we are  a more  than  b conquerors  through him that loved us.   38  For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,   39  Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to a separate  us from the  b love  of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:35-39

the merits, mercy and grace of the Holy Messiah (2 Nephi 2:8-9)

Wherefore, how great the importance to make these things known unto the inhabitants of the earth, that they may know that there is no flesh that can dwell in the presence of God,  a save  it be through the merits, and mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah, who  b layeth  down his life according to the flesh, and taketh it again by the power of the Spirit, that he may bring to pass the  c resurrection  of the dead, being the first that should rise. Wherefore, he is the firstfruits unto God, inasmuch as he shall make  a intercession  for all the children of men; and they that believe in him shall be saved. 2 Nephi 2:8-9

the storms of our lives (Maxwell)

The storm fronts that come into our lives will not last forever.  We can surmount the drifts of difficulties and we can hold out if we maintain our perspective and faith.  Just as we know there is sun just beyond today's cloud cover, so we must not doubt the continued, watchful, and tutoring presence of The Son in spite of the stormy seasons in our lives. Elder Neal A. Maxwell (Even As I Am, pp. 102-03)

"I have trodden the wine-press alone...and none were with me" (D&C 133:50; Talmage)

At the ninth hour, or about three in the afternoon, a loud voice, surpassing the most anguished cry of physical suffering issued from the cross, rending the dreadful darkness.  It was the voice of Christ: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”  What mind of man can fathom the significance of that awful cry?  It seems that in addition to the fearful suffering incident to crucifixion, the agony of Gethsemane had recurred, intensified beyond human power to endure.  In that bitterest hour the dying Christ was left alone, alone in most terrible reality.  That the supreme sacrifice of the Son might be consummated in all its fullness, the Father seems to have withdrawn the support of His immediate Presence, leaving the Savior of men the glory of complete victory over the forces of sin and death .  Elder James E. Talmage, Jesus The Christ p. 661 (emphasis added) See also D&C 133:50