JESUS CHRIST

Death has come to be the universal heritage; it may claim its victim in infancy or youth, in the period of life’s prime, or its summons may be deferred until the snows of age have gathered upon the hoary head; it may befall as the result of accident or disease, by violence, or as we say, through natural causes; but come it must, as Satan well knows; and in this knowledge is his present though but temporary triumph. But the purposes of God, as they ever have been and ever shall be, are infinitely superior to the deepest designs of men or devils; and the Satanic machinations to make death inevitable, perpetual and supreme were provided against even before the first man had been created in the flesh. The atonement to be wrought by Jesus the Christ was ordained to overcome death and to provide a means of ransom from the power of Satan.

As the penalty incident to the fall came upon the race through an individual act, it would be manifestly unjust, and therefore impossible as part of the divine purpose, to make all men suffer the results thereof without provision for deliverance. (more…)

Of all the questions we ponder concerning Gethsemane, why the Savior suffered there is perhaps that which has most baffled scholars and saints. The Gospel writers tell us what happened at that crucial site, but they do not clearly address the question of why. In an effort to answer the question, some suggest that Christ suffered because He recognized the ingratitude of men who would not accept the Atonement He would make for them on the cross, or because He loved us and yet knew what we would commit or face in the future, such as sins, betrayals, denials, and persecutions. others offer that perhaps Jesus Christ suffered because He realized He had to yield up His divine nature and become obedient unto death, thereby becoming the “suffering servant” or be required to give up all the good that could fill His life. Some recommend that we understand Christ’s suffering in an eschatological context and view that which Jesus Christ endured and prayed to avert as the suffering and struggle that are to precede the coming forth of the kingdom. Still others suggest that His suffering simply came from His desire to find another way to be the Messiah rather than the way the Father had planned. Commonly, [some] conclude that Christ’s pain and suffering came because of fear of what He knew was ahead of Him, even His impending death on the cross and the suffering and humiliation He would endure antecedent to it. . . . (more…)

To have any measure of appreciation and gratitude for what Jesus Christ accomplished in our behalf, we must remember these vital truths:

Jesus Christ came to earth to do our Father’s will.

He came with a foreknowledge that He would bear the burden of the sins of us all.

He knew he would be lifted up on the cross.

Christ was born to be the Savior and Redeemer of all mankind.

He was able to accomplish His mission because He was the Son of God and He possessed the power of God.

Christ was willing to accomplish His mission because He loves us. (more…)

In the midst of our mortal predicament we have needs, even desperate needs. The first is for a mentor, an exemplar, one who has been over not just a similar road but an even far worse one. A person who can show us what we have it in us to do and to become. One who is able without hypocrisy to say to us: “What manner of men ought ye to be? Verily I say unto you even as I am” (3 Nephi 27:27). (more…)

After the fall of Adam . . . there was no way nor means by which man could be raised from the grave except through the death of the Divine One. A great and eternal law had been violated, and it required the death of a God, really, to atone for the broken law and to bring to pass the salvation of man and the salvation of the world.. . . .

I like to look upon it from a practical point of view, or in a way that we may clearly understand it. . . . If you had lost the home where you were born, the old family homestead that was very dear to you, because in a follish moment you overreached yourself and in excessive confidence you placed a mortgage on that home, with the thought that you could easily redeem it, would you not feel very much distressed and sad when finally it was discovered that you could not redeem it and the mortgage was to be foreclosed so that it was to pass out of your hands? (more…)

It was necessary, when the Savior was upon the earth, that he should be tempted in all points, like unto us, and “be touched with the feeling of our infirmities,” to comprehend the weaknesses and strength, the perfections and imperfections of poor fallen human nature (Hebrews 4:15). And having accomplished the thing he came into the world to do; having had to grapple with the hypocrisy, corruption, weakness, and imbecility of man; having met with temptation and trial in all its various forms, and overcome; he has become a “faithful high priest” to intercede for us in the everlasting kingdom of his Father (Hebrews 2:17).

Jesus Christ knows how to estimate and put a proper value upon human nature, for he, having been placed in the same position as we are, knows how to bear with our weaknesses and infirmities, and can fully comprehend the depth, power, and strength of the afflictions and trials that men have to cope with in this world. And thus understandingly and by experience, he can bear with them.

Teachings of Presidents of the Church, John Taylor, 53.

The Fall of Adam brought into the world both physical death, which is the separation of the spirit from the body (James 2:26), and spiritual death, separation from God or alienation from the things of God (Alma 12:32). The Atonement of Christ redeems, or ransoms, us from the effects of the Fall. “Redemption,” Bruce R. McConkie taught, is of two kinds: conditional and unconditional” (Mormon Doctrine, 2d ed., Bookcraft, 1966, 623.)

Unconditional redemption provides two free gifts to mankind. The first unconditional gift is that all who ever have or ever will live in mortality will be redeemed from physical death through the Resurrection, because Jesus “taste[d] death for every man” (Hebrews 2:9). John recorded the Savior’s own testimony that all “shall come forth; they who have done good, in the resurrection of the just; and they who have done evil, in the resurrection of the unjust (Inspired Version, John 5:29). (more…)

In the October 1995 general conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (sometimes known as The ‘Mormon’ Church), President Boyd K. Packer, [modern apostle], said:

[Except for] the very few who defect to perdition, there is no habit, no addiction, no rebellion, no transgression, no apostasy, no one exempted from the promise of complete forgiveness. That is the promise of the atonement of Christ (”The Brilliant Morning of Forgiveness,” Ensign, Nov. 1995, 20). (more…)