As a young member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (inadvertently called “The Mormon Church” by the media), I learned about the atonement of Jesus Christ at a very young age. I prayed in His name, was baptized in His name, and partook of the bread and water of the sacrament weekly, just as He did with his disciples before his crucifixion (Luke 22:18-19). In my prayers, I promised God that I would follow Jesus and serve Him with my life; if I had broken one of His commandments, I asked forgiveness. I worshipped and asked for help every day. In my early 20′s, I went to the temple, where members of The Church of Jesus Christ (Mormons) covenant to follow Christ, keep His commandments, and sacrifice all they have to Him. Yet it was not until I reached the age of 31 that I truly came to understand what Jesus did for me when He suffered in Gethsemane, died on the cross, and was resurrected.

Needing the Savior

I spent Christmas of 1991 in the hospital, fighting for the lives of my unborn twin daughters. They were not due for 12 more weeks, but because of serious complications their lives were in danger. I had blown up like a balloon and was at constant risk of going into labor. My husband and I prayed constantly for our babies’ health and safety, but still felt continual fear. Our three little boys could not understand why Mommy was not home for Christmas.

Three days after Christmas, one of the twins died, and the other was delivered by Caesarian section. Her life, too, hung in the balance as she was rushed to a nearby children’s hospital, given three full units of blood, and placed on life support. In shock and pain, grieving the loss of her sister, we continued to pray for the miracle of health for our remaining daughter, whom we named Sarah.

In a few weeks the verdict was in: Sarah, although healthy in body, had suffered an almost complete loss of mental capacity. Her brain was damaged beyond repair, with only enough healthy tissue left to keep her heart beating and her lungs breathing as the rest slowly died and disappeared. We were devastated. How could God have treated us this way? We were His beloved children, and we worshipped Him and followed our Savior, Jesus Christ, who had miraculously healed the sick and brought the dead to life! Where was the Lord when we needed Him?

As we brought home our tiny, four-pound premie, I tried to settle into life as the mother of a profoundly handicapped child. Sarah required round-the-clock feeding and attention. She did not sleep normally; she fed listlessly; she could not keep her tiny meals down; she cried and arched her back painfully whenever she was not being held. With three other young children who needed me and a still grieving heart, I felt completely overwhelmed. Again I sought help from God through prayer. One day, as I was reading in The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ, I came across the following lines in Mosiah 24:13-15. Jesus Christ said to a group of ancient Christians who were enslaved to their enemies:

“Lift up your heads and be of good comfort, for I know of the covenant which ye have made unto me; …and I will also ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs.”

The Miracle of Grace: Lifting our Burdens

Grace is the miracle the Lord God offers to us, through the atonement of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Redeemer, that lifts us to Him beyond anything we can do or ever hope to do in this life. “For we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do” (The Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 25:23). We must put forth our very best efforts all through our lives to keep the Lord’s commandments–but we will inevitably fall far short. Grace is the gift through which God strengthens us along the way and makes up the difference. One of the three essential gifts we receive by grace through the atonement of Jesus Christ is the gift of comfort and healing. Alma, an ancient prophet, calls it “succor:”

And [Jesus Christ] shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of 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 (Book of Mormon, Alma 7:11-12).

Relief and hope flooded my heart as I read the words of the Lord. I began to pray differently: not that my Savior would remove my burdens, but that, through the atonement, he would “ease my burdens” and provide succor for my soul. It was then that our miracle began–not a miracle of the flesh, but a miracle of the heart. I began to sense the presence of my tiny daughter’s pure, magnificent soul, and the presence of the angelic spirits who tended to her as she endured her physical trials. Earthly angels entered my life in the guise of loving friends, wise doctors, and understanding social workers who eased my burdens of worry and exhaustion. By the time a few months had passed, I was rejoicing in the opportunity to nurture my beautiful daughter.

 

The Miracle of Healing our Bodies

In order to heal, I needed a second gift of grace. As a Mormon, I believed Sarah’s damaged body housed an immortal spirit that was a literal spirit child of God the Father. Although her brain could not function, her spirit was still experiencing mortal life through her body. When she felt pain, I suffered, knowing she could not remember or anticipate it. Nor could she organize the continual bombardment she experienced through her senses. She could not, for example, tolerate both a breeze and a song at the same time. Nevertheless, her mortal experience was important to her eternal life. I had faith that after this life, she would remember and learn essential truths from what she experienced here. I sang to her, and her spirit responded to the sounds. She would relax in my arms, a rare blessingfor her, as I sang her  a favorite children’s song from a songbook published by The Church of Jesus Christ:

          I Will Follow God’s Plan

My life is a gift; my life has a plan.

My life has a purpose; in heaven it began.

My choice was to come to this lovely home on earth

And seek for God’s light to direct me from birth.

I will follow God’s plan for me,

Holding fast to his words and his love.

I will work, and I will pray.

I will always walk in his way.

Then I will be happy on earth

And in my home above.

“I Will Follow God’s Plan,” by Vanya Watkins

I had faith in my heart that, through the grace of the resurrection of our Lord and Redeemer Jesus Christ, Sarah would one day fully experience life in a healthy, perfect immortal body. By understanding her past as a spirit daughter of God, her present mortal experience, and the perfection to which she would one day be raised, I found comfort despite her occasional sufferings.

On a trip to visit family just seven months after her birth, Sarah contracted a sudden, severe case of pneumonia. In the whirlwind of rushing her to the emergency room trying to help her breathe, I was forced to decide if the doctors should use oxygen or a ventilator in order to save her life. Visions of her early suffering in the NICU arose in my mind. There was no time to calmly review each choice, and although we prayed, answers were not immediately evident. I tried to see my daughter’s life in terms of the learning and growth of her immortal spirit, and made a decision to withhold treatment. She died in our arms at home just a few hours later, breaking my heart once again.

The Miracle of Forgiveness

The last grace I needed through the atonement of Jesus Christ was perhaps the most serious of all. While I had made the best decision I could, I had made an irrevocable choice in allowing my daughter to move on in her eternal life by leaving this one. If that was a mistake, it was a big one. Like all parents, I agonized over my imperfections. Like all mortals, I was lost unless my Redeemer intervened in my behalf. Without the Savior’s atonement, Sarah was gone forever; and I was cut off from God unless Jesus Christ atoned for all my sins. I reached up and grasped His promises with both hands. Isaiah’s promise was a light in the darkness to me: 

“Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” Isaiah 1:18

Amazing Grace: The Atonement of Jesus Christ

The world has never been the same for me since Sarah lived and died. Sarah brought me face to face with suffering, sin, and death, and my own great need for a Savior and Redeemer. Despite my best efforts, in the depths of my need, I was indeed lost. Through the sacrifice of the blood and body of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, I was strengthened, healed, forgiven, and found. He has paid my debt, and I owe every breath of my life to Him. I live in hope of a glorious resurrection where Sarah will be reunited with our family, our physical bodies made perfect, to continue to grow in God’s presence for all eternity. Through Jesus’ grace we have been saved, after all we could do. It is indeed Amazing Grace to me.

Nora Moore Hess

          Nora Moore Hess is a writer and musician living in Lindon, Utah. She is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormon). Nora and her husband, Bret, are the parents of seven biological and three adopted children.

Additional Resources: 

Jesus Christ, the Son of God

Jesus Christ, Our Savior

The Living Christ

Amazing Grace Video

When we think about what it means to be born, we usually think of being given life and a mortal body from a father and a mother. Therefore, when asking “What does it mean to say that Christ is the Firstborn?” another question usually comes up: “How can Christ be the firstborn if he lived in what is sometimes called the meridian of time?” In order to answer these questions, we must rethink our definition what it means to be born.

The scriptures speak of receiving a rebirth when one receives a remission of sins. But since Christ never sinned, this cannot be the case. “They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick” (Matthew 9:12). At any rate, when people are born, they are thought of as receiving life. Hence, to be reborn is to receive life anew. One way in which Jesus is the firstborn is because he “is risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept” (1 Corinthians 15:20). By calling Christ the Firstborn we make reference to his act of conquering death in order that “all be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:22). One could say then, that it is therefore an act of worship–of awed reverence–to remember that Jesus Christ is the Firstborn, the first to be resurrected and receive his physical body anew.

But there is more than one way in which Jesus Christ is the firstborn.

Under the term “Firstborn” in the Bible Dictionary, one reads of three ways that Jesus is called by this title:

“Jesus is the firstborn of the spirit children of our Heavenly Father, the Only Begotten of the Father in the flesh, and the first to rise from the dead in the resurrection, ‘that in all things he might have the preeminence’ (Colossians 1:13-18).”

Because I have just written about the last statement, how Jesus is “the first to rise from the dead in the resurrection,” and because an article has already been written on the middle statement, Christ as “the Only Begotten of the Father in the flesh,” I prepare now to address the first statement, that “Jesus is the firstborn of the spirit children of our Heavenly Father.”

In order to understand what this statement means, one must understand that all men and women, before they were born on this earth, existed as spirits. These spirits of premortal men and women “knew and worshiped God as their Eternal Father and accepted His plan by which His children could obtain a physical body and gain earthly experience to progress toward perfection and ultimately realize his or her divine destiny as an heir of eternal life” (The First Presidency and Council of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. “The Family: A Proclamation to the World,” Ensign, Nov. 1995, 102). These spirits are the “spirit children” referred to above, and Jesus is the firstborn—preeminent–of these “spirit children.”

In 1909, the governing body of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon Church) issued a statement that explains this idea further: “The Father of Jesus is our Father also. Jesus himself taught this truth, when He instructed His disciples how to pray: ‘Our Father which art in heaven,’ etc. Jesus, however, is the firstborn among all the sons of God–the first begotten in the spirit, and the only begotten in the flesh. He is our elder brother, and we, like Him are in the image of God.” (The First Presidency [Joseph F. Smith, John R. Winder, Anthon H. Lund], “The Origin of Man,” Improvement Era, November 1909, 75-81).

This seems to make sense, but now I want to ask, is it wrong to consider a God to be our Elder Brother? Does it not seem at least a little strange to say that we are related—at least spiritually—to the greatest being that ever walked the earth? But strange or not, “. . . [a]mong the spirit children of Elohim [Heavenly Father] the firstborn was and is Jehovah or Jesus Christ to whom all others are juniors” (First Presidency and Council of the Twelve, in Improvement Era, August 1916, 940-1).

So, Christ is the firstborn of all of God’s spirit children and while he can be considered in a sense to be our Elder Brother, yet at the same time the God of all the earth still desires to call us His friends (Cf. John 15:15).

The late Elder Neal A. Maxwell eloquently stated a remedy for this strangeness,

“In intelligence and performance, He [Jesus Christ] far surpasses the individual and the composite capacities and achievements of all who have lived, live now, and will yet live! (See Abraham 3:19). He rejoices in our genuine goodness and achievement, but any assessment of where we stand in relation to Him tells us that we do not stand at all! We kneel!” (Neal A. Maxwell, in Conference Report, Oct. 1981, 9).

So can we call Jesus Christ our Elder Brother? Well, in the sense of having the same Eternal Father in Heaven—the Father of our spirit bodies—the answer is yes. But I personally would not feel comfortable doing it. I would much rather stick to the term Firstborn, because it encompasses so much more of what He is—”the firstborn of the spirit children of our Heavenly Father, the Only Begotten of the Father in the flesh, and the first to rise from the dead in the resurrection, ‘that in all things he might have the preeminence’ (Colossians 1:13-18)” (Bible Dictionary: Firstborn).

Now, . . . what do men and women find when they discover the true Messiah? Finding the Messiah is the greatest of all discoveries. If we were to discuss the most important thing about Jesus the Messiah, what would it be? If we were to go home today to our families and say, “We have found the Messiah!” what would we say about Him? What is the most important thing about Him that we could tell another person? Would it be His height or weight, the color of His hair, the style of His clothes, the tone of His voice? Everything about Jesus Christ is important any any true detail or concept would be worth knowing, but what would be the single most important thing to find out about Him? I could answer that with my own opinion, but let us take a cue from what the scriptures say about Christ.

I think it can be summarized in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” While that is the central concept, it takes a considerable amount of study to know what that one verse means. I’ll tell you what I have discovered about the Messiah that I have learned from the scriptures and the whisperings of the Holy Ghost. The greatest message about Jesus Christ is that He has conquered death–both spiritual and physical death. He is literally the light and the life of the world (Doctrine and Covenants 10:70).

We are given a plan discussion of the redeeming role of the Savior in the following scriptures:

From Paul: “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:22).

From Jacob, [prophet of ancient America]:

For it behooveth the great Creator that he suffereth himself to become subject unto man in the flesh, and die for all men, that all men might become subject unto him.

For as death hath passed upon all men, to fulfill the merciful plan of the great Creator, there must needs be a power of resurrection, and the resurrection must needs come unto man by reason of the fall; and the fall came by reason of transgression; and because man became fallen they were cut off from the presence of the Lord.

Wherefore, it must needs be an infinite atonement–save it should be an infinite atonement this corruption could not put on incorruption. Wherefore, the first judgment which came upon man must needs have remained to an endless duration. And if so, this flesh must have laid down to rot and to crumble to its mother earth, to rise no more.

O the wisdom of God, his mercy and grace! For behold, if the flesh should rise no more our spirits must become subject to that angel who fell from before the presence of the Eternal God, and became the devil, to rise no more. And our spirits must have become like unto him, and we become devils, angels to a devil, to be shut out from the presence of our God, and to remain with the father of lies, in misery, like unto himself (2 Nephi 9:5-9). . . .

Do we understand that Jesus Christ made payment with His blood in order for mercy to satisfy justice? No other person, no human being, could redeem us; the redemption could be made only by a God, as explained by Amulek [prophet of ancient America]:

Behold, I say unto you, that I do know that Christ shall come among the children of men, to take upon him the transgressions of his people, and that he shall atone for the sins of the world; for the Lord God hath spoken it.

For it is expedient that an atonement should be made; for according to the great plan of the Eternal God there must be an atonement made, or else all mankind must unavoidably perish; yea, all are hardened; yea, all are fallen and are lost, and must perish except it be through the atonement which it is expedient should be made.

For it is expedient that an atonement should be made; for according to the great plan of the Eternal God there must be an atonement made, or else all mankind must unavoidably perish; yea, all are hardened; yea, all are fallen and are lost, and must perish except it be through the atonement which it is expedient should be made.

For it is expedient that there should be a great and last sacrifice; yea, not a sacrifice of man, neither of beast, neither of any manner of fowl; for it shall not be a human sacrifice; but it must be an infinite and eternal sacrifice.

Now there is not any man that can sacrifice his own blood which will atone for the sins of another.

Therefore there can be nothing which is short of an infinite atonement which will suffice for the sis of the world.

Therefore, it is expedient that there should be a great and last sacrifice.

And that great and last sacrifice will be the Son of God, yea, infinite and eternal (Alma 34:8-14).

What does this mean to us? It means that our association with the Messiah is not optional or casual. It is critical.

By the Fall of Adam all mankind has suffered two deaths–a spiritual alienation from God and a physical death. We have all suffered the first–the alienation. We will yet, with no exceptions, suffer the physical death. We are thus dominated by death because of the fall of Adam. It is absolutely necessary that we understand that Jesus, in order to be the Messiah, had to be divine, that He Had to be the literal, biological Son of God, and thus was not dominated by death and sin as is all the rest of humanity. Had He not been the Only Begotten, He could not have been able or worthy to pay the debt of the Fall of Adam and of our own individual sins. The infinite Atonement required the life and the death and the sacrifice of a God, not a man.

The plan of salvation is equally real. Adam was a living person in time and in space. The Fall is so real that, if we knew the details, we could place on a calendar the time when he fell. Also, if we knew the details, we could mark on a map the location where he ate the forbidden fruit.

In the very same manner, the Atonement of Jesus Christ is so vital and so necessary in time and in space, that if we had the facts, we could place on a calendar the date of His birth, the date of His suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane, the date of His death, and the date of His Resurrection. In like manner we could mark on a map the place of Christ’s birth, suffering, death, and Resurrection. These are events in time and geography. This is the Messiah I have found, and I believe this is the greatest message in the world. It s the message of John 3:16 in its expanded form.

When that morning comes that any of us stands in perfection of body and spirit, resurrected, cleansed, and with eternal life in the presence of God, we will then know with full meaning what we perceive only in part today when we say, “I have found the Messiah!”

Robert J. Matthews, Spery Symposium Classics, The New Testament, Deseret Book Company & Brigham Young University, 2006, p. 133-36.

Paul taught that to come unto Jesus Christ is to enter a new realm of existence, a spiritual realm. It is to forsake death and come unto life, to put away evil and darkness and learn to walk in righteousness and light. “Know ye not,” Paul asked the Romans, “that so many of  us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin” (Romans 6:3-6).

The new life in Christ entails a new energy, a new dynamism, a new source of strength and power. That power is Jesus Christ. So often people go through the motion, do good and perform their duties but find little satisfaction in doing so. One Christian writer offered this thought:

There are few things quite so boring as being religious, but there is nothing quite so exciting as being a Christian!

Most folks have never discovered the difference between the one and the other, so that there are those who sincerely try to live a life they do not have, substituting religion for God, Christianity for Christ, and their own noble endeavors the energy, joy, and power of the Holy Spirit. In the absence of reality, they can only grasp at ritual, stubbornly defending the latter in the absence of the former, lest they be found with neither!

They are lamps without oil, cars without gas, and pens without ink, baffled at their own impotence in the absence of all that alone can make man functional; for man was so engineered by God that the presence of the Creator within the creature is indispensable to His humanity. Christ gave Himself for us to give Himself to us! His presence puts God back into the man! He came that we might have life–God’s life!

There are those who have a life they never live. They have come to Christ and thanked Him only for what He did, but do not live in the power of who He is.  Between the Jesus who “was” and the Jesus who “will be” they live in a spiritual vacuum, trying with no little zeal to live for Christ a life that only He can live in and through them (W. Ian Thomas,  Classic Christianity, 1989, foreward.)

The disciples of Jesus must strive to do what is right. They should do their duty in the Church and in the home, even when they are not eager to do so. They cannot just leave the work of the kingdom to others because they have not been changed and reborn. But that doesn’t mean they must always remain that way. Each of us may change; we can change; we should change; and it is the Lord who will change us. Coming unto Jesus Christ entails more than being cleansed, as important as that is. It entails being filled. We speak often of the importance of being cleansed, or sanctified. It is to have the Holy Spirit, who is not only a revelator but a sanctifier, remove filth and dross from our souls. We refer to this process as a baptism by fire. To be cleansed is essential, but to stop there is to stop short of great blessings. Paul present the idea of (in a sense) nailing ourselves to the cross of Jesus Christ–nailing our old selves, the old man of sin. He wrote: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).

This is a new life in Jesus Christ.

If the books of the New Testament were printed in the order in which they were originally composed, Paul’s letters would appear first. His earliest letters-1-2 Thessalonians, Galatians, 1-2 Corinthians, and Romans-were written sometime between A.D. 49 and 57 (perhaps even earlier for Galatians), before Matthew, Luke, and John were written and nearly contemporary with the Gospel of Mark. Therefore, the earliest written accounts of the Jesus Christ‘s last hours on earth-the Last Supper on Thursday, the fateful crucifixion on Friday, and the glorious resurrection on the first Easter Sunday-are found in Paul’s letters.

The earliest explicit references to these events are found in Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, written about A.D. 57. Paul noted, “I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread: and when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come” (1 Corinthians 11:23-26). That was not all. Later in the same letter, Paul wrote to his readers, “I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4).

This threefold aspect of the mission of Jesus Christ-that he died, was buried, and rose again-is echoed in many of Paul’s other letters. These other references often represent only allusions and implicit references to the events fully detailed in the Gospel narrative. However, Paul’s accounts provide written evidence demonstrating that an oral account of Jesus’ life enjoyed a fairly wide circulation across the entire Mediterranean basin before the Gospels were recorded.

The Greek term (kerygma) means “proclamation” and refers to the early preaching tradition about Jesus the Christ, particularly his salvific death and resurrection. The speeches of Peter and Paul in Acts and the letters attributed to them reveals traces of this tradition, which may have been important source material for the writers of the Gospels.

The Resurrection Narratives are linked to the Passion Narratives and cover the resurrection appearance to Jesus Christ‘s disciples (see Matthew 28:1-20; Mark 16:1-20; Luke 24:1-53; John 20:1-15)