O
how great the goodness of our God, who prepareth a way for our
escape from the grasp of this awful monster; yea, that monster,
death and hell.
In
this lesson, we consider one of the greatest discourses ever
given on the subject of the Atonement of Christ. The speaker
is Jacob, Nephi’s younger brother, who at Nephi’s invitation
interprets certain passages of Isaiah that speak of Christ.
The
purpose of Jacob’s discourse is to help us understand what the
Savior has done for us, to “bring us to a knowledge of the Redeemer.”
Jacob introduces to us the concept of the “infinite atonement”—the central concept
of the Gospel and the keystone of the great plan of God.
Infinite
Atonement
The
phrase “infinite atonement” does not occur in the Bible; therefore,
this concept is unique to the teaching of the Book of Mormon.
The book of Job in the Bible does teach, however, that man’s
iniquities are infinite. In this passage,
the word “infinite” is a translation of a Hebrew phrase meaning
something like “without limits.”
The
word “infinite” also appears in the Psalms in describing the
understanding of God, and with much
the same meaning: “immeasurable, without borders, unlimited,
innumerable.”
Therefore,
when Jacob speaks of an infinite atonement, he probably means
that the sacrifice of Jesus Christ has limitless, immeasurable
scope. The Atonement is absolutely unlimited in its effectiveness
for those who are righteous.
Elder
Spencer J. Condie explains:
The Book of Mormon teaches us of an infinite atonement, an atoning
sacrifice by Christ that is unbounded by time, ethnicity, geography,
or even kinds of sins, save for the unpardonable sin of denying
the Holy Ghost. The Resurrection includes all people “from the
days of Adam down” to the end of time, those “both old and young,
both bond and free, both male and female.”
The Atonement is also infinite in the sense that the Savior
not only overcame death and sin, but he also took upon himself
“the pains and the sicknesses” and the “infirmities” of his
people (Alma 7:11–12). The Atonement is infinite,
too, in that because of the redemption made possible by his
beloved Son, our Heavenly Father is able to forgive us “as often
as [we] repent” (Mosiah 26:30–31; see also Moro. 6:8).
With his phrase “infinite atonement,”
the prophet Jacob thus emphasizes the universal nature of the
Atonement: with the exception of deniers of the Holy Ghost,
it applies to everyone, everywhere, regardless of what they
have done.
Escape from Death of Body and
Spirit
To begin with, the Atonement
provides “escape from the grasp of this awful monster; yea,
that monster, death and hell, which I call the death of the
body, and also the death of the spirit.”
Without the Atonement, there would be no escape from the grave.
“This flesh must have laid down to rot and to crumble to its
mother earth, to rise no more.”
Physical death, which is infinite
in its scope — “death hath passed upon all” — can only be reversed
by an Atonement which is likewise infinite in scope.
The Atonement also provides
a way to escape from “the death of the spirit,” which Jacob
describes in wintry terms:
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.
The infinite Atonement provides
much more than escape: it also provides for infinite restoration.
“The grave must deliver up its captive bodies, and the bodies
and the spirits of men will be restored one to the other ...
and all men become incorruptible, and immortal.”
Elsewhere in the Book of Mormon, the prophet Alma explains what
this infinite restoration consists of: “The soul shall be restored
to the body, and the body to the soul; yea, and every limb and
joint shall be restored to its body; yea; even a hair of the
head shall not be lost; but all things shall be restored to
their proper and perfect frame.”
Restoration to a Perfect Knowledge
Along with this restoration
to a perfect and incorruptible body, we will also be restored
to a “perfect knowledge.” If we have been wicked, we will be
restored to a “perfect knowledge of all our guilt, and our uncleanness,
and our nakedness.” Those who have been righteous will be restored
to a “perfect knowledge of their enjoyment, and their righteousness,
being clothed with purity, yea even with the robe of righteousness.”
Obviously, to have a perfect
recollection of every sin, every thoughtless remark, every hurtful
action we have ever done would be excruciating. The problem
with sin is its infinite effects. Some scientists theorize that
the flapping of a butterfly’s wing in Brazil can set off a tornado
in Texas: they call this phenomenon “sensitivity to initial
conditions.”
Our sins have the same effect.
A harsh word to a child can echo in that child’s heart for a
lifetime. A home-teaching visit omitted can lead a lonely soul
to believe no one cares. A simple lie can lead to unending deception
and pain.
Forty years ago when I was
a Boy Scout, I watched a Church leader scold quite harshly one
of the other Scouts for some thoughtless but minor thing he
had done. His feelings hurt, that young boy ran from the meeting
and swore he would never come back. Today that boy is a man
who has been out of the Church for decades. The mission he never
served, the family he never had, the good he never did — who
is responsible for the virtually infinite consequences of those
few cruel words so long ago?
I don’t absolve the boy of
his responsibility for his situation; still, this action of
a thoughtless Church leader has haunted me for a long time and
helped me understand that a single sinful act can echo through
eternity.
A Lake of Fire and Brimstone
If this is so — if the consequences
of our actions are infinite — then we are all lost. “All have
sinned,” says the Apostle Paul, “and come short of the glory
of God.” That is the harsh
reality. Those who are finally restored to perfect knowledge
of the wrongs they have done, to an unlimited understanding
of the limitless effects of their sins, will find that “their
torment is as a lake of fire and brimstone, whose flame ascendeth
up forever and ever and has no end.”
As Jacob says, “The words of
truth are hard.”
Is it any wonder, then, that
Jacob says: “O how great the goodness of our God, who prepareth
a way for our escape from the grasp of that awful monster” —
that “perfect knowledge of all our guilt”? Because we are all
infinitely lost, because our sufferings would otherwise be infinite,
nothing short of an infinite Atonement can restore us. And that
Atonement has been provided.
The great miracle of the Atonement
is that it delivers us from the “perfect knowledge of all our
guilt and our uncleanness.” Instead, if we repent of our sins,
that knowledge turns to “enjoyment and righteousness.” We will
be resurrected with the recollection of our guilt swept from
our minds.
Because of the infinite Atonement
of the Savior, we can pass in an instant from what Alma called
“the pains of a damned soul” to “joy and marvelous light,” as
Alma did when his “mind caught hold upon” the Atonement.
Come unto the Lord
Now, Jacob teaches, we can
only take advantage of the infinite Atonement on the condition
of repentance. “O then, my beloved brethren, come unto the
Lord, the Holy One. Remember that his paths are righteous. Behold,
the way for man is narrow, but it lieth in a straight course
before him ... and whoso knocketh, to him will he open.”
We come unto the Lord when
we realize, as Alma did, that we must repent. We must “cry within
[our] hearts: O Jesus, thou Son of God, have mercy on me.”
The choice is entirely ours,
as Jacob says: “Therefore, cheer up your hearts, and remember
that ye are free to act for yourselves — to choose the way of
everlasting death or the way of eternal life.”
The promise of the infinite
Atonement to those who repent is limitless comfort. The Prophet
Joseph Smith describes it this way:
Those who have died
in Jesus Christ may expect to enter into all that fruition of
joy when they come forth, which they possessed or anticipated
here … I am glad I have the privilege of communicating to you
some things which, if grasped closely, will be a help to you
when earthquakes bellow, the clouds gather, the lightnings flash,
and the storms are ready to burst upon you like peals of thunder.
Lay hold of these things and let not your knees or joints tremble,
nor your hearts faint; and then what can earthquakes, wars and
tornadoes do? Nothing. All your losses will be made up to you
in the resurrection, provided you continue faithful. By the
vision of the Almighty I have seen it.
Because
of the infinite Atonement, and through your faithfulness, all
your losses will be made up to you in the resurrection.
All
of your disappointments, your sorrows, your discouragements,
your pains will be made up to you.
If
you’ve lost a child, watched a loved one suffer from cancer,
been crushed by debt, been abandoned or abused — no matter what
you have suffered, it will all be made up to you. Although your
suffering may appear infinite to you, the Atonement reaches
beyond it.
And
even more, the infinite consequences of all your mistakes, the
wrongs you have done, the good things you neglected to do, the
guilt you bear, the shame of a hurting conscience — no matter
what you suffer, it has been paid. The debt has been canceled.
The infinite Atonement has answered the demands of justice.
“Lay
hold of these things,” says the Prophet, “and then what can
earthquakes, wars, and tornadoes do? Nothing.” The source of
our infinite comfort is the infinite Atonement of Jesus Christ.
And
now, my beloved brethren, seeing that our merciful God has given
us so great knowledge concerning these things, let us remember
him, and lay aside our sins, and not hang down our heads, for
we are not cast off.
