The Supernal Gift of the Atonement ~ Part One

Good Morning, Good Afternoon, Good Evening,

this post should take five minutes to read from start to finish.

This post focuses on October 1988 General Conference talk and it is called, "The Supernal Gift of the Atonement" by James E. Faust. This post is part one and I would like to share with you some highlights while I was reading the talk.

Elder Faust mentioned the following; 

"Through the Atonement and those singular events surrounding it, all of the terrible individual and collective sins of all mankind were taken upon the Lord’s shoulders. The marvelous result of this great suffering was that He was able to redeem from physical death the believers and the obedient as well as the unbelieving and disobedient. Every person ever born or yet to be born is the beneficiary of both the mediation and the atonement of the Savior.

The act of the Atonement is, in its simplest terms, a reconciliation of man with his God. The word atonement means to be at one. “It is literally at-one-ment.” ... Adam and Eve, having chosen to leave their state of innocence, were banished from the presence of God. ... It is a spiritual death because Adam and Eve were separated from the presence of God and given agency “to act for themselves and not to be acted upon.” 

... However, the posterity of Adam and Eve were innocent of the original sin because they had no part in it. It was therefore unfair for all of humanity to suffer eternally for the transgressions of our first parents, Adam and Eve. ... Because of the transcendent act of the Atonement, it is possible for every soul to obtain forgiveness of sins, to have them washed away and be forgotten. 

This forgiveness comes about, however, on condition of repentance and personal righteousness. There is a distinction between immortality, or eternal existence, and eternal life, which is to have a place in the presence of God. Through the grace of Jesus Christ, immortality comes to all men, just or unjust, righteous or wicked. However, eternal life is “the greatest of all the gifts of God.” ...

"There is no sin or transgression, pain or sorrow, which is outside
of the healing power of His Atonement." - C. Scott Grow.

President Joseph Fielding Smith explains, 

“This distinction between eternal life, as received by the faithful, and immortality, obtained by both the faithful and unfaithful, is shown in the words of the Lord to Moses: ‘For behold, this is my work and my glory to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.’ ...

 It explains that the Lord is giving to the vast majority of men, those who will not be obedient, the blessing of immortality; and to those who will serve him, the blessing of eternal life.” 

It has been almost two thousand years since the wondrous occasion when death was conquered. We still do not know how the Savior was able to take upon Himself and bear our transgressions, our foolishness, our grief, our sorrows, and our burdens. It was indefinable and unfathomable. It was almost unbearable. ...

Even though, as a man or a woman, we are born, live a brief moment, and then die, through the atonement of Jesus Christ we will all live after death. Through the Mediation and Atonement we will be resurrected ourselves without going through any part of the atoning agony that the Son of God went through.

The testimonies of those faithful followers who saw, heard, and touched the resurrected Lord stand uncontroverted to this day. After the crucifixion, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome had bought sweet spices to anoint his body. 

But the devoted women were concerned as to who would roll away the great stone in front of the sepulchre. When they arrived, they found that the stone had been rolled away. A great earthquake had intervened, and an angel had rolled back the stone from the door and sat upon it, causing the keepers to shake with fear and become as dead men. 

The angel instructed the women to tell the disciples quickly of the Lord’s resurrection, assuring them that “he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him.” As they went to tell the disciples, “Jesus met them, saying, All hail. And they came and held him by the feet, and worshipped him.” 

During the forty days that the Savior spent with the Apostles and others, they heard and saw many unspeakable things. This special ministry changed the Apostles from an uncertain, confused, divided, and weak group into powerful witnesses of the Lord. ... 

Perhaps the Apostles should not be unduly criticized for not believing that Jesus, having been crucified and buried in a tomb, had come back to earth as a glorified being. In all human experience, this had never happened before. It was completely unprecedented. ... They all died again. Jesus, however, became a resurrected being. He would never die again. .."

Stay Tuned until next time.