The Atonement of Christ

I wanted to take a moment to express my gratitude for the atonement of Jesus Christ. I was reading in Preach My Gospel this morning about how we can be cleansed from sin through Christ. One paragraph in particular stood out to me: 

The Savior satisfied the demands of justice for those who repent of their sins and endeavor to keep all of His commandments when He stood in our place and suffered the penalty for our sins. This act is called the Atonement. Because of this selfless act, Christ can plead with the Father on our behalf. Heavenly Father can apply mercy, withhold punishment from us, and welcome us into His presence. Our Heavenly Father shows mercy when He forgives us of our sins and helps us return to dwell in His presence. —The Gospel of Jesus Christ

This paragraph is not very long (comparatively speaking), but it is full of doctrine—truth pertaining to our salvation. As I was dissecting this paragraph, a question came to me: why was Christ the only one who could satisfy the demands of justice? Why couldn't I suffer for my own sins?

This is not to say that I would ever want to suffer for my own sins. I view the atonement as the most glorious gift that I've ever been offered, and I want to use it. However, while pondering this question, I realized that Jesus Christ is the only one who ever fully understood what sin was. The result of sin is separation from God (Spiritual Death), and Christ is the only one who was never suffered spiritual death. He wasn't separated from God until the Garden of Gethsemane, when of necessity, God left Him. Elder Holland has said, 

Now I speak very carefully, even reverently, of what may have been the most difficult moment in all of this solitary journey to Atonement. I speak of those final moments for which Jesus must have been prepared intellectually and physically but which He may not have fully anticipated emotionally and spiritually—that concluding descent into the paralyzing despair of divine withdrawal when He cries in ultimate loneliness, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? (Matthew 27:46). 

The loss of mortal support He had anticipated, but apparently He had not comprehended this. Had He not said to His disciples, “Behold, the hour … is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me” and “The Father hath not left me alone; for I do always these things that please him?" (John 16:32; John 8:29). 

I love what Elder Holland says about this. It explains to me how Christ truly understood the effect of sin—far beyond what we ever could. I thought of a metaphor to explain what I learned: 

A young child breaks one of his mother's china dishes. All he understands was that the noise was loud, his mom is sad, and he can never replace the plate. He begins to cry. Meanwhile, his mother understands everything: she loves her child, knows the true value of the antique, and can calm the situation. She knows.

In this metaphor, we are the child: we do not understand sin and its consequences. However, Christ sees the whole picture—and that is the reason he could pay for our sins. He can replace the broken situation, calm the our fears, and teach a profound lesson—that He is the Savior of the world. 

I am so grateful for my Savior. I love and adore Him, and I look to Him in everything.  

 

Marion G. Romney on the Atonement

Since we suffer this spiritual death as a result of our own transgressions, we cannot claim deliverance therefrom as a matter of justice. Neither has any man the power within himself alone to make restitution so complete that he can be wholly cleansed from the effect of his own wrongdoing. If men are to be freed from the results of their own transgressions and brought back into the presence of God, they must be the beneficiaries of some expedient beyond themselves which will free them from the effects of their own sins. For this purpose was the atonement of Jesus Christ conceived and executed. —The Resurrection of Jesus