The Atonement - Personal Reflections
“This is my work and my glory to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.”1 There is a reason and plan for this earth life it is God’s plan. An amazing map, a map that will allow us, His children, to learn and grow and become immortal children that can return to Him and His world. How can that be?
There are four main parts – the Creation – the Fall – the Atonement – the Family. Dallin H Oaks said, “We understand that the Atonement of Jesus Christ gives us the opportunity to over come the spiritual death that results from sin and, through making and keeping sacred covenants, to have the blessings of eternal life.”2 The Creation gave us a place; the Fall gave us the chance to begin the trek of mortal life. However, earth life brings sin. Sin blocks us from returning to Heavenly Father, which defeats His work. “The Atonement of Jesus Christ was a indispensable part of our Heavenly Father’s plan for His Son’s earthly mission and for our salvation.”3 Through the Atonement, the effects of sin are overcome.
The gratitude that this assignment has given me for Jesus Christ my Lord and Savior cannot be expressed in words. I feel totally inadequate to even try to express what the Atonement has come to mean to me.
I didn’t understand how complete the plan really is, until studying the words of the prophets, the scriptures and then the book “Believing Christ” by Stephen Robinson. I knew of Christ, I loved Christ, but I didn’t believe Christ. I believed that the Atonement was for everyone else, but not me. I realized that I was being very much like the Israelites, being led through the desert by Moses and the serpents came, bit the people and they would die unless they would look to the staff and obey in order to be healed. An action to perform that was so simple and relatively easy to do. Why did some of the people not do it? I was finally able to apply those words to me. The Savior asks us to come unto Him. How easy, and the reward is incredible, and yet I held back. I am finally recognizing that the Atonement truly is for me too. How did I doubt all these years?
I want to clarify that in my view I didn’t doubt Him, I doubted me. I still thought it depended solely on me. And if I were right, if it truly did depend on me then I was right and I wouldn’t be good enough to make it back to Father in Heaven.
I have loved reading the testimonies of the apostles and prophets, the special witnesses of Christ. I found truth and hope. I also found that I am in good company on the emotional gratitude level. Elder Boyd K Packer said, “I cannot with composure tell you how I feel about the Atonement. It touches the deepest emotion of gratitude and obligation. My soul reaches after Him who wrought it, this Christ, our Savior of whom I am a witness. I testify of Him. He is our Lord, our Redeemer, our advocate with the Father. He ransomed us with His blood. Humbly I lay claim upon the atonement of Christ. I find no shame in kneeling down in worship of our Father and His son. For agency is mine, and this I choose to do!”4
Now it is for me to look, to use my agency, and to choose Jesus Christ. This will be my choice, to live, to follow the guidance of the living prophets, to welcome temple blessings into my life and accept the blessing of the Atonement, and to recognize that I am a child of God, that He loves me; He wants me to return to Him. I am so thankful for a loving Savior that I can turn to for hope and peace. I can rely on His teachings to guide and direct my life in such a way that I too can return to the Father. He atoned for the sins of all those that will come unto Him.
2- Elder Dallin H. Oaks “Teachings of Jesus.” Nov 2011 Ensign, 93
3- Elder M Russell Ballard “The Atonement and the Value of One Soul” April 2004
4-Boyd K Packer “Atonement, Agency, Accountability” April 1988
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