Farwell talk!!

The word Atonement means to set at one; one with God. James E. Talmage in Jesus the Christ said, “Through the Atonement accomplished by Jesus Christ – a redeeming service, vicariously rendered in behalf of mankind, all of whom have been estranged from God by the effects of sin both inherited and individually incurred – the way is opened for a reconciliation whereby man may come again into communion with God, and be made fit to dwell anew and forever in the presence of his Eternal Father. This basal thought is admirably implied in our English word “atonement,” which, as its syllables attest, is  at- one- ment , “denoting reconciliation, or the bringing into agreement of those who have been estranged.” End quote.

When Christ atoned for our sins, he provided a way that we can repent and return someday to live with Him again. He is the advocate to our Father, interceded our judgment between God and us out of love and complete submissiveness to the will of the Father. Which love is a Christ-like charity as described in Moroni 7:45-47.

“45 And charity suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

 46 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never faileth. Wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail—

 47 But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him.”

With this love that Christ has for each and everyone one of us, he atoned for our sins.  And completed the entirety of the Atonement with so much love, that I like to describe as charity, so that we may be able to repent and be forgiven. And as we continually strive to live worthy and follow his commandments.

The atonement as described in Preach My Gospel, “this triumph of Jesus Christ over spiritual death by His suffering and over physical death by His Resurrection is called the Atonement.”

In two parts He overcame two deaths: Spiritual and Physical. The suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane and His suffering and death on the cross, with the physical being His resurrection. In Luke 22:39-44 and D&C 19:16-19, the first being an account of the Savior in the Garden, and the latter of the Savior revealing some of what he experienced in the Garden of Gethsemane.

“39 ¶And he came out, and went, as he was wont, to the mount of Olives; and his disciples also followed him.

 40 And when he was at the place, he said unto them, Pray that ye enter not into temptation.

 41 And he was withdrawn from them about a stone’s cast, and kneeled down, and prayed,

 42 Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.

 43 And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him.

 44 And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.”

And in Doctrine and Covenants:

“16 For behold, I, God, have suffered these things for all, that they might not suffer if they would repent;

 17 But if they would not repent they must suffer even as I;

 18 Which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit—and would that I might not drink the bitter cup, and shrink—

 19 Nevertheless, glory be to the Father, and I partook and finished my preparations unto the children of men.”

Through this suffering that Christ went through, so much that we can’t even comprehend, He completely submitted His will to the Father’s, so that we can be able to come clean as in Isaiah 1:18:

“18 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.

And this is through the wonderful Atonement, which was made possible by Christ being submissive to the will of the Father. In a devotional given by Elder Bednar, he shared a story of young couple that learned the power of the Atonement and submission to the will of the Father.

“Describing a faithful young couple, married only three weeks when the husband was diagnosed with bone cancer, Elder Bednar related several journal entries written by them. They expressed the “eternally important lessons” learned through the difficult and challenging experiences associated with the cancer.
Elder Bednar told of visiting this couple in the hospital, being asked to give a priesthood blessing, and asking the husband an unplanned but inspired question. “If it is the will of our Heavenly Father, do you have the faith not to be healed?”

As Elder Bednar counseled with this faithful couple, they “increasingly understood” that a blessing of healing could only be received if they had the faith not to be healed and were “willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon [them]” (Mosiah 3:19).

“In other words, they needed to overcome, through the Atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ, the ‘natural man’ tendency in all of us to demand impatiently and insist incessantly on the blessings we want and believe we deserve,” Elder Bednar explained. “We recognized a principle that applies to every devoted disciple: strong faith in the Savior is submissively accepting of His will and timing in our lives—even if the outcome is not what we hoped for or wanted.”

Elder Bednar shared the words of the young husband from his journal: “Having faith is not necessarily knowing that God would heal me, but that He could heal me. I had to believe that He could, and then whether it happened was up to Him. As I allowed those two ideas to coexist in my life, focused faith in Jesus Christ and complete submission to His will, I found greater comfort and peace.””

Although the situations were completely different,Christ was the supreme example of never doubting and having complete faith to say unto the Father, “Not my will, but thine be done.” For each of us, it probably would take a lot of faith to be able to be completely submissive to the will of the Father, especially when the outcome is unknown, new, or different. Like the young couple in the true story given by Elder Bednar. They both had to put aside the “natural man” through the Atonement of Christ and learned/became submissive to the will of the Lord.

Upon this submission to the will of the Father, Christ then suffered/atoned for our sins and afflictions; so that we can become whole and be perfected through Him. Like Brad Wilcox said in his book Continuous Atonement “Perfection is our long-term goal, but for now our goal is progress in that direction – continuous progress that is possible only through the continuous Atonement.” In John 3:16-17, and 3 Ne. 9:21-22, we read of how God loved us so much, that He gave His only begotten son to redeem us from the fall and to be able to repent and return to live with Him again, in accordance to the Plan of Salvation.

“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.

 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.”

And in 3^rd Nephi:

“21 Behold, I have come unto the world to bring redemption unto the world, to save the world from sin.

 22 Therefore, whoso repenteth and cometh unto me as a little child, him will I receive, for of such is the kingdom of God. Behold, for such I have laid down my life, and have taken it up again; therefore repent, and come unto me ye ends of the earth, and be saved.”

President Boyd K. Packer said in an Ensign article, “Before the Crucifixion and afterward, many men have willingly given their lives in selfless acts of heroism. But none faced what Christ endured. Upon Him was the burden of all human transgression, all human guilt. And hanging in the balance was the Atonement. Through His willing act, mercy and justice could be reconciled, eternal law sustained, and that mediation achieved without which mortal man could not be redeemed.

He by choice accepted the penalty in behalf of all mankind for the sum total of all wickedness and depravity; for brutality, immorality, perversion, and corruption; for addiction; for the killings and torture and terror—for all of it that ever had been or all that ever would be enacted upon this earth. In so choosing He faced the awesome power of the evil one, who was not confined to flesh nor subject to mortal pain. That was Gethsemane!

How the Atonement was wrought we do not know. No mortal watched as evil turned away and hid in shame before the Light of that pure being. All wickedness could not quench that Light. When what was done was done, the ransom had been paid. Both death and hell forsook their claim on all who would repent. Men at last were free. Then every soul who ever lived could choose to touch that Light and be redeemed.

By this infinite sacrifice, “through [this] Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel” (Articles of Faith 1:3).”

Through this selfless act that Christ did for us, He made it possible for us to saved, as according that we live the laws and ordinances of the Gospel (Articles of Faith 1:3). The Atonement included when He died on the cross and His spirit became separated from His body.  And on the third day, His spirit and His body were reunited, never to separate again. The reuniting of the spirit and the body is called resurrection and a gift promised to each of us, through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Though Resurrection is promised to each of us, in order to receive that blessing we need to become clean from sin. This was made possible through the Atonement of Christ.

And this completed the Atonement. That He overcame Spiritual and Physical death for us, overcoming all of our sins and affliction, suffering all things out of complete love. All we need to do is to show Him that we accept His Atonement and we will follow His commandments. Only through this we may return and live with God. A story, which may be true, illustrates Christ’s love, submissiveness, and Atonement towards us. This story is known as Seminary Donuts.

There was a boy by the name of Steve who was attending Seminary in Utah. In Utah, Seminary classes are held as part of the curriculum. Brother Christianson taught Seminary at this particular school. He had an open-door policy and would take in any student that had been thrown out of another class as long as they would abide by his rules.

One day, Brother Christianson asked Steve to stay after class so he could talk with him. After class, Brother Christianson pulled Steve aside and said, "You think you're pretty tough, don't you?"

Steve's answer was, "Yeah, I do."

Then Brother Christianson asked, "How many push-ups can you do?"

Steve said, "I do about 200 every night."

"200? That's pretty good, Steve." Brother Christianson said, "Do you think you could do 300?"

Steve replied, "I don't know... I've never done 300 at a time."

"Do you think you could?" again asked Brother Christianson.

"Well, I can try," said Steve.

"Can you do 300 in sets of 10? I need you to do 300 in sets of ten for this to work. Can you do it? I need you to tell me you can do it." Brother Christianson said.

Steve said, "Well... I think I can... yeah, I can do it."

Brother Christianson said, "Good! I need you to do this on Friday."

Friday came and Steve got to class early and sat in the front of the room. When class started, Brother Christianson pulled out a big box of donuts. Everyone was pretty excited - it was Friday, the last class of the day, and they were going to get an extra early start on the weekend.

Brother Christianson went to the first girl in the first row and asked, "Cynthia, do you want a donut?" Cynthia said, "Yes." Brother Christianson then turned to Steve and asked, "Steve, would you do ten push-ups so that Cynthia can have a donut?"

Steve said, "Sure," and jumped down from his desk to do a quick ten. Then Steve again sat in his desk. Brother Christianson put a donut on Cynthia's desk.

Brother Christianson then went to Joe, the next person, and asked, "Joe, do you want a donut?" Joe said, "Yes." Brother Christianson asked, "Steve would you do ten push-ups so Joe can have a donut?" Steve did ten push-ups; Joe got a donut. And so it went, down the first aisle. Steve did ten pushups for every person before they got their donut. And down the second aisle, till Brother Christianson came to Scott.

When Brother Christianson asked, "Scott do you want a donut?"

Scott's reply was "Well, can I do my own pushups?"

Brother Christianson said, "No, Steve has to do them. "

Then Scott said, "Well, I don't want one then."

Brother Christianson then turned to Steve and asked, "Steve, would you do ten push-ups so Scott can have a donut he doesn't want?"

Steve started to do ten push-ups. Scott said, "HEY! I said I didn't want one!"

Brother Christianson said, "Look, this is my classroom, my class, my desks, and my donuts. Just leave it on the desk if you don't want it", and he put a donut on Scott's desk. Now by this time, Steve had begun to slow down a little. He just stayed on the floor between sets because it took too much effort to be getting up and down, and a little perspiration appeared around his brow.

Brother Christianson started down the third row.

Brother Christianson asked Jenny, "Jenny, do you want a donut?" Jenny said, "No". Then Brother Christianson asked Steve, "Steve, would you do ten pushups so Jenny can have a donut that she doesn't want?" Steve did ten; Jenny got a donut.

By now, the students were beginning to say "No" and there were all these uneaten donuts on the desks. Steve was also having to really put forth a lot of effort to get these push-ups done for each donut. There began to be a small pool of sweat on the floor beneath his face, and his arms and brow were beginning to get red because of the physical effort involved.

Brother Christianson asked Robert to watch Steve to make sure he did ten push-ups in a set because he couldn't bear to watch all of Steve's work for all of those uneaten donuts. Robert began to watch Steve closely.

Brother Christianson started down the fourth row. During his class, however, some students had wandered in and sat along the heaters along the sides of the room. When Brother Christianson realized this; he did a quick count and saw that there were now 34 students in the room. He started to worry if Steve would be able to make it.

Brother Christianson went on to the next person, the next, and the next. Near the end of that row, Steve was really having a rough time. He was taking a lot more time to complete each set.

Steve asked Brother Christianson, "Do I have to make my nose touch on each one?"

Brother Christianson thought for a moment, "Well, they're your push-ups. You can do them any way that you want." And Brother Christianson went on.

A few moments later, Jason came to the room and was about to come in when all the students yelled, "NO! Don't come in! Stay out!" Jason didn't know what was going on.

Steve picked up his head and said, "No, let him come."

Brother Christianson said, "You realize that if Jason comes in you will have to do ten push-ups for him."

Steve said, "Yes, let him come in.

" Brother Christianson said, "Okay, I'll let you get Jason's out of the way right now. Jason, do you want a donut?"

"Yes."

"Steve, will you do ten pushups so that Jason can have a donut?"

Steve did ten push-ups very slowly and with great effort. Jason, bewildered, was handed a donut and sat down. Brother Christianson finished the fourth row, then started on those seated on the heaters. Steve's arms were now shaking with each push-up in a struggle to lift him against the force of gravity. Sweat was dropping off his face and, by this time, there was not a dry eye in the room.. Brother Christianson went to Linda, the second to last, and asked, "Linda, do you want a donut?"

Linda, too choked up to talk, just shook her head. Brother Christianson asked Steve, "Steve, would you do ten push-ups so that Linda can have a donut she doesn't want?" Grunting from the effort, Steve did ten very slow push-ups for Linda. Then Brother Christianson turned to the last girl, Susan. "Susan, do you want a donut?"

Susan, with tears flowing down her face, asked, "Brother Christianson, can I help him?"

Brother Christianson, with tears of his own, said, "No, he has to do it alone."

"Steve, would you do ten push-ups so Susan can have a donut?" As Steve very slowly finished his last pushup, with the understanding that he had accomplished all that was required of him, having done 350 pushups, his arms buckled beneath him and he fell to the floor.

Brother Christianson then said, "And so it was, that our Savior, Jesus Christ, pleaded to the Father, "Into thy hands I commend my spirit", and with the understanding that He had done everything that was required of Him, collapsed on the cross and died - even for those that didn't want His gift."

Quote by George Q. Cannon, “The principal question before us is not do we comprehend the atonement, but do we accept it.”

How can we learn to accept the gift of the Atonement?

By letting Him in, trusting Him to help us in our lives; as Christ willingly and lovingly atoned for us, we too must do the same to let Him in. He is waiting on the other side of the door for us to let Him in and accept Him and His Atonement.  In a personal way, I had to learn this single principle. To be able to have enough faith in Him, and trust in Him to know that He knows me and what’s best for me.  I had no idea that I was not letting Him in until I had asked for a blessing, because I was having a hard time with something, in the blessing I was told that the only thing stopping Him from helping me was me. That I was the one on the other side of the door, wanting help and trying to find answers through scriptures and my prayers were just routine, I didn’t realize that all I had to do was open the door and actually let Him in; by meaningful prayers and scripture study, accepting Him and His wonderful Atonement. By letting Him in, doesn’t just mean going to church, reading scriptures, and prayers. But actually listening, having faith and strength through Him to know that everything will turn out and that He knows what you are going through.  He wants to help and is constantly there to help, we just need to let Him and accept Him and His Atonement. He can help us endure all of our trials, sicknesses and pain through the Atonement. That by Letting Him In, we let in something so wonderful and great; the Atonement.

To conclude, I would like to read the words to the hymns “ I stand all Amazed,” and “I know that my Redeemer lives!”.

“1. I stand all amazed at the love Jesus offers me,

Confused at the grace that so fully he proffers me.

I tremble to know that for me he was crucified,

That for me, a sinner, he suffered, he bled and died.

2. I marvel that he would descend from his throne divine

To rescue a soul so rebellious and proud as mine,

That he should extend his great love unto such as I,

Sufficient to own, to redeem, and to justify.

3. I think of his hands pierced and bleeding to pay the debt!

Such mercy, such love and devotion can I forget?

No, no, I will praise and adore at the mercy seat,

Until at the glorified throne I kneel at his feet. (Chorus)

Oh, it is wonderful that he should care for me

Enough to die for me!

Oh, it is wonderful, wonderful to me!”

 

And

“I know that my Redeemer lives.
What comfort this sweet sentence gives!
He lives, he lives, who once was dead.
He lives, my ever-living Head.
He lives to bless me with his love.
He lives to plead for me above.
He lives my hungry soul to feed.
He lives to bless in time of need.

2. He lives to grant me rich supply.
He lives to guide me with his eye.
He lives to comfort me when faint.
He lives to hear my soul's complaint.
He lives to silence all my fears.
He lives to wipe away my tears.
He lives to calm my troubled heart.
He lives all blessings to impart.

3. He lives, my kind, wise heav'nly Friend.
He lives and loves me to the end.
He lives, and while he lives, I'll sing.
He lives, my Prophet, Priest, and King.
He lives and grants me daily breath.
He lives, and I shall conquer death.
He lives my mansion to prepare.
He lives to bring me safely there.

4. He lives! All glory to his name!
He lives, my Savior, still the same.
Oh, sweet the joy this sentence gives:
"I know that my Redeemer lives!"
He lives! All glory to his name!
He lives, my Savior, still the same.
Oh, sweet the joy this sentence gives:
"I know that my Redeemer lives!"

Bear testimony.