On Sunday morning, December 19, 1993, in a special high council meeting, President F. Michael Watson put aside all regular agenda items and invited the members of the stake presidency and high council to share their thoughts and some favorite scriptures about either the Lord Jesus Christ or the Prophet Joseph Smith. In essence, the following represents a summary of the testimony I shared on that occasion. I was serving at the time as the stake executive secretary.
It is amazing how much buying and selling are a part of the celebration of Christmas in our culture. Indeed, the very health of our national economy is measured largely on how much we buy during the holiday season.
Interestingly, the holy scriptures employ monetary terminology in discussing the Atonement of Jesus Christ, the very heart and soul of our religion. Jesus came to “redeem” us, which means to “pay a price for” us. Peter speaks of the Lord’s people as being “a peculiar people” (1 Peter 2:9), which in the original Greek meant “a purchased people.”
I think often we do not appreciate the cost of the Savior’s gift, the price He paid for us, for as the scriptures affirm, we “are bought with a price” (1 Corinthians 6:20; 7:23; see also 2 Peter 2:1), the price being His own “precious blood” (1 Peter 1:19).
Jacob, the brother of Nephi, taught that “he cometh into the world that he may save all men if they will hearken unto his voice; for behold, he suffereth the pains of all men, yea, the pains of every living creature, both men, women, and children, who belong to the family of Adam” (2 Nephi 9:21). That appears to include everyone. If we could somehow remember all the pain and suffering and hurt we have ever experienced personally—mentally or physically or spiritually—and times that by the billions of people that now live or have ever lived on this planet, that might begin to give us an inkling of the price He paid for us. That is a lot of pain!
President John Taylor testified that “in a manner to us incomprehensible and inexplicable, he bore the weight of the sins of the whole world” (Mediation and Atonement, ch. 21). I don’t think we can begin to understand the magnitude of what He went through for us, although the revelations give us glimpses.
Mark records an interesting little detail, not mentioned by the other gospel writers, about the suffering Jesus faced in Gethsemane: “And he taketh with him Peter and James and John, and began to be sore amazed, and to be very heavy” (Mark 14:33). Sore amazed. The Greek renders this passage as “amazed, awestruck, astonished.” Here was the Savior of the world, knowing full well what He had to face, the cup He had to drink, and yet even He was amazed, awestruck, astonished at the weight of it all, of how terrible it was, of how exquisite it would be.
Some 1,800 years later He would talk of that experience: “Therefore, I command you to repent—repent, lest I smite you by the rod of my mouth, and by my wrath, and by my anger, and your sufferings be sore—how sore you know not, how exquisite you know not, how hard to bear you know not.
“For behold, I, God, have suffered these things for all, that they might not suffer if they would repent;
“But if they would not repent they must suffer even as I;
“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—
“Nevertheless, glory be to the Father, and I partook and finished my preparations unto the children of men” (D&C 19:15–19).
That was the price He paid for us, just as similarly the Prophet Joseph Smith gave his life to seal his witness of the reality of the Father and the Son and all that they communicated through him as the Prophet of the Restoration, which “cost the best blood of the nineteenth century to bring them forth for the salvation of a ruined world” (D&C 135:6). There is mention again of the cost.
I am grateful beyond all ability to express for the price that has been paid—not only by the Prophet Joseph Smith, but by all the faithful Saints who have gone before in this dispensation who have made possible what we enjoy here today. I thank the Father and His beloved Son for Their priceless gift, the pearl of great price, that opens the gate to our everlasting salvation in Their presence.
Showing posts with label Atonement. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Atonement. Show all posts
Thursday, August 28, 2008
69. Seeing with an Eye of Faith
A talk I gave in the Bountiful Twentieth Ward at Michael’s missionary farewell on Sunday, August 30, 1992, before he began his mission to the Brazil Manaus Mission. Concerning the writing of the talk I recorded the following in my journal that same day: “Last Thursday about 4:30 in the morning I awoke with some thoughts running through my head about seeing with an eye of faith and felt the distinct impression that I was to get up right then, as opposed to waiting until a more reasonable hour, to look up some scriptures and start writing a talk for sacrament meeting. Between 4:30 and 6:30 that morning I wrote the following talk and was exhausted the rest of the day and the next day. After writing it, I didn't look at or even think about the talk until last night when I read it to Michael to see if it still sounded as good by the light of day as it did at 4:30 in the morning. It did, and I read it today in sacrament meeting, the first time I've ever read an entire talk in church. This is the talk. . . . Tonight as I was telling Claudia the circumstances of coming to write the talk, and the obvious inspiration involved, she was touched deeply by what I said about her efforts during the nineteen years Michael has been growing up and took it, I think rightly so, as evidence of the Lord's love and acceptance of her efforts. That’s a nice feeling to have.”
I am thrilled beyond measure that Michael has been called to Brazil, where I served twenty-plus years ago, to a land and among a people that I love dearly. I want all of you here today to know that it has been a great privilege and blessing in my life these past nineteen years to be honored to be the father of Michael Adam Cleverly. He is a covenant child, prayed here by his mother, who like Hannah of old promised him to the Lord and His service.
The Book of Mormon contains an imagery, an insight into faith that, as far as I can tell, is unique in all of our scriptures. In three places it refers to seeing “with an eye of faith.” As far as I can find, that phrase occurs nowhere else in the scriptures.
Alma, speaking to the Saints in Zarahemla, asked these penetrating questions, which are well for each of us to ask ourselves: “Do ye exercise faith in the redemption of him who created you? Do you look forward with an eye of faith, and view this mortal body raised in immortality, and this corruption raised in incorruption, to stand before God to be judged according to the deeds which have been done in the mortal body?” (Alma 5:15; emphasis added).
And then, about a decade later, this same Alma, preaching among what the record calls “the poor class of people” (Alma 32:2), compares the word to a seed and invites the people to experiment upon it, and says—“And thus, if ye will not nourish the word, looking forward with an eye of faith to the fruit thereof, ye can never pluck of the fruit of the tree of life” (Alma 32:40; emphasis added).
And finally, nearly five centuries later, as Moroni abridges the record of the Jaredites, he writes this inspired summary: “And there were many whose faith was so exceedingly strong, even before Christ came, who could not be kept from within the veil, but truly saw with their eyes the things which they had beheld with an eye of faith, and they were glad” (Ether 12:19; emphasis added).
Looking forward with an eye of faith. Seeing with their eyes the things which they had beheld with an eye of faith.
Let me give two simple illustrations of this principle: In the opening chapters of the Book of Mormon, we read how after traipsing through the desert for some eight years, Lehi and his and his often-less-than-enthusiastic family come to the borders of the sea (to a land, by the way, which they called Bountiful), and little brother Nephi is commanded to build a ship. Nephi knows nothing about building ships. Surviving in the desert, perhaps yes; but building ships, nothing. I don’t know about you, but if I were to build a ship and had that huge ocean staring me in the face, it would take a remarkable leap of faith to want to get in the thing after it was finished and worry about whether it was going to make it.
But Nephi doesn’t hesitate for a minute. Earlier he had seen a panoramic vision of the future of his people upon the promised land, and so he moves forward with what the Lord has commanded him. He has seen with an eye of faith. If his descendants are on the promised land, they apparently have to get there somehow, so he knows the ship won’t spring a leak fifty miles out from shore and everyone drown in the depths of the sea. He has seen with an eye of faith.
A second illustration: Nineteen years ago this Wednesday, Claudia lay in a hospital bed in Provo with her firstborn son in her arms, just hours old, counting his fingers and toes (as I suppose new mothers do), but even more importantly thinking ahead, among other things, to this very day. She was planning in her mind the future course of his life, envisioning his serving a mission, looking forward with an eye of faith. And so what does she spend the next nineteen years doing? The kinds of things the Lord’s prophets have told parents to do to get their sons ready and worthy to serve missions. She has acted in faith, seeing with her eyes the things which she had beheld with the eye of faith.
The Prophet Joseph Smith taught that faith was a principle of action and a principle of power. It is the Lord’s intent to save us. That’s what His work is all about. That’s what He’s promised to do. And He has sufficient power to do what He says He will do.
The only thing, as I understand it, that can prevent His saving us is our own selves, because He’s granted us our agency and we’re busy choosing every moment of our lives whether we want Him on the one hand or the things of the world on the other. We can’t have both. They’re mutually exclusive.
And that is another principal message of the Book of Mormon: we can set our hearts on the Lord, or we can set our hearts on the world and its riches and fine apparel and spacious buildings and the lusts of the flesh and on and on. But we can’t have both. We have to face one direction or the other.
Elder Boyd K. Packer, in an address some years ago to priesthood leaders, asked the question: “Which way do you face?” We can’t face both directions.
So, what do we see with our eye of faith? Do we envision, as Alma taught, “Can you imagine to yourselves that ye hear the voice of the Lord, saying unto you, in that day; Come unto me ye blessed, for behold, your works have been the works of righteousness upon the face of the earth?” (Alma 5:16).
Can we look forward with an eye of faith and imagine ourselves saved in the celestial kingdom of God? I suspect that if we can’t, we may not in fact be there. Because, if there is any message at all I get from the Book of Mormon, it’s that the Lord will give each one of us exactly what we desire.
And that brings us down to the precise reason Michael is going off to Brazil to preach the gospel. In the first section of the Doctrine and Covenants, the Lord says that “the weak things of the world shall come forth and break down the mighty and strong ones” (D&C 1:19), and He’s talking of course about missionaries just like Michael, and one of the reasons is “that faith also might increase in the earth” (D&C 1:21).
And the reason that the Lord wants faith to increase in the earth is so that more of His children will come unto Christ and be saved. Faith leads to repentance, and repentance leads to the ordinances of the gospel—starting with baptism—and that’s how a person comes unto Christ.
The doctrinal basis of missionary work is contained in the Savior’s statement to Nicodemus: “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God” (John 3:5). The kingdom of God referred to here is the celestial kingdom.
Let me quote here from a talk Elder Dallin H. Oaks gave earlier this summer to new missionaries and mission presidents at the MTC:
“We do not preach and teach in order to ‘bring people into the Church’ or to increase the membership of the Church. We do not preach and teach just to persuade people to live better lives. We honor and appreciate the many ministers and others who are involved in the kind of ministry that makes bad men good and good men better. That is important, but we offer something more. You can qualify for the terrestrial kingdom instead of the telestial kingdom without the aid of this Church. We are concerned with a higher destination.
“The purpose of our missionary work is to help the children of God fulfill a condition prescribed by our Savior and Redeemer. We preach and teach in order to baptize the children of God so that they can be saved in the celestial kingdom instead of being damned in a lesser kingdom. We do missionary work in order to baptize. That is the doctrinal basis of missionary work” (“Baptism, the Atonement, and the Doctrinal Basis of Missionary Work,” MTC devotional message, June 23, 1992, 2).
Let me digress here for a moment. The eleventh chapter of 3 Nephi in the Book of Mormon records the initial message the resurrected Savior gave when appeared to the Nephites. Just think what the Nephites had been through: cataclysmic destructions had just rearranged the entire landscape (I think that was to get their attention), and now the Savior is there and speaking.
We don’t have the time today to read it, but 13 times in that eleventh chapter the Savior uses the word baptism. For 600 years the Nephites had been looking forward to this moment: their prophets taught about it in their conferences, the faithful Nephite parents had mentioned it in their family home evenings, and here He is (the very God of the universe), and He talks to them over and over and over about baptism:
“And whosoever believeth in me, and is baptized, the same shall be saved; and they are they who shall inherit the kingdom of God” (3 Nephi 11:33).
And so to continue quoting from Elder Oaks:
“Our preaching and teaching is unto baptism. . . . Our missionary work and our baptisms are designed to offer all mankind the means of overcoming what we call spiritual death.
“. . . Baptism is a requirement, but why? Why is it necessary to be baptized in this way and by one holding authority? I do not know. But what I do know is that the remission of sins is only made possible by the atoning sacrifice of our Savior, Jesus Christ, and that he has prescribed that condition, again and again. His sacrifice paid the price for my sins, and he has prescribed the conditions upon which I can be saved by his payment. That is reason enough for me.
“. . . As the prophets of this dispensation have told us, the missionaries’ purpose of being in the mission field ‘is to save souls, to baptize converts,’ which is to open the doors of the celestial kingdom to the sons and daughters of God.
“No one else can do this.
“Other churches cannot do it.
“Good Christian living cannot do it.
“Good faith, good desires, and good reasoning cannot do it.
“Only the priesthood of God can administer a baptism that will satisfy the divine decree that ‘Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God’ (John 3:5).
“The doctrinal basis of missionary work is the word of God, revealed in every age, that man cannot be saved in the celestial kingdom without the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and that the only way to lay claim to the merits of that atonement is to follow the command of its author: ‘Repent, and be baptized every one of you’ (Acts 2:38).” (“Baptism, the Atonement, and the Doctrinal Basis of Missionary Work,” MTC devotional message, June 23, 1992, 3, 8).
Now, let me conclude with this instruction from the Lord, given through the Prophet Joseph Smith in June 1829, nearly a year before the Church was organized: “And now, behold, I say unto you, that the thing which will be of the most worth unto you will be to declare repentance unto this people, that you may bring souls unto me, that you may rest with them in the kingdom of my Father” (D&C 15:6; 16:6).
That applies to all of us. And may that be our happy lot is my humble prayer. I want all of you here today to know, as I think you do, that I love the Lord Jesus Christ, I love His gospel, I love His servants, and I delight in His word. I close with just one verse of a hymn that I have come to love very much:
And when I think that God, his Son not sparing,
Sent him to die, I scarce can take it in,
That on the cross my burden gladly bearing
He bled and died to take away my sin,
Then sings my soul, my Savior God to thee,
How great thou art! How great thou art!
(Stuart K. Hine, Hymns [1985], 86)
In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
I am thrilled beyond measure that Michael has been called to Brazil, where I served twenty-plus years ago, to a land and among a people that I love dearly. I want all of you here today to know that it has been a great privilege and blessing in my life these past nineteen years to be honored to be the father of Michael Adam Cleverly. He is a covenant child, prayed here by his mother, who like Hannah of old promised him to the Lord and His service.
The Book of Mormon contains an imagery, an insight into faith that, as far as I can tell, is unique in all of our scriptures. In three places it refers to seeing “with an eye of faith.” As far as I can find, that phrase occurs nowhere else in the scriptures.
Alma, speaking to the Saints in Zarahemla, asked these penetrating questions, which are well for each of us to ask ourselves: “Do ye exercise faith in the redemption of him who created you? Do you look forward with an eye of faith, and view this mortal body raised in immortality, and this corruption raised in incorruption, to stand before God to be judged according to the deeds which have been done in the mortal body?” (Alma 5:15; emphasis added).
And then, about a decade later, this same Alma, preaching among what the record calls “the poor class of people” (Alma 32:2), compares the word to a seed and invites the people to experiment upon it, and says—“And thus, if ye will not nourish the word, looking forward with an eye of faith to the fruit thereof, ye can never pluck of the fruit of the tree of life” (Alma 32:40; emphasis added).
And finally, nearly five centuries later, as Moroni abridges the record of the Jaredites, he writes this inspired summary: “And there were many whose faith was so exceedingly strong, even before Christ came, who could not be kept from within the veil, but truly saw with their eyes the things which they had beheld with an eye of faith, and they were glad” (Ether 12:19; emphasis added).
Looking forward with an eye of faith. Seeing with their eyes the things which they had beheld with an eye of faith.
Let me give two simple illustrations of this principle: In the opening chapters of the Book of Mormon, we read how after traipsing through the desert for some eight years, Lehi and his and his often-less-than-enthusiastic family come to the borders of the sea (to a land, by the way, which they called Bountiful), and little brother Nephi is commanded to build a ship. Nephi knows nothing about building ships. Surviving in the desert, perhaps yes; but building ships, nothing. I don’t know about you, but if I were to build a ship and had that huge ocean staring me in the face, it would take a remarkable leap of faith to want to get in the thing after it was finished and worry about whether it was going to make it.
But Nephi doesn’t hesitate for a minute. Earlier he had seen a panoramic vision of the future of his people upon the promised land, and so he moves forward with what the Lord has commanded him. He has seen with an eye of faith. If his descendants are on the promised land, they apparently have to get there somehow, so he knows the ship won’t spring a leak fifty miles out from shore and everyone drown in the depths of the sea. He has seen with an eye of faith.
A second illustration: Nineteen years ago this Wednesday, Claudia lay in a hospital bed in Provo with her firstborn son in her arms, just hours old, counting his fingers and toes (as I suppose new mothers do), but even more importantly thinking ahead, among other things, to this very day. She was planning in her mind the future course of his life, envisioning his serving a mission, looking forward with an eye of faith. And so what does she spend the next nineteen years doing? The kinds of things the Lord’s prophets have told parents to do to get their sons ready and worthy to serve missions. She has acted in faith, seeing with her eyes the things which she had beheld with the eye of faith.
The Prophet Joseph Smith taught that faith was a principle of action and a principle of power. It is the Lord’s intent to save us. That’s what His work is all about. That’s what He’s promised to do. And He has sufficient power to do what He says He will do.
The only thing, as I understand it, that can prevent His saving us is our own selves, because He’s granted us our agency and we’re busy choosing every moment of our lives whether we want Him on the one hand or the things of the world on the other. We can’t have both. They’re mutually exclusive.
And that is another principal message of the Book of Mormon: we can set our hearts on the Lord, or we can set our hearts on the world and its riches and fine apparel and spacious buildings and the lusts of the flesh and on and on. But we can’t have both. We have to face one direction or the other.
Elder Boyd K. Packer, in an address some years ago to priesthood leaders, asked the question: “Which way do you face?” We can’t face both directions.
So, what do we see with our eye of faith? Do we envision, as Alma taught, “Can you imagine to yourselves that ye hear the voice of the Lord, saying unto you, in that day; Come unto me ye blessed, for behold, your works have been the works of righteousness upon the face of the earth?” (Alma 5:16).
Can we look forward with an eye of faith and imagine ourselves saved in the celestial kingdom of God? I suspect that if we can’t, we may not in fact be there. Because, if there is any message at all I get from the Book of Mormon, it’s that the Lord will give each one of us exactly what we desire.
And that brings us down to the precise reason Michael is going off to Brazil to preach the gospel. In the first section of the Doctrine and Covenants, the Lord says that “the weak things of the world shall come forth and break down the mighty and strong ones” (D&C 1:19), and He’s talking of course about missionaries just like Michael, and one of the reasons is “that faith also might increase in the earth” (D&C 1:21).
And the reason that the Lord wants faith to increase in the earth is so that more of His children will come unto Christ and be saved. Faith leads to repentance, and repentance leads to the ordinances of the gospel—starting with baptism—and that’s how a person comes unto Christ.
The doctrinal basis of missionary work is contained in the Savior’s statement to Nicodemus: “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God” (John 3:5). The kingdom of God referred to here is the celestial kingdom.
Let me quote here from a talk Elder Dallin H. Oaks gave earlier this summer to new missionaries and mission presidents at the MTC:
“We do not preach and teach in order to ‘bring people into the Church’ or to increase the membership of the Church. We do not preach and teach just to persuade people to live better lives. We honor and appreciate the many ministers and others who are involved in the kind of ministry that makes bad men good and good men better. That is important, but we offer something more. You can qualify for the terrestrial kingdom instead of the telestial kingdom without the aid of this Church. We are concerned with a higher destination.
“The purpose of our missionary work is to help the children of God fulfill a condition prescribed by our Savior and Redeemer. We preach and teach in order to baptize the children of God so that they can be saved in the celestial kingdom instead of being damned in a lesser kingdom. We do missionary work in order to baptize. That is the doctrinal basis of missionary work” (“Baptism, the Atonement, and the Doctrinal Basis of Missionary Work,” MTC devotional message, June 23, 1992, 2).
Let me digress here for a moment. The eleventh chapter of 3 Nephi in the Book of Mormon records the initial message the resurrected Savior gave when appeared to the Nephites. Just think what the Nephites had been through: cataclysmic destructions had just rearranged the entire landscape (I think that was to get their attention), and now the Savior is there and speaking.
We don’t have the time today to read it, but 13 times in that eleventh chapter the Savior uses the word baptism. For 600 years the Nephites had been looking forward to this moment: their prophets taught about it in their conferences, the faithful Nephite parents had mentioned it in their family home evenings, and here He is (the very God of the universe), and He talks to them over and over and over about baptism:
“And whosoever believeth in me, and is baptized, the same shall be saved; and they are they who shall inherit the kingdom of God” (3 Nephi 11:33).
And so to continue quoting from Elder Oaks:
“Our preaching and teaching is unto baptism. . . . Our missionary work and our baptisms are designed to offer all mankind the means of overcoming what we call spiritual death.
“. . . Baptism is a requirement, but why? Why is it necessary to be baptized in this way and by one holding authority? I do not know. But what I do know is that the remission of sins is only made possible by the atoning sacrifice of our Savior, Jesus Christ, and that he has prescribed that condition, again and again. His sacrifice paid the price for my sins, and he has prescribed the conditions upon which I can be saved by his payment. That is reason enough for me.
“. . . As the prophets of this dispensation have told us, the missionaries’ purpose of being in the mission field ‘is to save souls, to baptize converts,’ which is to open the doors of the celestial kingdom to the sons and daughters of God.
“No one else can do this.
“Other churches cannot do it.
“Good Christian living cannot do it.
“Good faith, good desires, and good reasoning cannot do it.
“Only the priesthood of God can administer a baptism that will satisfy the divine decree that ‘Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God’ (John 3:5).
“The doctrinal basis of missionary work is the word of God, revealed in every age, that man cannot be saved in the celestial kingdom without the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and that the only way to lay claim to the merits of that atonement is to follow the command of its author: ‘Repent, and be baptized every one of you’ (Acts 2:38).” (“Baptism, the Atonement, and the Doctrinal Basis of Missionary Work,” MTC devotional message, June 23, 1992, 3, 8).
Now, let me conclude with this instruction from the Lord, given through the Prophet Joseph Smith in June 1829, nearly a year before the Church was organized: “And now, behold, I say unto you, that the thing which will be of the most worth unto you will be to declare repentance unto this people, that you may bring souls unto me, that you may rest with them in the kingdom of my Father” (D&C 15:6; 16:6).
That applies to all of us. And may that be our happy lot is my humble prayer. I want all of you here today to know, as I think you do, that I love the Lord Jesus Christ, I love His gospel, I love His servants, and I delight in His word. I close with just one verse of a hymn that I have come to love very much:
And when I think that God, his Son not sparing,
Sent him to die, I scarce can take it in,
That on the cross my burden gladly bearing
He bled and died to take away my sin,
Then sings my soul, my Savior God to thee,
How great thou art! How great thou art!
(Stuart K. Hine, Hymns [1985], 86)
In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Saturday, August 23, 2008
64. Atonement, Crucifixion, and Resurrection
An edited version of a talk I gave as a high councilor in the sacrament meeting of the Bountiful Twentieth Ward, Bountiful Utah South Stake, on Sunday, November 12, 1989. I had been called to serve on the high council in March 1987, after serving for about twenty months as second counselor in the bishopric of the Bountiful Twentieth Ward.
Today I want to speak to the young people who are here, those who do not yet know for themselves—independent of their parents or others—that Jesus was the Savior and that His gospel has been restored in our day and that this work is true. And I speak to any others who are still searching, still wondering, still trying to figure out what the gospel is all about. The rest of you can listen if you want.
By assignment, I have been asked to speak today on the atonement and crucifixion and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is an awesome responsibility.
The Prophet Joseph Smith once declared, “The fundamental principles of our religion are the testimony of the Apostles and Prophets, concerning Jesus Christ, that He died, was buried, and rose again the third day, and ascended into heaven; and all other things which pertain to our religion are only appendages to it” (Teachings, 121).
All other things which pertain to our religion are only appendages to it. All other things. These events—the Last Supper, the introduction of the sacrament, the Savior’s ordeal in the Garden of Gethsemane, the betrayal, the trial, the humiliation, the suffering, his hanging on the cross, his death and glorious resurrection—are the crowning events of Christ’s mortal ministry. They are at the center, the heart, the core of what our religion is all about.
Elder Bruce R. McConkie has said that “nothing in the entire plan of salvation compares in any way in importance with that most transcendent of all events, the atoning sacrifice of our Lord. It is the most important single thing that has ever occurred in the entire history of created things; it is the rock foundation upon which the gospel and all other things rest” (Mormon Doctrine [1966], 60; quoted by David B. Haight in Ensign, Nov. 1989, 60).
In 1935 the First Presidency of the Church—consisting then of Presidents Heber J. Grant, J. Reuben Clark, Jr., and David O. McKay—declared, “Two great truths must be accepted by mankind if they shall save themselves; first, that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the Only Begotten, the very Son of God, whose atoning blood and resurrection save us from the physical and spiritual death brought to us by the Fall; and next, that God has again restored to the earth, in these last days, through the Prophet Joseph Smith, His holy Priesthood with the fulness of the everlasting gospel, for the salvation of all men on the earth. Without these truths man may not hope for the riches of the life hereafter” (Improvement Era, Apr. 1935, 194–95).
Hugh B. Brown, who for many years was a member of the Council of the Twelve and for some years a counselor in the First Presidency to President David O. McKay, had perhaps as profound an influence on my young life as any General Authority of that generation. I introduce my remarks today with a story that Elder Brown once told:
“I had a companion,” said Elder Brown, “a fellow officer, who was a very rich man, highly educated. He was a lawyer, had great power, was self-sufficient and he said to me as we often talked of religion (because he knew who I was), ‘There is nothing in life that I would not like to have that I cannot buy with money.’
“Shortly thereafter, he and I with two other officers were assigned to go to the city of Arras, France, which was under siege. It had been evacuated, and upon arrival there we thought there was no one in the city. We noted that the fire of the enemy was concentrated on the cathedral. We made our way to that cathedral and went in. There we found a little woman kneeling at the altar. We paused, respecting her devotion. Then shortly she arose, wrapped her little shawl around her frail shoulders, and came tottering down the aisle. The man among us who could speak better French said, ‘Are you in trouble?’
“She straightened her shoulders, pulled in her chin, and said, ‘No, I’m not in trouble. I was in trouble when I came in here, but I’ve left it at the altar.’
“‘And what was your trouble?’
“She said, ‘I received word this morning that my fifth son has given his life for France. Their father was first, and then one by one all of them have gone. But,’ straightening again, ‘I have no trouble; I’ve left it there because I believe in the im¬mortality of the soul. I believe that men will live again after death. I know that I shall meet my loved ones again.’
“When the little soul went out, there were tears in the eyes of the men who were there, and the one who had said to me that he could purchase anything with money turned to me and said, ‘You and I have seen men in battle display courage and valor that is admirable, but in all my life I have never seen anything to compare with the faith, the fortitude, and the courage of that little woman.’
“Then he said, ‘I would give all the money I have if I could have something of what she has.’”
I would give all the money I have if I could have something of what she has. A Book of Mormon king expressed the same thing in different words: “I will give away all my sins to know thee, and that I may be raised from the dead, and be saved at the last day” (Alma 22:18). And, of course, that is precisely what He does require—that we give away all our sins to know Him and to be saved at the last day.
In the Garden of Eden, Adam introduced death into the world—first, a temporal or physical death, the separation of our spirits from our bodies, and second, a spiritual death, which is a separation or an alienation of our spirits from God.
We are in a fallen state, the Book of Mormon teaches us, and without the Savior’s atoning sacrifice to lift us out of that fallen condition, we would be hopelessly, eternally lost. In and of ourselves, we could never overcome the effects of the temporal death or the spiritual death. When our bodies die and are placed in the grave, they would remain there forever, and there would never be a resurrection. And we would be banished eternally from the presence of our Heavenly Father, for no unclean thing can dwell in His presence, and all of us who have reached the age of accountability have sinned and have fallen short and have become unclean.
Elder Boyd K. Packer some years ago, in what he called the most important message he had ever delivered, spoke of the Atonement of Jesus Christ and how He stands as the Mediator between us in our sinful, fallen state and the demands of the eternal law of justice.
It is as though we, in our youthful foolishness, had contracted a great debt quite literally beyond our ability to repay. We knew someday the contract would fall due and we would have to pay, but that day seemed so distant, so far in the future, that we would worry about it later.
Well, as it always happens, the day of accounting arrived, and the contract was due. And our creditor arrived to demand payment. We could not pay; he insisted that we pay.
“Will you show me no mercy?” we pleaded.
“Ah, but mercy is always so one-sided,” he replied.
And there we stood facing each other, neither party wanting to give, our creditor demanding that which he claimed was justly his, we the debtor begging for mercy. It seemed that both could not be satisfied.
And then a Mediator steps forward. He says to the creditor, “I will pay you. It will be just. You can ask for no more.” And turning to us, the debtor, He says, “I will extend mercy to you, but on my own terms.”
And what are those terms? Simply stated, that we have faith in Him, that we repent of our sins, that we express a public willingness to humble ourselves and follow Him into the waters of baptism as a witness that we desire to take His name upon us and follow Him always, that we receive His Holy Spirit to purge out all the uncleanliness within us, that we endure in faith to the end of our lives.
A small price to pay on our part considering what it cost on His part.
Well, His atonement, worked out in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the cross, paid the price. He gave His life for us—for you, for me.
Some lines from one of the great hymns of Christianity, now in our hymnbook, express better than I ever could the overwhelming love and awe and wonder I feel:
And when I think that God, his Son not sparing,
Sent him to die, I scarce can take it in,
That on the cross my burden gladly bearing
He bled and died to take away my sin.
(Stuart K. Hine, Hymns [1985], 86)
Elder McConkie, in the April 1985 general conference, just days before his death delivered a powerful witness of the Lord Jesus Christ:
“His atonement is the most transcendent event that ever has or will ever occur from Creation’s dawn through all ages of a never-ending eternity.
“It is the supreme act of goodness and grace that only a God could perform. . . .
“As pertaining to Jesus Christ, I testify that he is the Son of the Living God and was crucified for the sins of the world. He is our Lord, our God, and our King. This I know of myself independent of any other person.
“I am one of his witnesses, and in a coming day I shall feel the nail marks in his hands and in his feet and shall wet his feet with my tears.
“But I shall not know any better then than I know now that he is God’s Almighty Son, that he is our Savior and Redeemer, and that salvation comes in and through his atoning blood and in no other way” (Ensign, May 1985, 11).
No one who heard Elder McConkie bear that powerful testimony will ever forget it. I have thought about that witness often since I heard it, and I have concluded I can say the same thing: I am one of His witnesses, and in a coming day I too shall wet His feet with my tears, and I shall not know any better then than I know now that He is God’s Almighty Son and that salvation comes in and through His atoning blood and in no other way. The Holy Ghost has revealed that knowledge to my soul.
“How do you prove spiritual truths?” asked Elder McConkie. “How do you prove the resurrection? How do you prove that the Father and the Son appeared to Joseph Smith? Or that any of the angelic ministrants came who gave him keys and powers and authorities as this was established? Well, as pertaining to Jesus’ day: If Jesus rose from the dead, he is the Son of God! If he is the Son of God, his gospel is true! If his gospel is true, men must believe and obey at their peril! They must accept his truths and be baptized and live the law, or they will be damned! Now what this comes down to is that if the apostles in that day had the power and ability to convince men that Jesus rose from the dead, then they had established the truth and divinity of the Work! And how do you prove the resurrection? As we are going to see, you prove it by testimony” (“The Life of Christ,” address given at the seminar for new mission presidents and wives, June 22, 1979, 2).
Then Elder McConkie proceeds to recount some of the scriptural witnesses of the Savior’s resurrection as recorded in the New Testament. The first was Mary Magdalene, the first mortal to see a resurrected person. She became the first witness of the resurrection. And then there were appearances to other women who had followed Him and to Peter, who was to be the president of the Church.
Later, in the afternoon of that first Easter day, the resurrected Lord appeared to two disciples on their way from Jerusalem to Emmaus, a village apparently seven or eight miles from Jerusalem, about the distance from Bountiful to Salt Lake City. As the two disciples walked along, a stranger joined them and asked them what they were talking about. What? Are you a stranger here? Don’t you know what’s going on? Don’t you listen to the news? (see Luke 24:18–21).
Then He said to them, “O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken” (Luke 24:25), and He proceeded for the next couple of hours as they walked along to unfold the ancient scriptures concerning Himself. As they arrived at Emmaus, Jesus made as though He would go on, but they insisted that He stop and eat with them. Abide with us, they said, ’tis eventide (see Luke 24:29). So He accepted their invitation, and as He was blessing and breaking the bread the eyes of their understanding were opened and they recognized the resurrected Jesus, and then He disappeared out of their sight.
“Did not our hearts burn within us?” they said to each other as they hurried back to Jerusalem to join an assembly of other disciples who were gathered together that first Easter evening. And as they brought the joyful tale that Jesus was indeed risen, the resurrected Lord appeared again and showed them his hands and his feet and ate in their presence.
There were various other appearances, some of which are recorded in the New Testament record and also in Third Nephi in the Book of Mormon—all affirming that Jesus was indeed the risen Lord, the resurrected Savior, the very Son of God, who died to save us from the temporal and spiritual death that had been introduced into the world.
There is one other witness I want to mention. Elder David B. Haight, in the recent general conference just a month ago, shared a deeply personal and sacred experience he had last spring when he was unconscious after he had had his heart attack. Elder Haight said:
“During the hours and days that followed, there was impressed again and again upon my mind the eternal mission and exalted position of the Son of Man. I witness to you that He is Jesus the Christ, the Son of God, Savior to all, Redeemer of all mankind, Bestower of infinite love, mercy, and forgiveness, the Light and Life of the world” (Ensign, Nov. 1989, 59).
He then told of the panoramic view he had of the Savior’s earthly ministry: His baptism, His teaching, His healing the sick and lame, the mock trial, His crucifixion, His resurrection and ascension.
“There followed,” Elder Haight continued, “scenes of His earthly ministry to my mind in impressive detail, confirming scriptural eye-witness accounts. I was being taught, and the eyes of my understanding were opened by the Holy Spirit of God so as to behold many things.
“The first scene was of the Savior and His Apostles in the upper chamber on the eve of His betrayal. Following the Passover supper, He instructed and prepared the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper for His dearest friends as a remembrance of His coming sacrifice. It was so impressively portrayed to me—the overwhelming love of the Savior for each. I witnessed His thoughtful concern for significant details—the washing of the dusty feet of each Apostle, His breaking and blessing of the loaf of dark bread and blessing of the wine, then His dreadful disclosure that one would betray Him.
“He explained Judas’s departure and told the others of the events soon to take place.
“. . . My soul was taught over and over again the events of the betrayal, the mock trial, the scourging of the flesh of even on of the Godhead. I witnessed his struggling up the hill in His weakened condition carrying the cross and His being stretched upon it as it lay on the ground, that the crude spikes could be driven with a mallet into His hands and wrists and feet to secure His body as it hung on the cross for public display.
“Crucifixion—the horrible and painful death which He suffered—was chosen from the beginning. By that excruciating death, He descended below all things, as is recorded, that through His resurrection He would ascend above all things” (Ensign, Nov. 1989, 60).
Well, my young friends, what does all this mean? What does it have to do us here and now? What does it have to do with the way we view the world and understand the gospel? and how we treat others? and the way we live our lives?
At the beginning I shared a story told by Hugh B. Brown. When I was 18 years old, a freshman at Brigham Young University, I had one of the pivotal experiences of my life. President Brown, then a counselor in the First Presidency, spoke that fall at the October 1967 general conference. It was in the priesthood session, and President Brown said:
“O Father, help these young men who are listening tonight, when they go home to get on their knees and commit themselves to thee; and then they may know, and I promise them that they may know, that with thy help they need not fear the future” (Improvement Era, Dec. 1967, 92).
I went home that night, back to my room, and knelt down and offered my life to the Savior and committed everything I had—my time, my talents, my means, my energies—to the Lord for the building of His kingdom. I placed my life on the altar, just as the little woman we mentioned at the beginning placed her burdens on the altar. I have not always lived up to that commitment, but I have tried, and every time I have tried the Lord has blessed me with added blessings and understanding and knowledge and revelation.
So I urge you to go and do likewise. Get on your knees and plead with Heavenly Father to let you know these things are true, that Jesus really was and is all that has been said and written about Him, and that He really did do for us what we’ve talked about here today. Commit your lives to Him and His cause. Give Him everything you have.
That’s one thing we can do as a result of knowing these things. What’s another? Father Lehi—and this is in conclusion—Father Lehi taught his son Jacob: “Wherefore, redemption cometh in and through the Holy Messiah; for he is full of grace and truth.
“Behold, he offereth himself a sacrifice for sin, to answer the ends of the law, unto all those who have a broken heart and a contrite spirit; and unto none else can the ends of the law be answered.
“Wherefore, how great the importance to make these things known unto the inhabitants of the earth . . .” (2 Nephi 2:6–8).
How great the importance to make these things known unto the inhabitants of the earth! We have to be missionaries. We have to share these truths with all of our Father’s other children. We have to go out in the world and tell these things to every living creature.
“. . . Wherefore, how great the importance to make these things known unto the inhabitants of the earth, that they may know that there is no flesh that can dwell in the presence of God, save it be through the merits, and mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah, who layeth down his life according to the flesh, and taketh it again by the power of the Spirit, that he may bring to pass the resurrection of the dead, being the first that should rise.
“Wherefore, he is the firstfruits unto God, inasmuch as he shall make intercession for all the children of men; and they that believe in him shall be saved” (2 Nephi 2:8–9).
Today I want to speak to the young people who are here, those who do not yet know for themselves—independent of their parents or others—that Jesus was the Savior and that His gospel has been restored in our day and that this work is true. And I speak to any others who are still searching, still wondering, still trying to figure out what the gospel is all about. The rest of you can listen if you want.
By assignment, I have been asked to speak today on the atonement and crucifixion and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is an awesome responsibility.
The Prophet Joseph Smith once declared, “The fundamental principles of our religion are the testimony of the Apostles and Prophets, concerning Jesus Christ, that He died, was buried, and rose again the third day, and ascended into heaven; and all other things which pertain to our religion are only appendages to it” (Teachings, 121).
All other things which pertain to our religion are only appendages to it. All other things. These events—the Last Supper, the introduction of the sacrament, the Savior’s ordeal in the Garden of Gethsemane, the betrayal, the trial, the humiliation, the suffering, his hanging on the cross, his death and glorious resurrection—are the crowning events of Christ’s mortal ministry. They are at the center, the heart, the core of what our religion is all about.
Elder Bruce R. McConkie has said that “nothing in the entire plan of salvation compares in any way in importance with that most transcendent of all events, the atoning sacrifice of our Lord. It is the most important single thing that has ever occurred in the entire history of created things; it is the rock foundation upon which the gospel and all other things rest” (Mormon Doctrine [1966], 60; quoted by David B. Haight in Ensign, Nov. 1989, 60).
In 1935 the First Presidency of the Church—consisting then of Presidents Heber J. Grant, J. Reuben Clark, Jr., and David O. McKay—declared, “Two great truths must be accepted by mankind if they shall save themselves; first, that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the Only Begotten, the very Son of God, whose atoning blood and resurrection save us from the physical and spiritual death brought to us by the Fall; and next, that God has again restored to the earth, in these last days, through the Prophet Joseph Smith, His holy Priesthood with the fulness of the everlasting gospel, for the salvation of all men on the earth. Without these truths man may not hope for the riches of the life hereafter” (Improvement Era, Apr. 1935, 194–95).
Hugh B. Brown, who for many years was a member of the Council of the Twelve and for some years a counselor in the First Presidency to President David O. McKay, had perhaps as profound an influence on my young life as any General Authority of that generation. I introduce my remarks today with a story that Elder Brown once told:
“I had a companion,” said Elder Brown, “a fellow officer, who was a very rich man, highly educated. He was a lawyer, had great power, was self-sufficient and he said to me as we often talked of religion (because he knew who I was), ‘There is nothing in life that I would not like to have that I cannot buy with money.’
“Shortly thereafter, he and I with two other officers were assigned to go to the city of Arras, France, which was under siege. It had been evacuated, and upon arrival there we thought there was no one in the city. We noted that the fire of the enemy was concentrated on the cathedral. We made our way to that cathedral and went in. There we found a little woman kneeling at the altar. We paused, respecting her devotion. Then shortly she arose, wrapped her little shawl around her frail shoulders, and came tottering down the aisle. The man among us who could speak better French said, ‘Are you in trouble?’
“She straightened her shoulders, pulled in her chin, and said, ‘No, I’m not in trouble. I was in trouble when I came in here, but I’ve left it at the altar.’
“‘And what was your trouble?’
“She said, ‘I received word this morning that my fifth son has given his life for France. Their father was first, and then one by one all of them have gone. But,’ straightening again, ‘I have no trouble; I’ve left it there because I believe in the im¬mortality of the soul. I believe that men will live again after death. I know that I shall meet my loved ones again.’
“When the little soul went out, there were tears in the eyes of the men who were there, and the one who had said to me that he could purchase anything with money turned to me and said, ‘You and I have seen men in battle display courage and valor that is admirable, but in all my life I have never seen anything to compare with the faith, the fortitude, and the courage of that little woman.’
“Then he said, ‘I would give all the money I have if I could have something of what she has.’”
I would give all the money I have if I could have something of what she has. A Book of Mormon king expressed the same thing in different words: “I will give away all my sins to know thee, and that I may be raised from the dead, and be saved at the last day” (Alma 22:18). And, of course, that is precisely what He does require—that we give away all our sins to know Him and to be saved at the last day.
In the Garden of Eden, Adam introduced death into the world—first, a temporal or physical death, the separation of our spirits from our bodies, and second, a spiritual death, which is a separation or an alienation of our spirits from God.
We are in a fallen state, the Book of Mormon teaches us, and without the Savior’s atoning sacrifice to lift us out of that fallen condition, we would be hopelessly, eternally lost. In and of ourselves, we could never overcome the effects of the temporal death or the spiritual death. When our bodies die and are placed in the grave, they would remain there forever, and there would never be a resurrection. And we would be banished eternally from the presence of our Heavenly Father, for no unclean thing can dwell in His presence, and all of us who have reached the age of accountability have sinned and have fallen short and have become unclean.
Elder Boyd K. Packer some years ago, in what he called the most important message he had ever delivered, spoke of the Atonement of Jesus Christ and how He stands as the Mediator between us in our sinful, fallen state and the demands of the eternal law of justice.
It is as though we, in our youthful foolishness, had contracted a great debt quite literally beyond our ability to repay. We knew someday the contract would fall due and we would have to pay, but that day seemed so distant, so far in the future, that we would worry about it later.
Well, as it always happens, the day of accounting arrived, and the contract was due. And our creditor arrived to demand payment. We could not pay; he insisted that we pay.
“Will you show me no mercy?” we pleaded.
“Ah, but mercy is always so one-sided,” he replied.
And there we stood facing each other, neither party wanting to give, our creditor demanding that which he claimed was justly his, we the debtor begging for mercy. It seemed that both could not be satisfied.
And then a Mediator steps forward. He says to the creditor, “I will pay you. It will be just. You can ask for no more.” And turning to us, the debtor, He says, “I will extend mercy to you, but on my own terms.”
And what are those terms? Simply stated, that we have faith in Him, that we repent of our sins, that we express a public willingness to humble ourselves and follow Him into the waters of baptism as a witness that we desire to take His name upon us and follow Him always, that we receive His Holy Spirit to purge out all the uncleanliness within us, that we endure in faith to the end of our lives.
A small price to pay on our part considering what it cost on His part.
Well, His atonement, worked out in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the cross, paid the price. He gave His life for us—for you, for me.
Some lines from one of the great hymns of Christianity, now in our hymnbook, express better than I ever could the overwhelming love and awe and wonder I feel:
And when I think that God, his Son not sparing,
Sent him to die, I scarce can take it in,
That on the cross my burden gladly bearing
He bled and died to take away my sin.
(Stuart K. Hine, Hymns [1985], 86)
Elder McConkie, in the April 1985 general conference, just days before his death delivered a powerful witness of the Lord Jesus Christ:
“His atonement is the most transcendent event that ever has or will ever occur from Creation’s dawn through all ages of a never-ending eternity.
“It is the supreme act of goodness and grace that only a God could perform. . . .
“As pertaining to Jesus Christ, I testify that he is the Son of the Living God and was crucified for the sins of the world. He is our Lord, our God, and our King. This I know of myself independent of any other person.
“I am one of his witnesses, and in a coming day I shall feel the nail marks in his hands and in his feet and shall wet his feet with my tears.
“But I shall not know any better then than I know now that he is God’s Almighty Son, that he is our Savior and Redeemer, and that salvation comes in and through his atoning blood and in no other way” (Ensign, May 1985, 11).
No one who heard Elder McConkie bear that powerful testimony will ever forget it. I have thought about that witness often since I heard it, and I have concluded I can say the same thing: I am one of His witnesses, and in a coming day I too shall wet His feet with my tears, and I shall not know any better then than I know now that He is God’s Almighty Son and that salvation comes in and through His atoning blood and in no other way. The Holy Ghost has revealed that knowledge to my soul.
“How do you prove spiritual truths?” asked Elder McConkie. “How do you prove the resurrection? How do you prove that the Father and the Son appeared to Joseph Smith? Or that any of the angelic ministrants came who gave him keys and powers and authorities as this was established? Well, as pertaining to Jesus’ day: If Jesus rose from the dead, he is the Son of God! If he is the Son of God, his gospel is true! If his gospel is true, men must believe and obey at their peril! They must accept his truths and be baptized and live the law, or they will be damned! Now what this comes down to is that if the apostles in that day had the power and ability to convince men that Jesus rose from the dead, then they had established the truth and divinity of the Work! And how do you prove the resurrection? As we are going to see, you prove it by testimony” (“The Life of Christ,” address given at the seminar for new mission presidents and wives, June 22, 1979, 2).
Then Elder McConkie proceeds to recount some of the scriptural witnesses of the Savior’s resurrection as recorded in the New Testament. The first was Mary Magdalene, the first mortal to see a resurrected person. She became the first witness of the resurrection. And then there were appearances to other women who had followed Him and to Peter, who was to be the president of the Church.
Later, in the afternoon of that first Easter day, the resurrected Lord appeared to two disciples on their way from Jerusalem to Emmaus, a village apparently seven or eight miles from Jerusalem, about the distance from Bountiful to Salt Lake City. As the two disciples walked along, a stranger joined them and asked them what they were talking about. What? Are you a stranger here? Don’t you know what’s going on? Don’t you listen to the news? (see Luke 24:18–21).
Then He said to them, “O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken” (Luke 24:25), and He proceeded for the next couple of hours as they walked along to unfold the ancient scriptures concerning Himself. As they arrived at Emmaus, Jesus made as though He would go on, but they insisted that He stop and eat with them. Abide with us, they said, ’tis eventide (see Luke 24:29). So He accepted their invitation, and as He was blessing and breaking the bread the eyes of their understanding were opened and they recognized the resurrected Jesus, and then He disappeared out of their sight.
“Did not our hearts burn within us?” they said to each other as they hurried back to Jerusalem to join an assembly of other disciples who were gathered together that first Easter evening. And as they brought the joyful tale that Jesus was indeed risen, the resurrected Lord appeared again and showed them his hands and his feet and ate in their presence.
There were various other appearances, some of which are recorded in the New Testament record and also in Third Nephi in the Book of Mormon—all affirming that Jesus was indeed the risen Lord, the resurrected Savior, the very Son of God, who died to save us from the temporal and spiritual death that had been introduced into the world.
There is one other witness I want to mention. Elder David B. Haight, in the recent general conference just a month ago, shared a deeply personal and sacred experience he had last spring when he was unconscious after he had had his heart attack. Elder Haight said:
“During the hours and days that followed, there was impressed again and again upon my mind the eternal mission and exalted position of the Son of Man. I witness to you that He is Jesus the Christ, the Son of God, Savior to all, Redeemer of all mankind, Bestower of infinite love, mercy, and forgiveness, the Light and Life of the world” (Ensign, Nov. 1989, 59).
He then told of the panoramic view he had of the Savior’s earthly ministry: His baptism, His teaching, His healing the sick and lame, the mock trial, His crucifixion, His resurrection and ascension.
“There followed,” Elder Haight continued, “scenes of His earthly ministry to my mind in impressive detail, confirming scriptural eye-witness accounts. I was being taught, and the eyes of my understanding were opened by the Holy Spirit of God so as to behold many things.
“The first scene was of the Savior and His Apostles in the upper chamber on the eve of His betrayal. Following the Passover supper, He instructed and prepared the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper for His dearest friends as a remembrance of His coming sacrifice. It was so impressively portrayed to me—the overwhelming love of the Savior for each. I witnessed His thoughtful concern for significant details—the washing of the dusty feet of each Apostle, His breaking and blessing of the loaf of dark bread and blessing of the wine, then His dreadful disclosure that one would betray Him.
“He explained Judas’s departure and told the others of the events soon to take place.
“. . . My soul was taught over and over again the events of the betrayal, the mock trial, the scourging of the flesh of even on of the Godhead. I witnessed his struggling up the hill in His weakened condition carrying the cross and His being stretched upon it as it lay on the ground, that the crude spikes could be driven with a mallet into His hands and wrists and feet to secure His body as it hung on the cross for public display.
“Crucifixion—the horrible and painful death which He suffered—was chosen from the beginning. By that excruciating death, He descended below all things, as is recorded, that through His resurrection He would ascend above all things” (Ensign, Nov. 1989, 60).
Well, my young friends, what does all this mean? What does it have to do us here and now? What does it have to do with the way we view the world and understand the gospel? and how we treat others? and the way we live our lives?
At the beginning I shared a story told by Hugh B. Brown. When I was 18 years old, a freshman at Brigham Young University, I had one of the pivotal experiences of my life. President Brown, then a counselor in the First Presidency, spoke that fall at the October 1967 general conference. It was in the priesthood session, and President Brown said:
“O Father, help these young men who are listening tonight, when they go home to get on their knees and commit themselves to thee; and then they may know, and I promise them that they may know, that with thy help they need not fear the future” (Improvement Era, Dec. 1967, 92).
I went home that night, back to my room, and knelt down and offered my life to the Savior and committed everything I had—my time, my talents, my means, my energies—to the Lord for the building of His kingdom. I placed my life on the altar, just as the little woman we mentioned at the beginning placed her burdens on the altar. I have not always lived up to that commitment, but I have tried, and every time I have tried the Lord has blessed me with added blessings and understanding and knowledge and revelation.
So I urge you to go and do likewise. Get on your knees and plead with Heavenly Father to let you know these things are true, that Jesus really was and is all that has been said and written about Him, and that He really did do for us what we’ve talked about here today. Commit your lives to Him and His cause. Give Him everything you have.
That’s one thing we can do as a result of knowing these things. What’s another? Father Lehi—and this is in conclusion—Father Lehi taught his son Jacob: “Wherefore, redemption cometh in and through the Holy Messiah; for he is full of grace and truth.
“Behold, he offereth himself a sacrifice for sin, to answer the ends of the law, unto all those who have a broken heart and a contrite spirit; and unto none else can the ends of the law be answered.
“Wherefore, how great the importance to make these things known unto the inhabitants of the earth . . .” (2 Nephi 2:6–8).
How great the importance to make these things known unto the inhabitants of the earth! We have to be missionaries. We have to share these truths with all of our Father’s other children. We have to go out in the world and tell these things to every living creature.
“. . . Wherefore, how great the importance to make these things known unto the inhabitants of the earth, that they may know that there is no flesh that can dwell in the presence of God, save it be through the merits, and mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah, who layeth down his life according to the flesh, and taketh it again by the power of the Spirit, that he may bring to pass the resurrection of the dead, being the first that should rise.
“Wherefore, he is the firstfruits unto God, inasmuch as he shall make intercession for all the children of men; and they that believe in him shall be saved” (2 Nephi 2:8–9).
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