Atonement of Jesus Christ
Mormonism teaches that Jesus Christ’s atonement is the central doctrine of the great plan of life and salvation. On one occasion the Prophet Joseph Smith was asked the question, "What are the fundamental principles of your religion?" The Prophet's answer to the question was: "the fundamental principles of our religion are the testimony of the Apostles and the 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 of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 121).
Truly Jesus’ mission, culminating in His Atonement, is the most important message of Mormonism.
The Atonement, which is the greatest event in the history of the world, was accomplished through Jesus’ sufferings in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the cross. Although the finite human mind cannot fully understand how Jesus suffered for our sins, the scriptures affirm that in the Garden of Gethsemane, the weight of mankind’s sins caused Him to feel such agony that He bled from every pore (Luke 22:39–44).
Later, as He hung upon the cross, Jesus willingly suffered a painful death inflicted by one of the cruelest methods that men ever devised.
The same Savior tells us about that experience: "For behold, I ... have suffered these things for all, that they might not suffer ... even as I" (Doctrine and Covenants 19:16–17).
As the Son of God, Jesus Christ is the only being who could have performed an infinite sacrifice to atone for our sins. Jesus did His part, but in order to make His Atonement fully functional in our individual lives, we must do certain things. First, we need to have faith in Christ; second, we need to repent of our sins; third, we need to be baptized by someone who has the proper priesthood authority; fourth, we need to receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands (again, by someone who has the proper priesthood authority); and finally, we need to obey God's commandments until the end of our days on the earth.
If we do these things, the benefits of the Atonement can reach our individual lives and allow us to return to live with Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father forever. According to Mormon doctrine we are saved by grace, but only after we do all we can to obey God’s commandments.
The Garden of Gethsemane and the Cross
The Atonement of Jesus Christ is the central doctrine of the Gospel and the most important and selfless act in the history of the world.
The literal meaning of the word "Atonement" is at-one-ment, signifying the act of unifying or reconciling that which has been separated. According to the teachings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Atonement of Jesus Christ was necessary because of the transgression, or fall, of Adam, which brought death into the world when Adam and Eve partook of the forbidden fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil (see Gen. 2:9; 3:1-24). The resulting death includes not only a separation of the spirit from the physical body, but also a separation of all people from their perfect and holy God.
Through the Atonement, Jesus Christ suffered physically and spiritually from the sins and pains of all humankind. He ensured that all mortal living things will receive their bodies again after death and live forever, and that all people will be brought in their newly resurrected bodies to stand before Him to be judged according to their works. Thus the Atonement unconditionally guarantees the literal resurrection of every mortal body and the eternal reuniting with God of every faithful person.
In order to access the spiritual redemptive power of the Atonement, we need to develop faith in Christ, repent of our sins, be baptized, receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, and endure to the end in obedience to the principles of the Gospel. When we repent, the Lord forgives us and removes the guilt from our souls. By virtue of what He suffered for us, our sins are paid for already; what remains is for us to decide whether to accept or reject that ultimate atoning sacrifice. If we refuse to accept the Atonement, we keep ourselves shut off from the presence of God indefinitely. God thus cannot redeem us in our sins, but He can and will redeem us from our sins if we repent and follow Him.
Frequently, when Christians (including many members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) talk about the Atonement, they emphasize its physical aspects. They often speak of the crown of thorns that was placed upon the Savior's head, his scourging by Roman soldiers, or the pains he suffered when nails were driven into his hands and feet. Surely these were painful happenings and are important aspects of the Atonement. However, there is also a more spiritual dimension to Christ's redemptive act.
The night before He was crucified, Jesus went to the Garden of Gethsemane with Peter, James and John, the three chief apostles. Gethsemane means "oil press." For generations at that place, olives had been pressed under the weight of gigantic stones to extract their precious oil, an important source of light and life. The atoning suffering of the Light and Life of the world, the Savior, caused blood to be pressed from every pore of His body under the crushing weight of the sins of the world.
The scriptures state that when in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus began to be sorrowful and very heavy. He said to His apostles: "My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, unto death" (Mark 14:34). He went a certain distance from them and fell on the ground. Then the Savior prayed fervently, crying to His Father to "take away this cup from me: nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt" (see Mark 14:35–36). For several hours the Lord poured out His soul in prayer and His blood dripped to the ground. At one point an angel from God came to strengthen and help the Savior complete His sacrifice. During this harrowing time, in some way and to a degree incomprehensible to us, Jesus felt in His own body and spirit the effects of all the sins and all the spiritual and physical suffering (including all illness, pain, and anguish) of every human being who would ever live. He was punished in body and spirit for our wrongdoings. A tremendous and infinite weight of sorrow and anguish filled His soul, and He suffered in an eternal and infinite sense.
The Savior was the only child of our Father in Heaven who could perform the Atonement for the rest of us. He was chosen before He was born to become the Savior. He was the literal Son of God in the flesh, meaning that He inherited from His Father in Heaven power over death and from his mortal mother, Mary, the ability to die. He lived a perfect life, making him the only sinless accountable mortal to ever live. Any other person would have died attempting to suffer as Jesus eventually suffered.
Without the Atonement, each mortal would remain bodiless after death forever and would be cut off eternally from the presence of God, being doomed to live under Satan's power in darkness and misery because there would be no way to overcome death or sin. The Atonement provides all humankind its only hope of salvation from this dismal fate.
It is impossible for us to fully understand the magnitude of the Lord's suffering in Gethsemane and on the cross. Even Jesus, who knew beforehand what the experience would be like, said he was "sore amazed" (Mark 14:33), or awestruck.
After rising from prayer, the Lord returned to where Peter, James and John were. Soon afterwards, the traitor apostle Judas Iscariot arrived with a contingent of Roman soldiers, who arrested Jesus under false charges. That night and the following morning, the Savior endured extreme physical and mental abuse by Roman soldiers and others, and passed through several illegal and unfair trials. Ultimately, in the presence of Pilate, Jesus was unjustly condemned to be crucified as a blasphemer. From about nine o'clock that awful Friday morning until about three o'clock that afternoon, Jesus suffered in agony on the cross. He finally volunatarily died when His suffering was complete, and His spirit went into the spirit world to proclaim the Gospel to the dead. His disciples took His body down from the cross and buried it in a new tomb, where no one had been buried before. The body lay in the tomb from Friday evening (the start of the Jewish Sabbath) until Sunday morning. Then Jesus returned and His body was reunited to His spirit in a glorified, perfected, immortal form. Thus Jesus was the first mortal being to be resurrected. His resurrection completed His triumph over death and sin. Since then, the followers of Christ have proclaimed the Gospel, or "good news," that Christ has made it possible for us to live again after this life with God and all His faithful children forever.
As a resurrected being, Christ revealed to Joseph Smith a few more details about His suffering in Gethsemane: "For behold, I, God, have suffered these things for all men, 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" (Doctrine and Covenant 19:16-19).
The experience of the "bitter cup" in Gethsemane affected the Savior profoundly. It is this aspect of the Atonement that Latter-day Saint scriptures emphasize. The pains of mind, spirit, and body, suffered both in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the hill of Calvary, constituted Jesus' infinite sacrifice--through which he literally paid for us, rescuing us from the condemnation of our sins if we but accept his sacrifice by faithfully following his example and teachings. Thus the Atonement rejoins our spirits to our bodies in the Resurrection, and likewise rejoins us to the presence of our God if we accept it by faithfully following the Savior's teachings.
For a better understanding of the Atonement of Jesus Christ you may want to read:
Skinner, Andrew C. Gethsemane. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2002.
