  (Scripture Reading Exercise.) SCOPE AND MOTIVE FORCE OF THE ATONEMENT.
SPECIAL TEXT: "Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. * * * Therefore as by the offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation, even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life." (Rom. v:12, 18.) DISCUSSION.1. The Atonement of Broader Scope than Making Satisfaction for Adam's Sin: So far the Atonement has been considered only with reference to its effect upon the transgression of Adam. It is, however, of much broader scope than that. Not only must the sin of Adam be atoned, but satisfaction must be made for the sins of every man, if the integrity of the moral government of the world is to be preserved. Man is just as helpless with reference to his own, individual sins, as Adam was with reference to his sin. Man when he sins by breaking the laws of God, sins of course against divine law; commits a crime against the majesty of God, and thereby dishonors him. And man is just as helpless to make adequate satisfaction to God, I repeat, as Adam was for his sin in Eden; and is just as hopelessly in the grasp of inexorable law as Adam and his race were after the first transgression. For individual man from the beginning was as much in duty bound to keep the law of God as Adam was; and if now, in the present and for the future he observes the law of God and remains righteous, he is doing no more than he ought to have done from the beginning; and doing his duty now and for the future can not free him from the consequences of his past violations of God's law. The individual man, then, is just as much in need of a satisfaction being made to the justice of God for his individual transgression of divine law, for his violence to the honor of God, for his insult to the majesty of God, as was Adam for his sin. 2. Distinction Between Adam's Sin and Individual Sin: The difference between the sin of Adam and the sin of the individual man is this: First, Adam's sin, which the scriptures call the fall, was racial, in that it involved all the race of Adam in its consequences, bringing upon them both a spiritual and a physical death, the nature of which has already been explained.[A] Man's individual sin is more limited in its consequences though for a time his personal sins may involve the happiness of others in their consequences, yet ultimately they will be narrowed down to personal results; affecting the actual sinner's personal relationship to God, to righteousness, to truth, to progress, to happiness. [Footnote A: Lesson XV.] Second. Adam's sin was necessary to the creation of those conditions under which man could obtain the experiences of earth-life necessary to the union of his spirit with earth elements; necessary to his progress as a divine Intelligence; necessary to his knowledge of good and evil in actual conflict; joy and sorrow; pleasure and pain; life and death; in a word, necessary that man might become acquainted with these opposite existences,[A] their conflicts and their values; all which was essential to, and designed for man's progress, for his development in virtue and power and largeness and splendor of existence. But man's individual sins are not necessary to these general purposes of God. That is, the fall of Adam was necessary to the accomplishment of the general purposes of God; but it was not necessary to those purposes that Cain should kill Abel, his brother; or "that every imagination of the thoughts of man's heart" should be "evil continually."[B] [Footnote A: See II Nephi, ii also "New Witness for God," Vol. III, pp. 219-227.] [Footnote B: Gen. vi:5.] The fall of Adam, I say, was necessary to the attainment of these possibilities and hence the atonement made for Adam's sin is of universal effect and application without stipulations or conditions, or obedience or any other act as a condition precedent to participation in the full benefits of release from the consequences of Adam's transgression. Hence it is written: "Since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive."[A] And again: "Therefore, as by the offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men to the justification of life."[B] Free redemption then is provided from the consequences of Adam's transgression, because the fall was essential to the achievement of God's purpose with reference to man. Not so, however, with the individual man. His individual sinning is not absolutely necessary to the achievement of God's purposes. All men may sin; nay, all who come to years of accountability, doubtless, do sin; "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God."[C] "And so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." "There is none righteous, no not one; * * They are all gone out of the way; * * there is none that doeth good, no, not one."[D] But while all men sin—except those who die in infancy or early childhood—it is not necessary that men should sin, and hence they may be held fully accountable to the justice of God for their individual transgressions of law, and are so held accountable. The penalty for the individual sins of men is a second spiritual death, not a physical death, not a separation of the spirit and the body of man after the resurrection, for what is achieved for man's physical life by the resurrection remains.[E] But for his own individual sins (and this constitutes the third distinction between Adam's sin and the sins of other men) he is subject to a second spiritual death, to banishment from the presence of God; his spiritual union and communion with God is broken, and spiritual death ensues. The Lord, in speaking of Adam and his first transgression, says: "I the Lord caused that he should be cast out from the Garden of Eden, from my presence, because of his transgression, wherein he became spiritually dead, which is the first death, even that same death, which is spiritual, which shall be pronounced upon the wicked when I shall say—Depart, ye cursed."[F] [Footnote A: I Cor. xv:21, 22.] [Footnote B: Rom. v:18.] [Footnote C: Rom. iii:23.] [Footnote D: Rom. iii:10-12.] [Footnote E: "Now, there is a death which is called a temporal death; and the death of Christ shall loose the bands of this temporal death, that all shall be raised from this temporal death; the spirit and the body shall be reunited again in perfect form; both limb and joint shall be restored to its proper frame, even as we now are at this time; and we shall be brought to stand before God, knowing even as we know now and have a bright recollection of all our guilt. Now this restoration shall come to all, both old and young, both bond and free; both male and female, both the wicked and the righteous and even there shall not so much as a hair of their heads be lost but all things shall be restored to their perfect frame, as it is now, or in the body, and shall be brought and arraigned before the bar of Christ the Son, and God, the Father, and the Holy Spirit which is one Eternal God, to be judged according to their works, whether they be good or whether they be evil. Now, behold, I have spoken unto you, concerning the death of the mortal body, and also concerning the resurrection of the mortal body. I say unto you that this mortal body is raised to an immortal body; that is from death; even from the first death unto life, that they can die no more; their spirits uniting with their bodies, never to be divided. Thus the whole becoming spiritual and immortal, that they can no more see corruption" (Alma Ch. xi:42-45).] [Footnote F: Doc. & Cov. Sec. 29:41.] So Alma, explaining the fall of man, and how God gave unto men commandments, after having made known unto them the plan of redemption, saying: "That they should not do evil, the penalty thereof being a second death, which was an everlasting death as to things pertaining to righteousness."[A] [Footnote A: Alma xii:31, 32.] Again Alma, describing the impenitent dead before the bar of God, says:
[Footnote A: Alma xii:16, 18.] Samuel the Lamanite prophet says: "The resurrection of Christ redeemeth mankind, yea, even all mankind, and bringeth them back into the presence of the Lord; * * * but whosoever repenteth not * * * then cometh upon them again a spiritual death, for they are cut off again as to things pertaining to righteousness."[A] [Footnote A: Helaman Ch. xiv:17, 18.] 3. Men as Dependent on the Atonement for Individual Sins as for Redemption from Adam's Sin: As already remarked, men having transgressed the law of God by their own personal violations of it, they are helpless of themselves to make satisfaction to the justice of God;[A] and are just as dependent upon a Redeemer to rescue them from the spiritual effects of their personal transgression of the divine law as from the effects of Adam's fall. Also, under a reign of law, God may not pardon men for their individual sins by arbitrary act of sovereign will. He may no more set aside the claims of justice unsatisfied in the case of men's personal sins than in the case of Adam's first sin. In both cases "a necessary and immanent attribute of Deity" stands in the way of the non-infliction of the penalty due to sin, viz., the attribute of Justice, which not even the attribute of Mercy may displace, or rob of that satisfaction which is due. God must act in harmony with his own attributes. [Footnote A: The late Elder Orson Pratt, put this doctrine of the helplessness of man to escape the penalty of his own sin in the most forcible manner. He said: "We believe that all who have done evil, having a knowledge of the law, or afterwards in this life coming to the knowledge thereof, are under a penalty, which is not inflicted in this world but in the world to come. Therefore such in this world are prisoners, shut up under the sentence of law, awaiting with awful fear for the time of judgment, when the penalty shall be inflicted, consigning them to a second banishment from the presence of their Redeemer, who had redeemed them from the penalty of the first law. But, enquires the sinner, is there no way for escape? Is my case hopeless? Can I not devise some way by which I can extricate myself from the penalty of the second law and escape this second banishment? The answer is,—if thou canst hide thyself from the all-searching eye of an Omnipresent God, that he shall not find thee, or if thou canst prevail with him to deny justice its claim, or if thou canst clothe thyself with power, and contend with the Almighty, and prevent him from executing the sentence of the law, then thou canst escape. If thou canst cause repentance, or baptism in water, or any of thine own works, to atone for the least of thy transgressions, then thou canst deliver thyself from the awful penalty that awaits thee. But be assured, O sinner, that thou canst not devise any way of thine own to escape, nor do anything that will atone for thy sins, therefore, thy case is hopeless, unless God hath devised some way for thy deliverance" (Remarkable Visions, Orson Pratt's Works).] 4. Identical Principles Operative in Man's Individual Sins as in Adam's Sin: In the case of man's individual violations of law, as in Adam's sin, the inexorableness of law holds good.[A] Thus satisfaction to justice in the case of individual sins like the satisfaction to justice for Adam's sin, must be rendered by God to God, "since only Deity can satisfy the claims of Deity." There is the same act against the honor of God; hence the same question of rank and dignity in the one who makes the Atonement. The same necessity for one not only willing but capable of making the Atonement, by suffering the penalty due to the sins of all men. He must suffer for them; for the ground work of their forgiveness and restoration to union with God must be that the penalty due to their sin has been paid. This or Justice goes unsatisfied—Mercy robs Justice or else the law must take its course and punishment be actually inflicted upon the transgressors which leaves man to a life of eternal misery, alienated from God, separated from the source of spiritual life and light; no longer in union with the power divine that could uplift and direct him to sublime heights of moral and spiritual excellence—man, under such circumstances, would indeed be spiritually dead, and dead eternally, since he is helpless to extricate himself from such conditions, as a sinner can not justify his sin, nor a criminal pardon his own crime. But to leave the punishment to be actually inflicted upon man would thwart the purpose of God with reference to man's earth-life; for God designed that mail's earth-life should eventuate in his happiness, in the union of man with God. "Men are that they might have joy." By other Book of Mormon teachers the plan for man's redemption is called "the plan of happiness," "the great plan of happiness;"[B] and as this happiness depends upon union and communion with God, it is proper to think of the gospel as contemplating the spiritual union of man with Deity. [Footnote A: Behold justice exerciseth all his demands. * * * What! do ye suppose that mercy-can rob justice? I say unto you, nay; not point urged by the Nephite writer is that God will act in harmony with his attributes, see the context—the whole chapter.] [Footnote B: Alma xlii:8, 15.] We conclude then that for man's individual sins as for Adam's sin, though differing in some respects already noted, involves the same necessity of Atonement to the honor of God by one equal with God—hence God. There is the same inexorableness of law; the same helplessness on the part of man to make satisfaction for his sin, hence man's dependence upon a vicarious atonement, if he is to find redemption at all. There is the same need for capacity in the one making the atonement to make full satisfaction to the justice of God by paying the uttermost farthing of man's obligations to the law; the idea of satisfaction necessarily involves that of penal suffering, coupling together those two ideas, satisfaction and expiation; or satisfaction to Justice through expiation. The Deity who redeems man must pay the penalty due to sin by suffering in man's stead. 5. Motive Force of the Atonement: And what shall prompt a Deity to make such an atonement? Two attributes of the Deity now a long time kept in the back ground, viz., Love and Mercy. We have seen and considered at some length the helplessness of man in the midst of those earth conditions necessary to his progress; God saw it from the beginning; and—
[Footnote A: St. John iii:16-19.] |
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