AN ATONING SACRIFICE

An incredible thought.

As He went about His Father's business teaching the means of eternal life, Jesus presented many principles that it was difficult for His followers to understand, but you may readily imagine that He presented no other thought so hard for them to comprehend as the thought that He must lay down His own life. To His disciples, Jesus was the Mighty King come to establish His reign on earth. They thought that He would establish an earthly kingdom; that He would overthrow the dominion of Rome in Palestine; that He would restore the independence of the Jewish nation. It did not occur to them that His was more largely a spiritual kingdom, than a material kingdom. The thought that He should lose His life seemed impossible to them; indeed, it was abhorrent to them. Many of them did not learn to understand Jesus's sayings about His death until after He was actually laid away in the tomb.

Jesus's foreknowledge of His death.

But the knowledge of His approaching and inevitable death, seems to have been always present with Jesus Himself. Very early in His ministry, Jesus foreshadowed the coming end. "The days will come," He declared to those assembling about Him, "when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days." Somewhat later. He spoke of His death as a "baptism," and asserted that it would become a kind of test to determine, who was for him and who was against Him." "I am come to send fire on the earth," declared He; "and what will I if it be already kindled? But I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished! Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you Nay; but rather division; for from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three. The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law." The division in the family would be caused, of course, because some members would accept Jesus, whereas others would reject Him; some would find in His sinless death reason for worship, whereas others would find in His sufferings sufficient reason for rejection.

After Peter's confession, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God," at Caesarea Phillipi, Jesus began more definitely to proclaim a violent death. Immediately, "He began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. And He spake that saying openly," we read. "And Peter took Him and began to rebuke Him." Or, as Matthew expresses it, Peter rebuked Him, saying, "Be it far from Thee, Lord: this shall not be unto Thee." It is evident then that even though Peter was inspired to know that Jesus was the Christ, he had not yet received an understanding of the fact that Jesus must suffer death at the hands of His enemies in order to fulfill His great mission to the earth. And if Peter did not understand this truth, you may easily believe, that the thought of it was intolerable to the rest of the disciples. They could not conceive of their divine leader's failing to establish the kingdom of God as an earthly dominion. Then further to impress upon His disciples the fact that His death was required by the law of sacrifice, He told them that they must themselves not expect to profit in a worldly or political way through their association with Him; but rather must they expect to suffer persecution and to sacrifice themselves. For sacrifice and service are demanded in the kingdom of God. "Whosoever will come after me," said Jesus to the awe-stricken disciples, "let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it."

The significance of the death of Jesus.

It is not necessary here to quote further in detail the sayings of Jesus which indicate that He foreknew the violent death which He was destined to suffer. He assured James and John, when they sought places of honor and power in His Kingdom, that they were not able to drink the cup that He had to drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which He was to be baptized. And at the last supper, when He instituted the ordinance we call now the sacrament. He said of the broken bread, "Take, eat; this is my body;" and of the cup, "Drink ye all of it; for this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins." From these statements, it is apparent that certain facts were clearly understood by Jesus, and that He endeavored as clearly to teach them to His disciples. These points are four, and you should try to remember them. First, Jesus foreknew and proclaimed that the hatred of His enemies—the scribes and the Pharisees and the rulers in general—would finally bring about His death. Then, He knew equally well, and asserted with the same assurance, that His death was divinely appointed. Again, He assured His disciples that if they would gain places of honor in His kingdom, they too must be prepared to practice self-denial, to humble themselves and render service, and even, if necessary, to lay down their own lives for the Gospel's sake. Finally, Jesus announced that, through His death, mankind would be redeemed from sin, and that His death was therefore not a defeat but a glorious victory.

Worldly views of how Jesus's death can save.

These teachings are certainly inspiring and hopeful. The last one is particularly consoling. But, of course, it is only natural to ask, From what does the death of Christ actually deliver us? How can His death deliver us from sin? These questions have been asked by men ever since the crucifixion. It is almost amusing what strange notions people have held—and do still hold—in answer to these questions. Thus, some people believe that the death of Jesus represented the price paid to Satan to prevail upon him to release man from his power. Others believe that when Jesus gave His life for many, it was to protect them, or deliver them, from the fear of death. Still others hold that through His death Jesus broke the bonds that held His disciples to the belief and understanding that God's kingdom, was an earthly and temporal kingdom, and that the salvation which Jesus taught was earthly. Of course, no one of these theories—nor any one of several others not here mentioned—satisfies the conditions of the sacrifice made by Jesus. It does not really reveal from what His death rescues us, nor how it is possible for His death to rescue us at all.

The real significance of the death of Jesus.

It is strange that there should be so much confusion about the nature and purpose of Jesus's atoning sacrifice. It is well known that through the sin of Adam, death came into the world. That death was not only physical but spiritual; for man was driven out from the presence of God. Adam broke a divine law. Necessarily, punishment, came to him. Now, in accordance with the law of justice, Adam and his children could be redeemed from death, and restored to the presence of God, only by satisfying in some way the broken law. How could that be done? We have learned, you remember, that there was a council in heaven before the earth was formed. There the whole plan of salvation was revealed. Jesus was appointed to become the Christ. His mission was to teach men to know God, that they might be prepared to return to Him, and through His own death to satisfy the demands of justice and thus to break the bands of physical death. This may, perhaps, be a little difficult to understand, but it is certainly what Jesus taught; for the learned Paul wrote, "If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of them that slept. For 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. But every man in his own order: Christ the first fruits; afterward they that are Christ's at His coming." This, too, is the testimony of John the Baptizer, who exclaimed when he saw Jesus approaching from the distance, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world;" and also of John the Beloved, who wrote in his Book of Revelation, "All that dwell upon the earth shall worship Him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world."

The Nephite explanation.

To the Nephites, the nature and purpose of the atoning sacrifice was made particularly plain. We read thus: "Now, behold, if Adam had not transgressed, he would not have fallen; but he would have remained in the garden of Eden. And all things which were created, must have remained in the same state which they were after they were created; and they must have remained forever and had no end. And they would have had no children; wherefore, they would have remained in a state of innocence; having no joy, for they knew no misery; doing no good, for they knew no sin. But behold, all things have been done in the wisdom of Him who knoweth all things. Adam fell that men might be; and men are that they might have joy.

"And the Messiah cometh in the fulness of time, that He may redeem the children of men from the fall. And because that they are redeemed from the fall, they have become free forever, knowing good from evil; to act for themselves, and not to be acted upon, save it be by the punishment of the law at the great and last day, according to the commandments which God hath given."

Why Jesus submitted to His enemies.

It was, then, in fulfillment of the divine plan that Jesus allowed Himself to be taken prisoner in the garden of Gethsemane; that He endured trial before His enemies; and that He suffered untold agony on the cross. With His death, the world itself became canvulsed. The heavens became shrouded in darkness; and the earth was torn, and shaken and distressed. But at that awful moment, the bands of death were broken; the original sin was expiated; and the way was opened whereby man might return to his Maker.

The new testimony of Jesus.

"Behold," said Jesus to our own Prophet, "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."

Truly, "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."

THE REFERENCES

Mark 2:20. 1 Cor. 15:19-23.

Luke 12:49-53. John 1:29.

Mark 8:31-35. Rev. 13:8.

Mark 10:38-41. 2 Nephi 2:22-26.

Matt. 16:28. Doc. and Cov. 19:16-19.

THE QUESTIONS

1. Why could not the disciples think that Jesus would be killed?

2. Show how Jesus foreknew His death.

3. How was Jesus's death necessary to satisfy the law of sacrifice?

4. What was the real significance of the death of Jesus?

5. From what does the death of Jesus save the world?

6. How does the death of Jesus save?

7. Discuss the explanation given in 2nd Nephi.

8. Explain the attitude of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane and after.

9. How did Jesus describe His sufferings to the Prophet Joseph Smith?

10. What do we owe to Jesus?

TOUCH ME NOT, Plockhorst

TOUCH ME NOT, Plockhorst