We Were There

WE WERE THERE

Today in Sacrament meeting I had a thought come to me that I had never thought in just that way before. 

We were there.  Each one of us was there when Christ suffered the Atoning Sacrifice.  Each of us was part of the Atonement of Jesus Christ.

Then I tied that thought to other truths I have contemplated many times before:

He suffered for each of us, one by one, in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the Cross of Calvary. 

He suffered for our sins, but not only for our sins. He also suffered all that we individually would suffer during our mortal experience—our pains, sicknesses, trials, tragedies, injuries, mistakes, accidents, doubts, fears, disappointments, sadness, sorrow, grief, anxiety, despair, depression, shame, regret, heartache, injustice, abuse, separation, loneliness --and he suffered these for each one of us individually, exactly as each of us would suffer them, from our unique perspective, given all our strengths and weaknesses, given all the givens from our individual life experiences, good and bad.

And as He did so, He was aware of each one of us, individually.  He was mindful of us, but more than aware, more than mindful.  He actually saw us (see Mosiah 15:10, Isaiah 53:10).  With the perfect omniscience and foreknowledge of a God, for He was a God, He beheld each one of us and with all the love He held in His heart for us, He lived our mortal sufferings in just the way we would live them. He experienced what we would experience, He went through what we would go through, He felt what we would feel.

Why did He do this?

He suffered for our sins to satisfy the demands of justice by paying our debt to justice for us so that He could apply mercy on our behalf and forgive us when we repent, forgive us of our sins, cleanse us from our sins, and remember our sins no more.

He suffered all that we would suffer so that He would understand perfectly according to the flesh how to succor us when we needed help.  He suffered all that we would suffer so that He would understand us perfectly when we stand before Him to be judged according to our works and the desires of our hearts at the last day.

I believe that as we receive the ordinances and covenants of the gospel “one by one,” and as we partake of the Sacrament to renew those covenants each week “one by one,” the act of doing so “one by one” is symbolic of Christ suffering the Atonement on behalf of each of us “one by one.”

The Atonement of Jesus Christ was infinite in its scope.  As Elder Bruce R. McConkie wrote, “Its effects cover all men, the earth itself and all forms of life hereon, and reach[es] out into the endless expanses of eternity.”  The Atonement is also intimate in its effect in that it reaches out and embraces every being who ever lived or will yet live on the earth, “one by one.”

See Mosiah 14 and 15 (Isaiah 53), Alma 7:11-12

While serving in the Presidency of the Seventy, Elder Merrill J. Bateman taught that the Atonement was an intimate, personal experience through which Jesus Christ came to know perfectly how to help each of us:

“For many years I thought of the Savior’s experience in the garden and on the cross as places where a large mass of sin was heaped upon Him. Through the words of Alma, Abinadi, Isaiah, and other prophets, however, my view has changed. Instead of an impersonal mass of sin, there was a long line of people, as Jesus felt ‘our infirmities’ (Hebrews 4:15), ‘[bore] our griefs, … carried our sorrows … [and] was bruised for our iniquities’ (Isaiah 53:4–5). …

“The Pearl of Great Price teaches that Moses was shown all the inhabitants of the earth, which were ‘numberless as the sand upon the sea shore’ (Moses 1:28). If Moses beheld every soul, then it seems reasonable that the Creator of the universe has the power to become intimately acquainted with each of us. He learned about your weaknesses and mine. He experienced your pains and sufferings. He experienced mine. I testify that He knows us. He understands the way in which we deal with temptations. He knows our weaknesses. But more than that, more than just knowing us, He knows how to help us if we come to Him in faith” (“A Pattern for All,” Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2005, 75–76).

Read Mosiah 15:10–12 and the following statement by Elder Merrill J. Bateman, an emeritus member of the Seventy:

“The prophet Abinadi … states that ‘when his soul has been made an offering for sin he shall see his seed’ (Mosiah 15:10). Abinadi then identifies the Savior’s seed as the prophets and those who follow them. For many years I thought of the Savior’s experience in the garden and on the cross as places where a large mass of sin was heaped upon Him. Through the words of Alma, Abinadi, Isaiah, and other prophets, however, my view has changed. Instead of an impersonal mass of sin, there was a long line of people, as Jesus felt ‘our infirmities’ (Hebrews 4:15), ‘[bore] our griefs, … carried our sorrows … [and] was bruised for our iniquities’ (Isaiah 53:4–5).

“The Atonement was an intimate, personal experience in which Jesus came to know how to help each of us” (“A Pattern for All,” Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2005, 75–76).

Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles taught concerning the Savior’s mortal experiences: “There is no physical pain, no anguish of soul, no suffering of spirit, no infirmity or weakness that you or I ever experience during our mortal journey that the Savior did not experience first. You and I in a moment of weakness may cry out, ‘No one understands. No one knows.’ No human being, perhaps, knows. But the Son of God perfectly knows and understands, for He felt and bore our burdens before we ever did. And because He paid the ultimate price and bore that burden, He has perfect empathy and can extend to us His arm of mercy in so many phases of our life. He can reach out, touch, and succor—literally run to us—and strengthen us to be more than we could ever be and help us to do that which we could never do through relying only upon our own power” (“In the Strength of the Lord” [Brigham Young University devotional, Oct. 23, 2001], 7–8; speeches.byu.edu).

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland wrote of Christ’s compassion and ability to help us: “Christ walked the path every mortal is called to walk so that he would know how to succor and strengthen us in our most difficult times. He knows the deepest and most personal burdens we carry. He knows the most public and poignant pains we bear. He descended below all such grief in order that he might lift us above it. There is no anguish or sorrow or sadness in life that he has not suffered in our behalf and borne away upon his own valiant and compassionate shoulders” (Christ and the New Covenant [1997], 223–24).