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| Coming Back from the Fall |
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"The plan of salvation, or code of laws, which is known as the gospel of Jesus Christ, was adopted in the heavens, before the foundation of the world was laid. It was appointed there that Adam, our father, should come to this earth and stand at the head of the whole human family. It was a part of this great plan, that he should partake of the forbidden fruit and fall, thus bringing suffering and death into the world, even for the ultimate good of his children." [JFS Doctrines of Salvation 1:121] The result of this foreordained Fall was two-fold:"...the Fall brought upon all mankind a spiritual death as well as a temporal..." (Alma 42:9). Each of these results would be sufficient in and of itself to deny us the presence of God and Celestialization. Were there no means to conquer physical death, the soul would be forever separated from the physical body, which would defeat one of the major functions of Earth life. Even more terrifying would be the eventual fate of the unembodied spirit: "For behold, if the flesh should rise no more our spirits must become subject to that angel who fell from before the presence of the Eternal God, and became the devil, to rise no more." [2 Nephi 9:9]. The second result of the Fall is equally damning. The exposure to Free Agency virtually assures us that all of God's children will sin in one degree or another during our stay on the Earth. No matter how small or insignificant, those sins have soiled our spiritual nature sufficiently to abrogate our rights to God's presence, rights which would normally be ours through our divine childship. Amulek had to explain this very fact to Zeezrom: "And I say unto you again that he cannot save them in their sins; for I cannot deny his word, and he hath said that no unclean thing can inherit the kingdom of heaven; therefore, how can ye be saved, except ye inherit the kingdom of heaven?" (Alma 11:29:37). Each of these consequences have been atoned by the events of the last days of Christ's life. As our subjection to the dominion of death was directly the result of another man's action (Adam's fall from physical immortality) Christ was able to provide complete atonement for this condition. "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive" (I Corinthians 15:22). The condemnation of sin can be blamed on no other man. While it is true that Adam created the conditions under which the sins might be committed, there is no way in which any external factor can impute sin upon us. In one way or another, we must volunteer to accept it. Consequently, Christ cannot justly undo what we have chosen to do. He may only offer the way out. "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." [DC 19:16-19] There is no way to segregate the atonement for sin from the atonement for death. Both are equally critical for our celestialization. It is a forgivable omission of clarity that has preserved the scriptures in the sacred books of both continents which praise the Atonement without mentioning its parts. The ultimate sacrifice of Christ's life is such a powerful human image that it has come to symbolically encompass both facets of the Atonement. This might lead some to conclude that Christ's death on the cross is the critical issue of the Atonement. It is not. It is a part of the set of events which effected the Atonement. The Atonement for Sin occurs in the Garden of Gethsemane. The Atonement of Death occurs when Christ rises from the tomb. If this is so, then where is the cross in this scenario? Why should the Atonement have required this brutal death on the cross? The image of Christ on the Cross has been the most powerful image in the long tradition of Christianity. Why did God allow it? Was that the only way to effect the Atonement? Why all of the pain and suffering? On this point the scriptures are silent, and I can offer only a personal observation. First, it is important to keep in mind the two separate conceptual atonements, that for Sin and that for Death. Christ's experience in the Garden of Gethsemane was so physically intense that he bled from every poor. Christ clearly suffered on the cross, but there is no indication that the physical strain of the crucifixion was equal to that of the prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. The Atonement for Sin required the payment of a debt. How that debt was paid remains a glorious mystery. I would suggest, however, that the universality of the payment may have actually required Christ's suffering while in the flesh in the Garden. The scriptures and the modern prophets have been clear that a physical body is a necessary part of exaltation, but the sole reason given is that God has a body. It may be sufficient to say that because God has a body, we must also. This is certainly true if we are to be like him, but it says nothing as to why God might have needed the body in the first place. My conception of this need is based upon an exegesis of DC 93:33-34: "For man is spirit. The elements are eternal, and spirit and element, inseparably connected, receive a fullness of joy; and when separated, man cannot receive a fullness of joy." All of us who have known the joys of communion with the Spirit have tasted of that fullness. In all cases, however, the transitory nature of mortality limits that experience just as surely as it enables it. Understanding the role of the body in this light presents a possible understanding of the agony in Christ's Passion. If the body enables in us capacities beyond those of the spirit, then the expiation of sin most logically would have taken place in the flesh, where the sheer magnitude of the task could be handled by a being whose spiritual righteousness met the requirements of the Law, and whose physical state provided the intensifier or enabler of the Divine control required to accomplish the sacred mission. At this point in his life, Christ's spirit and element (although only separably connected) acted together in the same manner as the inseparably connected spirit and body of the Father. Only in that state could the Atonement be accomplished. Despite the essentiality of the body to the process of the Atonement, it was also of necessity a mortal body. That very mortality was requisite for the second stage of the Atonement, which broke the bands of death. It was that mortality, however, that sweat blood from every pore. The price of Sin was paid in the Garden of Gethsemane, and the wages of Death were reconciled at Christ's resurrection. What then of the pain Christ endured after Gethsemane and before his resurrection? Did that affliction effect a part of the Atonement? Again I can offer only a personal answer. I can understand the suffering in Gethsemane as a result of the process of the Atonement, but I cannot imagine Christ under the Roman whip or nailed to the Roman cross as an integral part of the expiation. After paying the price of sin in Gethsemane, it was required of Christ that he die, and that he do so of his own free will. It was a cruel world which forced Christ to make his final sacrifice in the midst of so much pain. After so heavy a physical price as was born in the Garden, I can only marvel at the love of Christ which enabled him to endure even more suffering in order to complete his mission in our behalf. May we all undertake to comprehend his sacrifice and avail ourselves of the eternities which he has opened to us. |
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| by Brant Gardner. Copyright 1998 |
The infinite Grace
of God is embodied in Jesus Christ. The act which sheds Grace upon mankind is Christ's infinite Atonement. While
there is much that cannot be comprehended about the Atonement, any understanding must begin with the circumstances
which necessitated it. In the words of Joseph Fielding Smith:|
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