An Important Lesson on the Atonement

There is a book that I have had recommended to me in almost every Institute class that I've ever been in called "Believing Christ" by Stephen E. Robinson. This book opened my eyes to an understanding of how the Atonement actually works and I wanted to share a part of it with you.

" All the negative aspects of human existence brought about by the Fall, Jesus Christ absorbed into himself. He experienced vicariously in Gethsemane all the private griefs and heartaches, all the physical pains and handicaps, all the emotional burdens and depressions of the human family. He knows the loneliness of those who don't fit in or who aren't handsome or pretty. He knows what it's like to choose up teams and be the last one chosen. He knows the anguish of parents whose children go wrong. He knows the private hell of the abused child or spouse. He knows all these things personally and intimately because he lived them in the Gethsemane experience. Having personally lived a perfect life, he then chose to experience our imperfect lives. In the infinite Gethsemane experience , the meridian of time, the center of eternity, he lived a billion billion lifetimes of sin, pain, disease, and sorrow."

"God uses no magic wand to simply wave bad things into nonexistence. The sins that he remits, he remits by making them his own and suffering them. The pain and heartaches that he relieves, he relieves by suffering them himself. These things can be shared and absorbed, but they cannot be simply wished or waved away. They must be suffered. Thus we owe him not only for our spiritual cleansing from sin, but our physical, mental, and emotional healings as well, for he has borne these infirmities for us also. All that the Fall put wrong, the Savior in his atonement puts right. It is all part of his infinite sacrifice--of his infinite gift."

I cannot imagine what it would be like to feel the pain of even one other person and yet Christ chose to take all of our sorrows and heartaches and unfairness from us by absorbing them all into himself. I'm grateful for a Savior who was not only prepared, but obedient enough to do that so that we might be relieved of our own lifetime of sin and live with our Heavenly Family for eternity.