The Atonement Prompted by Divine Love

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The Atonement Prompted by Divine Love By Joseph A. West

When in Los Angeles a couple of years ago, I attended a street meeting with the elders of our Church, and, when it was over, engaged in conversation with a listener who seemed quite favorably impressed with what had been said. "But," said he, "there is one thing that has always prevented my acceptance of Christianity, and that is the doctrine of the atonement. I cannot understand how an allwise, omnipotent God could be the Author of a plan of human redemption involving the humil- ation, abasement, and physical suffering of his only-begotten and dearly beloved Son. Being all powerful, why did he not," the stranger asked, "devise some other and easier means of ac- complishing the same result?" My answer was, that a God, omnipotent and omniscient, could and did devise the very best plan for the accomplishment of the desired purpose, and that the scriptures conclusively proved the atonement, as accepted by us, to be that divine plan. But this was not altogether sufficient to overcome his skepticism. There is, of course, a deeper meaning and purpose in the- atonement than the average mortal can comprehend. Nor is it necessary to our belief therein that we should understand all

about it. The Savior told the people in his day that if they would do the will of the Father, they would know of the doc- trine whether it be of God or not, without knowing all the whys and wherefores connected therewith. The whole gospel plan is founded upon faith and obedience, terms that in their final analysis, are synonomous when applied thereto. It was not the waters of Jordan that healed the leaper; nor is it the waters of baptism that cleanses us from sin but our obedience to the heav- enly requirement. There are some things connected with the atonement, however, that we can understand, and to me they are very beautiful. In the whole plan of human redemption, the purpose is the preservation of the free agency of man, and through its exercise his complete redeption from the fall, including among other things: His expiation from individual sin; His resurrection and immorality, and

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His exaltation in some degree of eternal glory. The Lord has said, through modern revelation, "This is my work and my glory, to bring to pass the immorality and eternal life of man." One of the most far-reaching consequences of the fall was Adam's first or spiritual death, otherwise known as his banish- ment from the Garden of Eden and the divine presence; and which, according to modern revelation, is to be the last death that at the final judgment will be passed upon the wicked, when they will be commanded to depart forever from the pres- ence of the Lord. Through a righteous life, in which every requirement of the gospel shall have been complied with, Adam and his pos- terity will be received again into that glory which has been promised to the redeemed and for which the Savior so earnestly prayed, in the Garden of Gethsemane, just before his cruci- fixion, when he said: "And now, Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was." Being brothers of his, descendants of the same heavenly Father, but complying with the same divine require- ments to which he adhered, we can, in like manner, be restored to, and exalted in, the same heavenly and divine presence. Paul says: "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are children * * * and heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ."—Rom. 8:16, 17. The above enumerated purposes of the atonement, all ex- cept the resurrection, are thus brought about through our con- formity to the requirements of the gospel in the free and un- trameled exercise of our agency; for God will neither force men to heaven nor hell, nor permit the adversary of our souls to force us to the latter place. Only by yielding voluntarily to his satanic majesty can he accomplish his diabolical purpose with respect to the children of men. As death came into the world through Adam's transgression, so likewise will the resurrection be brought to pass without any act of ours, for the scriptures tell us that, "as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive," independent of anything that they may or may not do. Many have thought that only the righteous will rise from the tomb, as they cannot see how God's purposes with respect to the human family can be promoted in any way by the wicked also being resurrected. But this is a mistake, for the word "all" in the above quotation, means "every one," both good and bad. Just how the resurrection will be brought about we do not know; as the process is too intricate for the finite mind of man, in his present state of development, to

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comprehend. Yet, this need not prevent us from implicitly be- lieving therein. We know that God who created these wonder- ful bodies of ours, with all their marvelous parts working in such perfect unison; and who also created the boundless uni- verse of which we form but an infinitesimal part, with its sub- lime beauty and harmony, must have power to restore to life, and to their perfect frame, all the essential elements that go to constitute a perfect body in the exact image of its former self with all its imperfections forever removed. Scientists have for centuries been trying to discover a chem- ical formula of life but have signally failed. They have become so wise in the knowledge of material things that they can separate and define all the elements that constitute the human body, and behold, with their wonderful aids to human vision, the secret workings of every part of our human mechanism, but they can- not create life e^en in its simplest forms. They have gone so far, it has been averred, as to make a kernel of wheat with all its elements perfectly proportioned but they have not been able to make it grow. Col. William C. Hunter, in his recent woik entitled, A Book of How's and not Why's for Mental and Physical Efficiency, says: "We do not know what life is; the secret has not been revealed. We do not know just what the soul is, or its relation to the brain, but we know there are many ties of relationship between life and soul and mind." The gospel teaches, however, that the life-giving, intelli- gent, and immortal part of man is the spirit, which is in the exact likeness of the body, the growth and development of which are occasioned, according to Orson Pratt, one of the former Council of the Twelve, by the elastic force of the spirit in its effort to expand the body to conform to its spirit dimensions, and that, if the body is not stunted or deformed by some abnor- mal act of nature, it becomes, in every function and feature, an exact counterpart of its spirit life. When man dies his spirit returns to God whence it came, to be by him judged and assigned to a place or sphere to which by life's probationary conduct it is entitled, there to remain until the resurrection shall have brought the body and spirit together again in an eternal union. Some have asked in our day, as they did in the time of Paul the apostle, and have construed his answer to mean that they do not come with the same but another body, for he says:

How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come? Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die: and ihat which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain; but God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body. (1 Cor. 15:35, 36.)

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The kernel of wheat, when planted, decays, but from within itsremains springs forth a new germ of life that produces the new wheat. Is not this germ a part of the old kernel around which, by the process of growth and its affinity for kindred elements, it assembles, at harvest time, the new grain? How, otherwise, could God give to every man, and plant and animal — for all will be resurrected his own or its own body? It is a well attested fact that our bodies do undergo fre- quent changes, some say complete changes every seven years, and that many of the particles once composing them do, from time to time, enter into other forms of life; but the Prophet Joseph Smith has said that no essential, fundamental element of a man's body ever enters into and becomes a fundamental part of any other body or plant. According to this it would seem that there are certain finer elements that persist as per- manent components of our bodies aside from the grosser par- ticles. Would it, therefore, be unreasonable to assume that when we die there may be a germ of life within the body that by the quickening power of the resurrection may bring from the great laboratory of nature all the finer essential elements of our mortal tabernacles and unite them eternally with our spirit life? Certain it is that the many feet of nails and rods of hair, etc., that the average mortal produces in an average life time are not to become a part of his resurrected personality, or it — would bear no resemblance whatever to its former self some- thing very contrary to the teachings of the gospel concerning the resurrection of the Savior, who was exactly like his former self after his rising from the tomb. As stated in the beginning of this article, the purpose of the great scheme of redemption is the preservation of the free- agency of man and through its exercise his eternal advancement in intelligence and power. For the establishment and perpetu- ity of this agency, or of human freedom, the wisest and best men of every age have been willing to make the supreme sacri- fice, if need be. God also was willing to sacrifice not only his dearly beloved Son, but one-third of his primeval family, rather than see them all enslaved, so essential is freedom to man's eter- nal happiness and progress. We enjoyed our free agency in heaven before we came here, but because we only knew good, we may believe that its exer- cise was more passive than active. To stimulate and enlarge its exercise and make it a more potent factor in the develop- ment of the race, it was necessary that Adam should be placed in a world of conflicting influences, where all things had their opposites, that the effect of each upon the human soul might be more fully made manifest.

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Adam was immortal when placed in the Garden of Eden, hut before he could enter upon the enlarged experience pro- vided in the new world, he was to become mortal. This was accomplished through the violation of a law of his primeval ex- istence, and this violation was, and had to be, voluntary on his part; otherwise the freedom of his agency would not have been preserved. Therefore, when God commanded him not to par- take of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, he addded, according to the Pearl of Great Price, "Nevertheless, thou mayest choose for thyself, for it is given unto thee." This course made necesssary the great atonement of Christ, a means by which not only the full consequences of Adam's transegression might be overcome, but by which the attention and love of all mankind might be centered in him as the great Redeemer and Savior of the human race, for did he not say, "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me?" No more powerful means of doing this could possibly be devised than the atonement, for it places us all under the greatest obligations to our Elder Brother, but for whose act of merciful compassion, our bodies would lie in the tomb eternally, and our progress as intelligent beings forever be circumscribed by the limits of our spirit life. When Jesus said, "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends," he meant to call our attention to his great voluntary sacrifice and the wonderful love for all humanity by which it was prompted; knowing full well that when we came to realize its true significance, it would awaken in our hearts such an abiding and intensified love that henceforth we would obey him to the very limit of our power and ability so to do. Hence he said, "If ye love me, keep my commandments." In this we also see exemplified the highest type of free agency, and yet absolute obedience to the divine will. It is upon this principle of reciprocal love between man and his Maker, that Christ will yet rule the children of men, and it will be by "Every man loving his neighbor as himself," that injustice and inhumanity will ultimately be banishel from the earth and universal love become the potential force that will actuate and rule the hearts and souls of men. Thus far we have spoken only of the love of our Redeeming Lord. While this is great beyond our powers of comprehension, that of the Father, must have been infinitely greater. Jesus said, "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." To permit the sacrifice of an only be- gotten and dearly beloved Son, and he the great embodiment of divine perfection, that the balance of his children might eter- nally live, evinces a supreme love for humanity, intense, bound-

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less, and sublime. Words cannot describe it; nor the heart of man begin to comprehend its wonderful meaning. Should we not, therefore, love God, the Father, and God, the Son, with all our minds, might, heart, and soul, and supplement that love by yielding absolute and perfect obedience to their holy and divine will? Logan, Utah