Jesus Christ, Savior and Redeemer

I gave a talk in Sacrament Meeting on Easter Sunday. Here is my talk, as I wrote it out (which is always slightly different from how I actually give it):

I. The Plan  

Once upon a time, we lived with our loving Father in Heaven. There was nothing we wanted more than to be like our Father. Not only did he know everything there was to know, not only was he perfectly good, not only did he love all his children totally and unconditionally, but he also had a perfect body – one that would never get sick or injured, one that would live forever. And we, well, we didn’t have bodies at all yet. We were just little spirit children, and we didn’t have much experience yet. But we loved our wonderful Father dearly and we wanted to grow up to become like him.

Father, being wise and loving, made it his work to help us obtain what we desired – bodies that would live forever, and also a chance to gain experience, to learn and grow so we could eventually have the kind of life that our Father enjoyed. He knew that this would bring us more happiness in the end than anything else. So, he came up with a plan. And then he called all his children together in a great council to present that plan.

As part of our Father’s plan, he would prepare a place, a world, for us to go to gain experience. We would get bodies – not perfect ones yet, but “practice” bodies that would teach us how to take care of and control a body. We would also get to experience life. We would learn about good and bad, and we would learn how to choose what was good. We would learn how to love. We would learn to become like our Father.

Now, in this plan, there were a lot of risks. Nothing that is unclean can stand to be in Father’s presence. So, if we made any mistakes at all, even by accident, (and Father knew this was going to happen) then we wouldn’t be able to be with him again, and we could never be truly happy without our beloved Father. So, Father asked if any of us would be willing to help. He needed someone who would be willing to redeem us. They would have to give their life to pay for all the mistakes that would keep us from returning to our Father’s presence.

(I can imagine some of us thinking… oooh. That would be hard. Could I do it? Would I be able to? Should I raise my hand? I’d like to be able to help, but I don’t know if I could do that!)

This is when our oldest brother stood up. “I’ll go.” He said. Now this brother was about as close to being like our Father as he could possibly get without a body. He was incredibly kind and loving. He was humble enough to accept that the Father’s plan was best, and not try to go his own way, or take the credit and glory, like another brother I could name. This other brother offered security – he’d see to it that none of us would make a mistake, and we’d all make it back safely. But our wise Father knew that if we couldn’t choose for ourselves what was good, then we would never become everything that we wanted to become. We would never become like him. So he chose the eldest to be our Savior. The other brother was disappointed, and protested, and ended up convincing many of our siblings to follow him, instead of our Father, and he and all his followers were forced to leave God’s presence. They lost their chance to follow the plan themselves, and made it their mission to keep the rest of us from following it too.

Those of us here today chose to follow Christ. We know that because we are here. We chose to follow our Father’s plan, as he had presented it. Christ would be our Savior. He would provide a way for us to return. He would show us the way, but allow us to choose whether or not we would follow. He would lay down his life and atone for our mistakes. Without him and his sacrifice, we all would be doomed.

II. The Fall

So Christ went down and created a world for us to live in. He created mountains and oceans, the sun, moon and stars, plants and flowers and trees, dogs and cats, birds, lizards, and butterflies, whales. When everything was perfect, then brother Adam and sister Eve were placed on the earth in the garden of Eden, the very first of our siblings to come to earth. At this point, they had bodies, but the bodies they had weren’t quite mortal yet. They wouldn’t die, but nor could they have children.

Adam and Eve were given two commandments. The first was to have children. There were a whole lot of us spirits waiting impatiently for our chance to get a body and come to earth. The second commandment was not to eat the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. If they ate that fruit, they were told they would die.

I don’t know how long Adam and Eve lived alone in the Garden. It could have been twenty minutes, or it could have been a thousand years. It doesn’t really matter though, because as long as they were in the garden, they weren’t progressing. They weren’t learning about pain and suffering because they had no children yet. There was no death yet. They weren’t learning to choose between good and evil because they were totally innocent and didn’t have the knowledge they would need to learn to choose.

Finally, Eve realized that if they wanted to become wise like their Father, they would need to experiences the consequences of eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. She ate the fruit and convinced Adam to eat as well.

Because they ate the fruit, two kinds of death came into the world. First, there was spiritual death. Because they disobeyed Father’s commandment, they were unclean. They couldn’t be in his presence any more. It didn’t matter how good they were for the rest of their lives, how many children they had, how many acts of service they did, nothing they could do would ever erase the fact that they had disobeyed.

Secondly, mortal death entered the world. Brother Adam lived for hundreds of years, but eventually, he did die.  His spirit was separated from the body that he had come to earth to get. His body decayed and returned to earth, and as a spirit, there was nothing he could do by himself to get that body back.

Each of us has had the opportunity to be born on this earth. We each received a physical body to try out. They aren’t perfect, but they help to give us experience. We are on our way to becoming like our Father. But there are still those two obstacles in our way. Someday, sooner or later, we are all going to die. We’ll have to set aside our physical bodies and just be spirits again. And also, at some time or another, we’ve all made a mistake or two. We’ve all become unclean and unable to return to Father’s presence. By ourselves, we are stuck.

III. The Promise

This isn’t the disaster that some people seem to think it is. Our wise Father knew from the very beginning that all this would happen. This is why he chose our eldest brother before any of us even came to this earth, to be our Savior and our Redeemer.

From the time of Adam, Christ has revealed himself to prophets to give us hope, to remind us of the plan, to teach us what we need to do in order to follow the plan. He promised that he would come, that he would provide the way for us to overcome those obstacles so we would be able to become like our Father. He guaranteed that all of us would someday resurrect and get an immortal body. (That’s a free gift!) He also taught that if we would keep our Father’s commandments and trust in him, Christ, then we would become part of his family, and he would save us.

To the brother of Jared, he said,

Behold, I am he who was prepared from the foundation of the world to redeem my people. Behold, I am Jesus Christ. I am the Father and the Son. In me shall all mankind have life, and that eternally, even they who shall believe on my name; and they shall become my sons and my daughters. (Ether 3:14)

The prophet Abinadi also taught:

Behold I say unto you, that whosoever has heard the words of the prophets, yea, all the holy prophets who have prophesied concerning the coming of the Lord—I say unto you, that all those who have hearkened unto their words, and believed that the Lord would redeem his people, and have looked forward to that day for a remission of their sins, I say unto you, that these are his seed, or they are the heirs of the kingdom of God.  For these are they whose sins he has borne; these are they for whom he has died, to redeem them from their transgressions. And now, are they not his seed? (Mosiah 15:11-12)

We were promised that if we will keep the commandments and believe in Christ, then he will redeem us. He will help us be forgiven, our sins erased, so we can return to God’s presence.

IV. The Atonement

Christ was born and received his body a little over two thousand years ago. He was the only begotten son of the Father, which means that while he is mortal through his mother Mary, he was also the literal son of the Eternal Father and so he was born with godly power. Like us, he had to learn and grow, but he learned quickly, and at the tender age of twelve, he was already teaching the wise men in the temple in Jerusalem. He had power over the elements. He could change water to wine, calm storms and raging seas, heal the sick and raise the dead. He suffered temptations, just as we do, and yet he resisted and did no evil.

By the way he lived his life, he reminded us of who the Father is, and why we wanted to become like him. He showed us the Father’s love and compassion. He taught again the commandments we should be living. He set an example for us of how we should live.

And then came the day when he finished eating the Passover with his apostles, and went to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray. This was the climactic moment when he took upon himself all the sins and burdens of human existence.

Later, he told Joseph Smith:

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. (D&C 19:16-19)

Alma said:

And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities. (Alma 7:12)

And in the words of Isaiah:

But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. (Isaiah 53:5)

In his book, Jesus the Christ, Elder Talmage wrote:

“Christ’s agony in the garden is unfathomable by the finite mind, both as to intensity and cause. …In some manner, actual and terribly real though to man incomprehensible, the Savior took upon Himself the burden of the sins of mankind from Adam to the end of the world” [Jesus the Christ, 613–14]”

Somehow, Jesus Christ took upon himself our sins. He, though he was perfect, and had done no wrong, paid the price for all the evils of the world. He satisfied the law of justice so that mercy could prevail and we can be forgiven. We can be cleansed of our sins and be worthy to reenter our Father’s presence.

From the garden, Christ was taken to be judged, condemned, and crucified. Because of his Godly Father, he didn’t have to die, and yet, for us, he did. He had to die to complete his atonement, to fulfill his part of the Father’s plan. Because of his love for us, Christ gave up his life willingly.

The Resurrection

His empty body was taken down and buried in a tomb and on the third day, he did something that no other mortal being could possibly do. In the words of President Hunter, “The ultimate triumph is in the ultimate miracle: for the first time in the history of mankind, one who was dead raised himself into living immortality. He was the Son of God, the Son of our immortal Father in Heaven, and his triumph over physical and spiritual death is the good news every Christian tongue should speak. “(Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Howard W. Hunter p.106)

His new and improved body was perfect; it would never die again. He would never get sick. He couldn’t be hurt. His body was like his Father’s. He had achieved what all of us are striving to achieve! Not only that, but when Jesus resurrected, he broke the bonds of death, somehow making it possible for every one of us to resurrect as well.

Alma taught that there is a time “appointed of God that the dead shall come forth, and be reunited, both soul and body, and be brought to stand before God, and be judged according to their works. …. The soul shall be restored to the body, and the body to the soul; yea, and every limb and joint shall be restored to its body; yea, even a hair of the head shall not be lost; but all things shall be restored to their proper and perfect frame.“ (Alma 40:21,23)

So Christ provided the way for each of us to resurrect, to gain a perfect body like our Father has, and to live forever.

And following the resurrection will come the judgment. Someday we will stand before our Savior to be judged of our works on this earth. And because he knows firsthand our sufferings, and he knows all that we have experienced, he will be our judge. He will know if we did the best we could with the knowledge we had. He’ll know if we tried to follow God’s plan for us. It is my testimony that if we strive to keep the commandments, if we have faith in him, repent of our mistakes, be baptized, receive the Holy Ghost as our constant guide, and continue faithfully to the end, then he will have mercy on us. He paid for our sins so we could be forgiven, washed clean and purified, and be able to return to God’s presence again. Because of his love for us, he prepared the way and made it possible for us to overcome the obstacles of death and sin so we could return to our Father’s presence with greater experience and a perfect, immortal body and continue our quest to become more like him. Jesus gave us our chance for a happily ever after. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.