Ian gave a wonderful talk today in church about the atonement and the hope that it can bring. I asked him if we could post it on our blog because I thought it would be a great way to honor our Savior on this Easter. I hope that it can touch some of you the way it has me... Happy Easter!
None that Trust in Him Shall be Desolate
On this Easter Sunday when we celebrate the Savior’s conquering of death – both spiritual and physical – I wanted to talk about what that victory can do for us in our personal lives. I want to speak about the hope that this gospel brings; specifically, I want to address the new hope that can come into the lives of those lost in sin or despair. Echoing Peter, I would like to “give an answer to every man asking a reason for the hope that is in me” (1 Peter 3: 15).
Hope is often spoken of in peripheral terms, often as a third wheel to faith and charity; here I would like to make it the central focus (See Moroni 7). The hopes we carry can vary: they can be proximate, or far-reaching, they can be about trivial things, or the yearnings held closest to our souls. Today the hope spoken of will be what Elder Maxwell called “that ultimate hope” (Neal A Maxwell, Brightness of Hope [Oct 1994 General Conference]). So what is this hope? Earlier this month Elder Steven E. Snow gave what I consider the most concise definition of hope available. He states that “In the gospel of Jesus Christ, hope is the desire of His followers to gain eternal salvation through the Atonement of the Savior. Our hope in the Atonement empowers us with eternal perspective. Such perspective allows us to look beyond the here and now on into the promise of the eternities.” (Steven E Snow, Hope [April 2011 GC]). To this may I add my personal feelings that hope can only be accessed through the doorway of the atonement, the pairing of the two is not optional. Hope is able to extend beyond this life because its life source is eternal. Elder Maxwell reminded us that “real hope does not automatically spring eternal unless it is connected with eternal things” (Maxwell, 1994). In moving past the atonement to a broader level, we cannot expect to have a lasting hope if we do not know or understand the plan of salvation, which is a plan of mercy, happiness, and redemption (See 2 Nephi 2, 9 and Alma 42).
Having set the stage, I would like to discuss five things I feel we must know in order to obtain and keep that hope requisite to gain eternal life (See Ether 12:32).
First, we must know that God loves us, and has a plan for us. We must know that this world in which we live – contrary to an overabundance of evidence – was not a half-baked experiment that our Heavenly Father has abandoned. I testify here that God loves us with an eternal and deep love that we cannot fully comprehend, even on our best days. On Easter, the day where we celebrate the great physical manifestation of that love, I wish to say that one of the great truths of this restored gospel is that we have a personal Father in Heaven that is eternally invested in our lives and its hardships. We catch a glimpse of this love in the Pearl of Great Price where Enoch, seeing in a vision God weeping, asks “How is it that thou canst weep, seeing thou art holy, and from all eternity to all eternity?” Responding, “The Lord said unto Enoch: Behold these thy brethren; they are the workmanship of mine own hands, and I gave unto them their knowledge, in the day I created them; and in the Garden of Eden, gave I unto man his agency; And unto thy brethren have I said, and also given commandment, that they should love one another, and that they should choose me, their Father; but behold, they are without affection, and they hate their own blood; But behold, their sins shall be upon the heads of their fathers; Satan shall be their father, and misery shall be their doom; and the whole heavens shall weep over them, even all the workmanship of mine hands; wherefore should not the heavens weep, seeing these shall suffer?” (Moses 7:29, 32, 33, & 37). To have ultimate hope, we must know this great truth. We cannot help but increase our hope when we realize that we have such a fully committed heavenly parent.
Secondly, we must know that without the atonal sacrifice of our Savior, we are lost and without recourse in our desire to return to God. Because of the Fall of Adam as well as what Elder Bruce C. Hafen calls “acts of independence”, a broader category of action than clear sin, we find ourselves separated from God by a chasm that we cannot close ourselves (Hafen, The Broken Heart). To be restored to our promised place, we must follow the path that Christ lovingly paved. Alma, in his parental pleadings to his wayward son, reminds us all that mercy cannot rob justice (See Alma 42:22-25). If bound strictly by the law and justice of God with mercy being removed from the equation, redemption is a lost cause. In this fallen world, despair – the antithesis of hope – is the default setting we often find ourselves in. This despair is inextricably tied to sin (See Moroni 10:22). Against both of these we must continually push.
Thirdly, we must know that Christ suffered and paid the price for our sins, afflictions, foibles, and infirmities, and we must trust this atonement. The prophet Isaiah provided us in chapter 53 the great messianic prophecy of the redemptive love and sacrifice of the Savior: “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. 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 53:3-5). In this selfless act, love is the abounding principle. James E. Faust testified that “the overwhelming message of the Atonement is the perfect love the Savior has for each and all of us. It is a love which is full of mercy, patience, grace, equity, long-suffering, and, above all, forgiving. The evil influence of Satan would destroy any hope we have in overcoming our mistakes. He would have us feel that we are lost and that there is no hope” (James E Faust, The Atonement: Our Greatest Hope [April 2001 GC]). Contrary to the desires of Satan, this knowledge should provide reason for ultimate hope. We have hope because through this atonement Christ “obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises” (Hebrews 8:6). While I perhaps easily speak of this hope and testimony of atonement, it is not something that we gain in such a light fashion. For many of us, coming to a more complete witness and appreciation of the Lord’s greatest gift will require us to join in the “fellowship of his suffering” (See Philippians 3:10). The accomplishments of Jesus Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane were neither cheap nor shallow; thus, any attempt of our own to use the gift of the atonement will be of a necessity a deep experience.
Forth, we must know that the atonement allows for genuine change of self and being. In preparation for this talk I skimmed a book of Amy’s called Believing Christ. One of the author’s mains points in that there is a distinction between having a testimony of the Savior’s existence and ministry and believing that we can, through the atonement, change in order to become “celestial citizens” (See Dallin H Oaks, The Challenge to Become [Oct. 2000 GC]). The latter point is more important, and its realization in our lives allows us to move beyond barriers we were born with, those placed before us by previous sins, and those put in front of us by others’ actions. If we are to ask ourselves to what end was the atonement wrought, the answer would be humanity’s ability to gain experience while not being eternally punished for those mistakes made in progress. If we speak of the atonement and do not use it, are we any better than those that draw near unto the Lord with their lips, but having their hearts far from him? (See Isaiah 29:13)
Lastly, and this is directly connected to the previous element, we must know that Christ understands our sufferings and heartaches, and will not leave us comfortless. Jesus Christ understands our sufferings because of the perfect life he led and the infinite suffering he experienced in the garden and on the cross. The great Christian author C.S. Lewis affirmed: “No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good. A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is… A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness. They have lived a sheltered life by always giving in. We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it: and Christ, because He was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means—the only complete realist.” (C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity Ch. 11). The combination of His perfect life and infinite sacrifice make Him uniquely qualified to command us to put our trust in Him and take His yoke upon us, and He has done just that (See Matthew 11:29). Christ experienced alone the worst of what we will ever face, and it would be wise to note that He did so voluntarily out of love, so that we will never have to be alone when we face our trials. As Elder Holland so eloquently testified, “For His Atonement to be infinite and eternal, He had to feel what it was like to die not only physically but spiritually, to sense what it was like to have the divine Spirit withdraw, leaving one feeling totally, abjectly, hopelessly alone” (Jeffrey R Holland, None Were with Him, [April 2009 GC]). Knowing that our greatest source of aid in this life can totally empathize with all that we go through allows for hope because we can see how we will work past our greatest trials; while we may not see when we will overcome, we will see how, and by whom.
There are the five things I feel we all must know in order to have ultimate hope through the atonement. Time does not allow me to go into any detail, but I would like to briefly list the sources from which we can continually garner this hope in our lives. Jacob instructs us that the scriptures provide reasons for hope, as we see the changes in the lives of those touched by the power of God (See Jacob 4:6, Romans 15:4). Paul and a host of other prophets and apostles tell us that the Holy Ghost is the proximate source of all the hope we feel in our lives (Romans 15:13, Moroni 8:26). Our memories of past dealings with the Lord and the atonement continually buoy our hope for a better tomorrow (2 Nephi 4:19-20). Finally, Paul tells us in Ephesians of the powerful reminder covenants are of the greatness of the eternities before us (Ephesians 2:12). All of these sources testify of God’s plan for His children and the Savior’s redemptive power. Most importantly, they speak of the Father and Son’s refusal to give up on the lost and those whose “hands hang down” (See D&C 81:5).
Having this ultimate hope can bring great power and promise to our lives. It enables us restore order and peace in lives disrupted by sin and challenges not foreseen in happier days. It enables us to do things beyond our normal capacity. Elder Snow observed that “This ‘perfect brightness of hope’ of which Nephi speaks is the hope in the Atonement, eternal salvation made possible by the sacrifice of our Savior. This hope has led men and women through the ages to do remarkable things” (Snow, 2011). Hope sparks within us a desire to deepen our connection to the Savior and all that he offers (See Alma 22:18). Most importantly, ultimate hope enables us to let our will be swallowed up by the Lord’s; when this is done, we become the Children of God that He desires us to be (See Mosiah 15:7). And why can we trust these promises? Because we can trust the promise-maker: “Because Christ’s eyes were unfailingly fixed on the future, He could endure all that was required of Him, suffer as no man can suffer except it be ‘unto death,’ look upon the wreckage of individual lives and the promises of ancient Israel lying in ruins around Him and still say then and now, ‘Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.’ How could He do this? How could He believe it? Because He knows that for the faithful, things will be made right soon enough. He is a King; He speaks for the crown; He knows what can be promised. He knows that ‘the Lord … will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble. … For the needy shall not alway[s] be forgotten: the expectation of the poor shall not perish for ever.’ He knows that ‘the Lord redeemeth the soul of his servants: and none of them that trust in him shall be desolate’” (Jeffrey R Holland, An High Priest of Good Things to Come [Oct 1999 GC]). The promises of the Lord and ultimate hope can be ours, but only if there is nothing else we want more. Like that pearl of great price, we must give all else that we have to obtain it (Matthew 13:45-46). I testify this Easter morning that hope in Christ is a real and powerful force, and it is powerful because it is related to Christ. It is well to remember that it was on this day millennia ago that hope caused the apostles of the Lord to run to the empty tomb (See Luke 24:8-12). The Lord lives, He loves us, and wants us to be like Him; this is His mission and my testimony that I leave with you today.
