The following is a talk that I prepared for sacrament meeting on February 25, 2024.

I struggled a bit with this topic because there’s so much to say about the atonement. It's not only the most important aspect of our faith but of everything. At the same time, it’s one of the most incomprehensible concepts, considering that Christ accomplished an impossibly vast amount of atoning in such a short period of time. And if we set aside for a moment the infinite scope of the Atonement—applying to all sins, temptations, and trials of every person, everywhere, from the beginning to the end of time—just thinking about how it applies to a single person is overwhelming. I can hardly fathom what that looks like, let alone how it extends to all of humanity.

So, when I was asked to speak on just "the atonement," I was left with all of that—where do I even begin?

Everything I found was talking about how big and incredible the atonement is and all of the big and incredible reasons why we need it.

As I was researching it, I realized that in the past I often got scared away from the difficult or impossible to understand infinite nature of the atonement and I never really took the time to figure out what the atonement was or what applying the atonement looked like. So this time, I decided to try and take a step back and look at the atonement from a practical standpoint. Even though the inner workings of the atonement are incomprehensibly complex and infinite and we may never understand it, at least not in this life, surely if we are supposed to use in out daily lives we ought to be able to understand what "applying it" looks like, right?

So what follows is what I found as I was trying to better understand the everyday use of the atonement, and I am calling it A Sinner's Practical Guide to Christ's Atonement.

You're Probably Already Using It

The first thing I had to understand about the atonement from a practical stand point is that I was already using it without realizing I was using it.

David Foster Wallace shared a parable one time

"There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says “Morning, boys. How’s the water?” And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes “What the [heck] is water?” ¹

When he told the story he was trying to encourage a group of graduating students to not get so caught up in close mindedness, blind certainty, and over zealousness for their own thoughts that they miss the small every day moments all around us ², but I want to put a bit of a different spin on it. I think there are some things in our life that are just so fundamental to how we operate that are hard to understand just because we surrounded by it every day. To not have it would be unfathomable. Yet since it's always surrounding us we sometimes take it for granted. I propose that the atonement is one such thing. Without it we would be like fish out of water, but like the fish in the story maybe we aren't fully aware of just how everywhere it is.

I've found in my efforts to understand Christ's atonement I often reflect on "how would things be like without the atonement" and what I have found is that the atonement is so critical to the plan of salvation that it becomes fairly hard to imagine a world without it.

The Come Follow Me reading for this week was Jacob's great sermon on the atonement of Jesus Christ. In it he teaches about the effects of the fall of Adam and Eve, "as death hath passed upon all men, to fulfil the merciful plan of the great Creator, there must needs be a power of resurrection, and the resurrection must needs come unto man by reason of the fall; and the fall came by reason of transgression; and because man became fallen they were cut off from the presence of the Lord."³

The fall of Adam introduced two things, spiritual and temporal death. Because of those things we will die and be separated from God forever. Which is hard for me to appreciate because I have been raised knowing that is not the case; we will be resurrected and we will be brought back into the presence of God. But only because of the atonement. Without the atonement we would be spiritually and physically dead forever. But wait, I thought that the second article of faith said "We believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam’s transgression."⁴ Being spiritually and physically dead forever sure sounds like we are being punished for Adam's transgression. But I think the reason we can believe that men will be punished for their own sins is because "we [also] believe that through the atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved"⁵ So without the atonement we don't get the second article of faith. We get nothing! No guarantees for anything, no life after death, no recovery from our sins or the consequences of the transgression of our first father, no water to swim in.

So because of the atonement a lot of things are set up for us without us having to do anything.

We will all be resurrected, we will all be brought back to God's presence, just by virtue of us being on the earth. Because Christ effected the atonement he has enough grace to make that happen for us no matter what. It's the water we are swimming in every day even if we haven't heard of Jesus Christ. Because of the atonement, we get repentance; we aren't lost forever because of our sins. We can repent and become better, even until we, in the next life, fulfill Christ's commandment to "be ye therefore perfect even as your father in heaven is perfect"⁶ And most of us are doing that everyday, and so we are all taking advantage of the atonement every day. As we learn the gospel we can learn to more effectively take advantage of the atonement, but regardless of what we do in this life we are everyday swimming though the waters of the atonement.

A Practical Guide

What Is The Atonement?

Okay so now that we understand why it's so hard to understand, let's try and understand it. I'm not trying to get a full in depth understanding, just enough so that I can do something with it. I want to know what the bear minimum understanding of the atonement so I can start applying it and it doesn't feel so amorphous.

The entry for the atonement of Jesus Christ in True to the Faith sums it up pretty well:

Jesus’s atoning sacrifice took place in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the cross at Calvary. In Gethsemane He submitted to the will of the Father and began to take upon Himself the sins of all people. He has revealed some of what He experienced as He paid the price for our sins.

“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; see also Luke 22:44; Mosiah 3:7).

The Savior continued to suffer for our sins when He allowed Himself to be crucified—“lifted up upon the cross and slain for the sins of the world” (1 Nephi 11:33).

On the cross, He allowed Himself to die. His body was then laid in a tomb until He was resurrected and became “the firstfruits of them that slept” (1 Corinthians 15:20). Through His death and Resurrection, He overcame physical death for us all.

So for the purpose of this practical guide, let's not worry about it being infinite and incomprehensible, let's not worry about the deep magic, or why it was only Christ that could do it or how it answers the problems of the fall etc etc etc. Simply put:

Jesus Christ atonement is everything that happened from when He started praying in the Garden of Gethsemane until he was resurrected on the third day. It includes his suffering for our sins and his dying and resurrecting. In this one great act he made it possible for us to be resurrected and for us to be reunited with God.

What Is The Atonement Meant To Do?

With a basic understanding of the Atonement, we can ask: what is it meant to accomplish? As we saw earlier, the purpose of the atonement is to overcome the effects of the Fall. Because of the Fall, we face both physical and spiritual death. Overcoming physical death will happen later, and it will happen regardless of our actions. So, for now, let’s focus on spiritual death—that is, sin—and how the atonement can help us with that. For the purposes of this practical guide the atonement is meant to help us overcome sin and draw closer to God. How can we apply the atonement to do that?

What Does It Mean To Apply The Atonement?

Getting into the debate of salvation by grace or salvation by works is beyond the scope of the guide. Theologically I don't fully understand it. What I do understand is that we cannot be saved without Christ but also Christ has some expectations for us.

Bruce R McConkie put it simply "the atonement is the gospel"⁷. It's the good news that Christ has overcome the effects of the fall so that we don't have suffer from them forever. The Gospel is the atonement in action, and I believe it's the principle way we can use the atonement in our everyday life.

After his resurrection Jesus Christ came to Nephites to teach them His Gospel. He said:

"Behold I have given unto you my gospel, and this is the gospel which I have given unto you—that I came into the world to do the will of my Father, because my Father sent me. And my Father sent me that I might be lifted up upon the cross; and after that I had been lifted up upon the cross, that I might draw all men unto me, that as I have been lifted up by men even so should men be lifted up by the Father, to stand before me, to be judged of their works, whether they be good or whether they be evil— And for this cause have I been lifted up; therefore, according to the power of the Father I will draw all men unto me, that they may be judged according to their works. And it shall come to pass, that whoso repenteth and is baptized in my name shall be filled; and if he endureth to the end, behold, him will I hold guiltless before my Father at that day when I shall stand to judge the world. And he that endureth not unto the end, the same is he that is also hewn down and cast into the fire, from whence they can no more return, because of the justice of the Father."⁸

Any time we, have faith, repent, make and keep covenants, use the gift of the Holy Ghost to receive personal revelation and all other aspects of that divine gift, we are using the atonement, and inviting Christ to have a place in our lives so he can lead us back into the presence of God. ⁹

When Joseph Smith said that "The fundamental principles of our religion is the testimony of the apostles and prophets concerning Jesus Christ, 'that he died, was buried, and rose again the third day, and ascended up into heaven;' and all other things are only appendages to these, which pertain to our religion."¹⁰ Not only does he mean that nothing in our religion is more important that the atonement, but that all things that are part of our religion are only possible because of the atonement, they only have effect because of the atonement, the naturally flow from the atonement, they have meaning and purpose only because of the atonement. Without the atonement the gospel is missing it's driving force and is ultimately ineffectual.

How Do We Apply The Atonement?

We again turn to the articles of faith. The second sets up the need for the atonement, referencing both our own sins and Adam's transgression. The third introduces the atonement, and the fourth tells us how to apply it:

• Practical applications
  • Exercise your faith
  • Repent daily
  • Get Baptized and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost
    • If you have already done that, renew that covenant as many Sundays as you possibly can by partaking of the sacrament, and use the gift of the Holy Ghost daily in your life.
  • Keep doing that until you die.

Atonement Everywhere

It was as I was studying for this talk that I began to realize just how everywhere the atonement was. It really is like the air we breath or the water the fish swim through.

Recently, I've been studying Freemasonry quite a bit, and though I'm not entirely sure why, it's something that has fascinated me for a long time. Perhaps it's the intriguing connections with early church history, or maybe I just watched National Treasure too many times as a kid. One of the things I've come to appreciate through this study is the fresh perspective it has given me on our own religion. Some people are quick to point out the similarities between their ceremonies and ours¹¹, but, when you look deeper, there are some key differences that I've found enlightening. For example, Freemasonry focuses primarily on helping men become better in this life. It doesn't offer salvation; instead, it encourages individuals to seek that from their own faith. In contrast, our church not only provides knowledge of how Christ offers salvation, but also what He requires of us. While our temple ceremonies focus heavily on Adam and Eve and becoming like Christ, Masonic ceremonies center on the building of King Solomon's temple. In fact, King Solomon's temple is a dominant theme in everything they do—they love King Solomon's temple.

As I reflected on this, I realized that we have a similar reverence in our church, but ours is centered on Christ and His Atonement. Just as Masonic ceremonies symbolize various aspects of the building of the King Solomon's Temple, our ordinances represent various aspects of the atonement. In baptism, we symbolically die and are reborn in the Spirit when we receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. In the endowment ceremony, we learn about the Fall and how Jesus Christ helps us overcome it. Each week, through the sacrament, we remember one of the most important parts of the atonement. When we take the bread, we remember His body and that He died for us. When we drink the water, we remember that He "suffer[ed] temptations, and pain of body, hunger, thirst, and fatigue, even more than man can suffer, except it be unto death; for behold, blood cometh from every pore, so great...[was] his anguish for the wickedness and the abominations of his people" ¹². We show our faith in Christ by promising to always remember Him, repenting of our sins, and reaffirming our commitment to keep His commandments. In return, He promises that we will always have His Spirit to be with us. The sacrament is truly a miniature version of the gospel of Christ.

"Behold I have given unto you my gospel, and this is the gospel which I have given unto you—that I came into the world to do the will of my Father... And my Father sent me that I might be lifted up upon the cross... And it shall come to pass, that whoso repenteth and is baptized in my name shall be filled; and if he endureth to the end, behold, him will I hold guiltless before my Father at that day when I shall stand to judge the world."¹³

Ultimate Summary

Joseph Smith wrote the ultimate practical guide to the atonement in the articles of faith.

Because of the atonement, we believe that men will be punished for their own sins and not for Adam's transgression. We believe that through the atonement of Christ all man kind may be saved, by obedience to the law and ordinances or the gospel, and we believe that the first principals and ordinances of that gospel are first faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, second repentance, third baptism for emersion for the remission of sins, forth laying on of hands for the gift of the holy ghost.

I know that Christ loves us and that as we use the atonement every day we will draw closer to Him. Even though I don't understand how it all works I know that it does work, and I believe that through Christ's atonement we can all be saved.

In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Footnotes

1. This is Water ↩

2. Which I bring up only so that you know that I am going to willfully miss interpret the story for my own purposes. Which is fine because he even admitted in the talk that different people will interpret the same thing differently based on their perspective. So even though DFW was concerned about "the capital-T Truth [which] is about life BEFORE death". And since this is a practical guide I also feel like it ought to focus on the life before death, however I would argue that capital-T Truth also has much to do with life AFTER death and it's only with that perspective that we can maximize our life before it. ↩

3. 2 Nephi 9:6 ↩

4. Articles of Faith 1:2 ↩

5. Articles of Faith 1:3 ↩

6. Matthew 5:48 ↩

7. McConkie, Bruce R. Mormon Doctrine, 2nd ed., "Atonement of Christ," p. 60. Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1966. ↩

8. 3 Nephi 27:13-17 ↩

9. I understand that at this point we are dangerously close to opening up the "Saved by Grace or Saved by Works" debate which I don't want to get into so I'm going to stick with what Christ said about his Gospel. ↩

10. Elder's Journal - July 1838 ↩

11. Which I won't delve into here, but if you are interested let me know, because I love talking about Freemasonry and will probably be writing more about it ↩

12. Mosiah 3:7 ↩

13. 3 Nephi 27:13-16 ↩