Atonement

1) "If I were to emphasize one overarching point this morning, it would be this: I suspect that you and I are much more familiar with the nature of the redeeming power of the Atonement than we are with the enabling power of the Atonement. It is one thing to know that Jesus Christ came to earth to die for us. That is fundamental and foundational to the doctrine of Christ. But we also need to appreciate that the Lord desires, through His Atonement and by the power of the Holy Ghost, to live in us--not only to direct us but also to empower us. I think most of us know that when we do things wrong, when we need help to overcome the effects of sin in our lives, the Savior has paid the price and made it possible for us to be made clean through His redeeming power. Most of us clearly understand that the Atonement is for sinners. I am not so sure, however, that we know and understand that the Atonement is also for saints--for good men and women who are obedient and worthy and conscientious and who are striving to become better and serve more faithfully. I frankly do not think many of us "get it" concerning this enabling and strengthening aspect of the Atonement, and I wonder if we mistakenly believe we must make the journey from good to better and become a saint all by ourselves through sheer grit, willpower, and discipline, and with our obviously limited capacities."  (Elder David A. Bednar, 23 Oct. 2001, “In the Strength of the Lord,” BYU Devotional, http://speeches.byu.edu/?act=viewitem&id=251 )

2) "I am a father, inadequate to be sure, but I cannot comprehend the burden it must have been for God in His heaven to witness the deep suffering and Crucifixion of His Beloved Son in such a manner. His every impulse and instinct must have been to stop it, to send angels to intervene—but He did not intervene. He endured what He saw because it was the only way that a saving, vicarious payment could be made for the sins of all His other children from Adam and Eve to the end of the world. I am eternally grateful for a perfect Father and His perfect Son, neither of whom shrank from the bitter cup nor forsook the rest of us who are imperfect, who fall short and stumble, who too often miss the mark."  (Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, May 1999, “The Hands of the Fathers,” Ensign, https://www.lds.org/ensign/1999/05/the-hands-of-the-fathers?lang=eng)

3) "And now, as pertaining to this perfect atonement, wrought by the shedding of the blood of God—I testify that it took place in Gethsemane and at Golgotha, and as pertaining to Jesus Christ, I testify that he is the Son of the Living God and was crucified for the sins of the world. He is our Lord, our God, and our King. This I know of myself independent of any other person.  I am one of his witnesses, and in a coming day I shall feel the nail marks in his hands and in his feet and shall wet his feet with my tears.  But I shall not know any better then than I know now that he is God’s Almighty Son, that he is our Savior and Redeemer, and that salvation comes in and through his atoning blood and in no other way." (Elder Bruce R. McConkie, May 1985, “The Purifying Power of Gethsemane,” Ensign, https://www.lds.org/ensign/1985/05/the-purifying-power-of-gethsemane?lang=eng)

4) “In Gethsemane, the suffering Jesus began to be 'sore amazed' (Mark 14:33), or, in the Greek, 'awestruck' and 'astonished.' Jesus knew cognitively what He must do, but not experientially. He had never personally known the exquisite and exacting process of an atonement before. Thus, when the agony came in its fullness, it was so much, much worse than even He with his unique intellect had ever imagined. No wonder an angel came to strengthen him. The cumulative weight of all mortal sins—past, present, and future—pressed upon that perfect, sinless, and sensitive Soul! ” (Elder Neal A. Maxwell, May 1985, “Willing to Submit,” Ensign, https://www.lds.org/ensign/1985/05/willing-to-submit?lang=eng)

5) “If you will turn away from sin, you will be able one day to know the peace that comes from following the pathway of complete repentance. No matter what our transgressions have been, no matter how much our actions may have hurt others, that guilt can all be wiped out. To me, perhaps the most beautiful phrase in all scripture is when the Lord said, ‘Behold, he who has repented of his sins, the same is forgiven, and I, the Lord, remember them no more.’ That is the promise of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the Atonement: to take anyone who comes, anyone who will join, and put them through an experience so that at the end of their life, they can go through the veil having repented of their sins and having been washed clean through the blood of Christ.” (Elder Richard G. Scott, May 2012, “The Atonement,” Ensign, https://www.lds.org/ensign/2012/11/the-atonement?lang=eng)

6)  “Throughout your life there may be times when you have gone places you never should have gone and done things you never should have done. If you will turn away from sin, you will be able one day to know the peace that comes from following the pathway of complete repentance. No matter what our transgressions have been, no matter how much our actions may have hurt others, that guilt can all be wiped out... That is the promise of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the Atonement: to take anyone who comes, anyone who will join, and put them through an experience so that at the end of their life, they can go through the veil having repented of their sins and having been washed clean through the blood of Christ.” (President Boyd K. Packer, November 2012, “The Atonement,” Ensign, https://www.lds.org/ensign/2012/11/the-atonement?lang=eng)

7) “For some reason, we think the Atonement of Christ applies only at the end of mortal life to redemption from the Fall, from spiritual death. It is much more than that. It is an ever-present power to call upon in everyday life. When we are racked or harrowed up or tormented by guilt or burdened with grief, He can heal us. While we do not fully understand how the Atonement of Christ was made, we can experience ‘the peace of God, which passeth all understanding’.” (President Boyd K. Packer, May 2001, “The Touch of the Master’s Hand,” Ensign, https://www.lds.org/ensign/2001/05/the-touch-of-the-masters-hand?lang=eng) 

8)  “I testify that the Savior’s Atonement lifts from us not only the burden of our sins but also the burden of our disappointments and sorrows, our heartaches and our despair. From the beginning, trust in such help was to give us both a reason and a way to improve, an incentive to lay down our burdens and take up our salvation. There can and will be plenty of difficulties in life. Nevertheless, the soul that comes unto Christ, who knows His voice and strives to do as He did, finds a strength, as the hymn says, ‘beyond [his] own.’ The Savior reminds us that He has ‘graven [us] upon the palms of [His] hands.”’ Considering the incomprehensible cost of the Crucifixion and Atonement, I promise you He is not going to turn His back on us now. When He says to the poor in spirit, “Come unto me,” He means He knows the way out and He knows the way up. He knows it because He has walked it. He knows the way because He is the way.” (Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, May 2006, “Broken Things to Mend,” Ensign, https://www.lds.org/ensign/2006/05?lang=eng)

9)  “In spite of life’s tribulations and as fearful as some of our prospects are, I testify that there is help for the journey. There is the Bread of Eternal Life and the Well of Living Water. Christ has overcome the world—our world—and His gift to us is peace now and exaltation in the world to come. Our fundamental requirement is to have faith in Him and follow Him—always. When He bids us to walk in His way and by His light, it is because He has walked this way before us, and He has made it safe for our own travel here. He knows where the sharp stones and stumbling blocks lie hidden and where thorns and thistles are the most severe. He knows where the path is perilous, and He knows which way to go when the road forks and nightfall comes. He knows all this, as Alma says in the Book of Mormon, because He has suffered ‘pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind … , that he may know … how to succor his people according to their infirmities.’ To succor means to ‘run to.’ I testify that in my fears and in my infirmities the Savior has surely run to me. I will never be able to thank Him enough for such personal kindness and such loving care.”  (Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, November 1997, “He Hath Filled the Hungry with Good Things,” Ensign, https://www.lds.org/ensign/1997/11/he-hath-filled-the-hungry-with-good-things?lang=eng)

10)  “When we have done all that we are able, we can rely on God’s promised mercy. We have a Savior, who has taken upon him not just the sins, but also ‘the pains and the sicknesses of his people … that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities’ (Alma 7:11–12). He is our Savior, and when we have done all that we can, he will make up the difference, in his own way and in his own time.” (Elder Dallin H. Oaks, November 1993, “’The Great Plan of Happiness’,” Ensign, https://www.lds.org/ensign/1993/11/the-great-plan-of-happiness?lang=eng)