Sunday Notes: The Enabling and Redemptive Powers of the Atonement

In sacrament meeting today our Stake Patriarch spoke and gave his wonderful testimony of the hours surrounding the physical acts of the atonement that Christ endured. He spoke without notes, yet quoted prophets and scripture as though they were part of him. My thoughts as I listened were that this is not the kind of talk you write and prepare. Although anyone could probably memorize those words you can feel when a man of that stature gives them that it has come through years of study, years of fasting, years of prayer and revelation.

Clearly 2 Corinthians 3: 2-3 applies to my good friend, our Stake Patriarch:

2 Ye are our ^aepistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men:

3 Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, ^awritten not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in ^btables of stone, but in ^cfleshy tables of the ^dheart.

In his remarks he referenced a talke given in October 2001 by the then President of BYU-Idaho David A. Bednar called 'In the Strength of the Lord.' In the opening lines of this talk President Bednar states, "I have considered what might be the most important message I could share with you. My objective this morning is to describe and discuss both the redeeming and enabling powers of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. And I hope to place particular emphasis upon the enabling power of the Atonement."

I myself have always placed so much emphasis on the redeeming power and although I understood the principles of the enabling power I had not heard them so well described as does President Bednar do in this talk.

"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.

Brothers and sisters, the gospel of the Savior is not simply about avoiding bad in our lives; it also is essentially about doing and becoming good. And the Atonement provides help for us to overcome and avoid bad and to do and become good. There is help from the Savior for the entire journey of life--from bad to good to better and to change our very nature."

President Bednar then goes on to explain the relationship between the correct definition of grace and enabling power:

"In the Bible Dictionary in our scriptures we learn that the word grace frequently is used in the scriptures to connote enabling power. On page 697, under the word grace, we read:

""A word that occurs frequently in the New Testament, especially in the writings of Paul. The main idea of the word is divine means of help or strength, given through the bounteous mercy and love of Jesus Christ (emphasis added).

"It is through the grace of the Lord Jesus, made possible by his atoning sacrifice, that mankind will be raised in immortality, every person receiving his body from the grave in a condition of everlasting life.""

Please note these next sentences:

""It is likewise through the grace of the Lord that individuals, through faith in the atonement of Jesus Christ and repentance of their sins, receive strength and assistance to do good works that they otherwise would not be able to maintain if left to their own means. This grace is an enabling power that allows men and women to lay hold on eternal life and exaltation after they have expended their own best efforts"" (emphasis added).

That is, grace represents that divine assistance or heavenly help each of us will desperately need to qualify for the celestial kingdom. Thus the enabling power of the Atonement strengthens us to do and be good and serve beyond our own individual desire and natural capacity."

In Elder Bednars own personal scriptures he notes that he has made it a habit to write enabling power whenever he encounters the word grace.

"Consider, for example, this verse with which we are all familiar: "For we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do" (2 Nephi 25:23).

Let's review this verse one more time: "For we know that it is by grace [the enabling and strengthening power of the Atonement of Christ] that we are saved, after all we can do."

He concludes by expounding on a scripture in Alma 7 that I used to use all the time as a missionary to explain Christ's atonement:

"In Alma 7 we learn how and why the Savior is able to provide the enabling power, beginning with verse 11: "And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people" (emphasis added).

Thus the Savior has suffered not just for our iniquities but also for the inequality, the unfairness, the pain, the anguish, and the emotional distress that so frequently beset us. Additional detail is described in verse 12:

"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" (emphasis added).

There is no physical pain, no anguish of soul, no suffering of spirit, no infirmity or weakness that you or I ever experience during our mortal journey that the Savior did not experience first. You and I in a moment of weakness may cry out, "No one understands. No one knows." No human being, perhaps, knows. But the Son of God perfectly knows and understands, for He felt and bore our burdens before we ever did. And because He paid the ultimate price and bore that burden, He has perfect empathy and can extend to us His arm of mercy in so many phases of our life. He can reach out, touch, and succor--literally run to us--and strengthen us to be more than we could ever be and help us to do that which we could never do through relying only upon our own power."