Feeling Grateful

I gave a talk in church yesterday. The topic I spoke on was the Atonement of Jesus Christ. As I studied this topic, I became very aware of the love our Heavenly Father has for all of us. To give "His only begotten Son" to atone for our sins. I am grateful not only for Heavenly Father's love for us, but the Savior's love for us as well. After all, it was He alone who could bring to past the atonement. Elder Jeffrey R. Holland explains why.

This infinite Atonement of Christ was possible because (1) He was the only sinless man ever to live on this earth and therefore was not subject to the spiritual death resulting from sin, (2) He was the Only Begotten of the Father and therefore possessed the attributes of godhood that gave Him power over physical death, and (3) He was apparently the only one sufficiently humble and willing in the premortal council to be foreordained to that service.

As I further studied this topic, I was led to the topic of repentance. I think we oftentimes don’t talk about the repentance process deep enough when we relate it to the Savior’s atonement. Sure, we know we need to repent to be cleanse of our sins, but do we understand the need of our own suffering during this repentance process? Elder Dallin H. Oaks talks about the need for our personal suffering.

Why is it necessary for us to suffer on the way to repentance for serious transgressions? We tend to think of the results of repentance as simply cleansing us from sin, but that is an incomplete view of the matter. A person who sins is like a tree that bends easily in the wind. On a windy and rainy day, the tree bends so deeply against the ground that the leaves become soiled with mud, like sin. If we focus only on cleaning the leaves, the weakness in the tree that allowed it to bend and soil its leaves may remain. Similarly, a person who is merely sorry to be soiled by sin will sin again in the next high wind. The susceptibility to repetition continues until the tree has been strengthened.

When a person has gone through the process that results in what the scriptures call “a broken heart and a contrite spirit,” the Savior does more than cleanse that person from sin. He gives him or her new strength. That strengthening is essential for us to realize the purpose of the cleansing, which is to return to our Heavenly Father. To be admitted to His presence, we must be more than clean. We must also be changed from a morally weak person who has sinned into a strong person with the spiritual stature to dwell in the presence of God. We must, as the scripture says, become “a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord” (Mosiah 3:19). This is what the scripture means in its explanation that a person who has repented of his sins will forsake them. Forsaking sins is more than resolving not to repeat them. Forsaking involves a fundamental change in the individual.

This caused me to look back at the times I have gone through the process of repentance. It was during those times where I felt the suffering from decisions that I made and was able to truly lean on the Savior, pleading for His help to change me.

So, I am grateful. I am grateful for Heavenly Father, who in His infinite wisdom had a plan for us to be able to return to Him. I am grateful for our Savior, who was the only one who could carry out the atonement and volunteered to do so. Finally, I am grateful for my own suffering. This has given me greater appreciation for Christ’s suffering and has allowed me to become stronger and even changed.

-John