Thoughts on the Atonement

This week in my New Testament class we’re studying the atonement. Words cannot describe how grateful I am for the blessings of the atonement. Without the atonement there would be no way we could make it back to heaven. No eternal families. No life after death. In Alma 7:11-13, it goes over everything that the atonement encompasses. Not only does the atonement allow us to repent, but we can use it for comfort and know that everything we experience Christ experienced as well. And since he experienced it, he knows exactly how to help us.

My absolute favorite quote goes perfectly with this topic. It’s all about the atonement and some of the things it covers. It’s really long, but worth the read!

“We know that Jesus experienced the totality of mortal existence in Gethsemane. It’s our faith that he experienced everything—absolutely everything. Sometimes we don’t think through the implications of that belief. We talk in great generalities about the sins of all humankind, about the suffering of the entire human family. But we don’t experience pain in generalities. We experience it individually. That means he knows what it felt like when your mother died of cancer—how it was for your mother, how it still is for you. He knows what it felt like to lose the student body election. He knows that moment when the brakes locked and the car started to skid. He experienced the slave ship sailing from Ghana toward Virginia. He experienced the gas chambers at Dachau. He experienced napalm in Vietnam… He knows about drug addiction and alcoholism…. On a profound level, he understands about the hunger to hold your baby that sustains you through pregnancy. He understands both the physical pain of giving birth and the immense joy. He understands about rape and infertility and abortion… He understands your mother-pain when your five-year-old leaves for kindergarten, when a bully picks on your fifth-grader, when your daughter calls to say that the new baby has Down’s syndrome. He knows your mother’s rage…when someone gives your thirteen-year-old drugs, when someone seduces your seventeen-year-old. He knows the pain you live with when you come home to a quiet apartment where the only children are visitors, when you hear that your former husband and his new wife were sealed in the temple last week, when your fiftieth wedding anniversary rolls around and your husband has been dead for two years. He knows all that. He’s been there. He’s been lower than all that. He’s not waiting for us to be perfect. Perfect people don’t need a Savior. He came to save his people in their imperfections. He is the Lord of the living, and the living make mistakes. He’s not embarrassed by us, angry at us, or shocked. He wants us in our brokenness, in our unhappiness, in our guilt and our grief.” Chieko Okazaki

The atonement is an unlimited gift we are freely given and I’m so grateful for that. I have used the enabling power of the atonement many times and the peace that comes when we use the atonement is undeniable. I cannot begin to imagine the pain Christ went through and I’m eternally indebted to him and all that he has done for me. I know that through the atonement we can repent and become whole again. I know that Jesus is the Christ. He loves each of us and knows what we need individually. Turn to him and he will be there. He always is and always will be there no matter what.