The centrality of the atonement in LDS doctrine and thought is beyond dispute. Even in the earliest LDS poetry, the atonement is frequently mentioned, and its role expounded. There is no shortage of material about Christ and his sacrifice. But that doesn’t mean that our understanding of the atonement is complete and consistent. It has changed over time and still includes many different ways of understanding the doctrine.

This lesson focuses on several points about the atonement — its centrality to the gospel, both ancient and modern, its ability to bring joy and peace to our lives, the power it gives us to overcome our faults and trials, and the idea that Christ has somehow paid for our sins.

 

Prophets ancient and modern testify of the Savior’s atoning sacrifice.

LDS teachings say that the atonement was known by prophets from Adam through the birth of Christ, and, for that matter, the Savior’s sacrifice was planned from before this life. Our belief that eternity extends in both directions, the past as well as the future, ties the sacrifice to an eternal plan.

This poem focuses more on that plan than on the atonement and what was prophesied about it. But it does say that the plan, including the atonement, “Was preached to Adam, Seth—to Enoch and / To Noah, Moses and to Abraham,”

 

We Are, We Were and Are to Be

by Eliza R. Snow

Momentous thoughts! Thoughts full of interest

To each reflecting mind.

The knowledge of

Our pre-existent state is deeply veiled

In the impenetrable cloister of

Forgetfulness, until the spirit of

The living God, which breathed in Daniel’s mind

The dream forgotten by the haughty king

Of Babylon, reveals to us the mystery.

God is our Father, and we dwelt with Him

Ere Earth was temporally organized.

To carry out our Father’s great designs,

Involving our eternal destiny

And our relationship to Him and Earth,

We gave our free and uncoerced consent

To risk the consequences and abide

Whatever the result, and take our chance

In this probation, this our second state.

But mark the danger which we bravely dared!

By yielding all the wealth of memory—

All recollection of primeval life,

Of our exalted, royal origin,

With all th’ experience and the gathered stores

Of rich intelligence and wisdom drawn

From flowing streams of sources infinite,

With all of knowledge we had treasured when

Associated with the highest class

Of pure intelligences—all is laid

Aside, and we come forth upon the earth

In total ignorance, and at our birth

Commence a life as though we ne’er had been:

With all to learn, from helpless babyhood

To highest manhood’s fullest, broadest sphere.

We’re here to fill a noble destiny.

This present life is but a middle state,

A short connecting link between the two

Eternities, the past and future of

Our own identical existences.

The future we are hastening to—the past,

Though all forgotten, we, by honoring

Our mortal being, may anticipate,

In the high-aiming, heav’n-directing path.

Of man’s progression, an attainable

Attractive point, to which the present, past

And future all converge—where mem’ry, long

Dethroned, resuscitated with full pow’rs,

Resumes its sway, and the dark curtain of

Forgetfulness is rent asunder, and,

As if with ken of Deity, we’ll gaze

On all the scenes and all the sceneries

Connected with our former being, and

Our first high parentage in spirit birth,

Including knowledge of those kindred ties,

And all the dear associations formed

By friendship and by fond reciprocal

Affection. O how interesting is

The thought! I oft desire, yet almost fear

To know the sequel of the hidden past

Of my great life experience—life before

“The morning stars” their lofty paeans sung,

“And all the sons of God shouted for joy.”

How well for those who kept “their first estate”

In that most terrible of all revolts,

The bold rebellion in the courts above,

When Lucifer the heirship sought to wrest

From its legitimacy, and apply

Its functions to unholy purposes!

’Tis no vain thought—no phantom of the brain,

T’ anticipate the time when the long spell

Of strange forgetfulness, oblivion wraps

Around the sleeping mem’ries of the past

Shall be dissolved.—The “gates ajar,” at once

The panoramic vista moves along,

With recollection’s mirror unobscured,

And the great volume of primeval life

Unsealed will be unfolded leaf by leaf,

And every secret of development

Anterior to our nether birth disclosed,

With every phase of being—every shade

Of light and dark, or good or ill, or mix’d

In each self-woven web of character.

’Tis true as strange and strange as true that this

Event secure in our great future lies.

Ere man had fallen from the high altitude

Of his primeval standing on the earth,

And from the presence of the Deity,

By wisdom infinite a righteous plan

Had been devised by which, thro’ faith in the

Atoning blood of Jesus Christ, our own,

Our elder brother in the spirit world—

God’s only Son begotten in the flesh;

And thro’ obed’ence to His Gospel, which

Was preached to Adam, Seth—to Enoch and

To Noah, Moses and to Abraham,

The glorious Everlasting Gospel, which,

With all its gifts and blessings, Priesthood, powers—

Its ordinances and authority,

Has been restored to earth thro’ Joseph Smith,

He may regain the holy presence of

The Great Eternal, and may e’en transcend

The rank he held in Eden ere the Fall.

Throughout the whole vast Universe of worlds,

Each kingdom has its Order and its laws,

And each its corresponding glory too.

There is one glory of the sun—one of

The moon, another of the stars; and as

The stars in glory differ each from each,

So is the resurrection of the dead.

Who honors the celestial law is sure

Celestial glory thro’ that law to gain.

So with terrestrial and the multitude

Of the telestial glories and their laws.

Man, as free moral agent, has the right

And power to choose his future destiny

Thro’ his adherence to whichever law

Or code he shapes his life. The fullness of

The Everlasting Gospel of the Son

Of God contains the perfect law by which

Perfection’s full proportions are attained,

With Immortality and Endless Lives.

1871

 

Jesus Christ offers me peace and joy.

we don’t always think of peace and joy in the context of the atonement, but when I think about it, the prospect of being able to repent does seem joyful and something that will lead to peace.

Here, one of the prolific LDS poets of the turn of the 20th century, Theodore Curtis, sees Christ’s sacrifice as leading directly to peace.

 

The Voice of the Shepherd

by Theo. E. Curtis

Lean on mine ample arm, oh thou deprest!

And I will bid the storm cease in thy breast.

Whate’er thy lot may be,

On life’s complaining sea,

If thou wilt come to me, thou shalt have rest.

Lift up thy tearful eyes, sad heart, to me;

I am the sacrifice offered for thee.

In me thy pain shall cease,

In me is thy release,

In me thou shalt have peace eternally.

1911

 

Because of His Atonement, Jesus Christ has the power to help me overcome sin, death, trials, and weaknesses.

Christ has himself been called a gift to mankind, but his sacrifice, while the central element of the gift we receive, often seems like it shouldn’t be called that, given how much suffering was involved. Nonetheless, we benefit and should be grateful for receiving it. The atonement provides real power—enabling us to overcome our sins and the challenges of life. That is the real gift here.

And it is the powers and abilities that arise from the atonement that Alberta Huish Christensen describes in this poem.

 

Thy Gift

by Alberta Huish Christensen

Thy gift to me, great Prince of Bethlehem?

I cannot know the mercies infinite

That thy great sacrifice has given me;

Yet power to love, to pity, and to see,

I know are gifts from thee.

Remembering thy cup of bitter dregs,

My trembling grasp is strengthened, and I quaff

More bravely and more readily my share

“From my life’s cup, though filled with pain and care—

This is thy gift to me.

I hear the cry from out Gethsemane:

“A debt is paid”; the price was thy life’s blood

Which makes men gods potential, gives them breath,

And power to see beyond the wall of death—

These are thy gifts to me.

1923

 

Jesus Christ paid the ultimate price for my salvation.

The scope of Christ’s atonement makes the word “ultimate” seem inadequate. Often the “ultimate sacrifice” means that the sacrifice ended in death, but in Christ’s case it is much more, a sacrifice that no one else can make. This scope leads back to the need for the sacrifice and the need for a plan to save humanity.

So, the following poem again approaches the atonement from the perspective of the plan. In the final two stanzas Charles Stayner here portrays the “ultimate” nature of the atonement.

A Christmas Poem

by Charles W. Stayner

Down from the realms of Glorious Light,

Fulfilling God’s decree,-

For ’twas decree in council giv’n,

That one should leave His throne in Heav’n

To die for all,-

He came-Creator, Savior, Lord,-

According to the sacred word

Revealed at time of Adam’s fall,

In mortal state midst worldly night,

To shine by deeds with splendor bright.

The earth forewarned by prophet’s voice,

Prepares her mission to fulfil;

Her wise men coming from the east

Refuse to do fierce Herod’s will,

But save the Son of God’s own choice

Who blessing brings.

For Moses-like this Prophet lay

In danger from desire to slay

In breasts of kings,

Whose jealous wrath ne’er yet forgave

Prophetic rival born to save.

O, happy highborn, Heavenly plan,

That gave this priceless gift to man!

That sent Jehovah from above,

Where filled with love,

The seraphs and angelic hosts

All homage pay,

To God whose Glory fadeth not away;

That thus the law of consecration shown,

He might by sacrifice redeem His own!

He whom ’twere Heaven to obey,

Whose mighty call from chaos brought the earth,

Who shone in sun, and made the moon and stars,

And sent creation forth;

Who spake in Eden with command,

Revealing pow’r of God’s right hand,-

The Father’s Representative.

‘Tis He who now in manger lain,

Deprived of judgment, destined to be slain,

Fulfils the Father’s heavenly decree,

And makes the world His great salvation see.

Thus did the Gods who in the heavens dwell,

Promote salvation where weak mortals fell,

And glory gain.

Descending low from His exalted state,

Christ drew manking so near to Heaven’s gate,

That, filled with holy thought man may aspire

To change from flesh, to a “consuming fire.”

And like the Lord great righteousness portray,

By walking in “the strait and narrow way;”

And through eternal deeds of Godly worth

Send sweet salvation forth to men on earth.

What love like His can mortal man ere find?

To sacrifice His life for Adam’s kind

Were but a part of what to Christ was dross,

Compared with soul-salvation through the cross.

Emblem indeed, thou art, accursed tree,

Of what a Savior’s work must surely be!

For all the glory which to Him pertained

In yon bright world where Jesus lived and reigned,

Was willing laid upon the altar of His love,

That man might rise to share the thrones above.

And all He asked in recompense for this,

Was simple restoration to the world of bliss.

He prayed-“O Father, glorify thou me

With the glory which I had with Thee

Before the world was.”

To stand again as second in command,-

The Word, the Mediator at God’s right hand,-

This was to Him who triumphed o’er the grave,

Sufficient glory. His SALVATION WAS TO SAVE.

1887