[Footnote B: Matt. xxvi: 53, 54.]
Thus down to the very last moment, it appears that Jesus could have been delivered from the sacrifice had he so willed it. But the principle which was the guiding-star of his life—"Father, not my will, but thy will be done" influenced him in this instance, and he drank of the cup given him of his Father, and wrung out the dregs in agony; but he did it voluntarily, and that, too, out of his great love for mankind.
Among men we sometimes see this willingness to suffer for others. Men there are who would lay down their lives for their friends. In the times when imprisonment for debt was customary in England, we often meet instances where out of pure love and kindness towards his fellows, a man under no obligation whatever to do so, has paid the debts of the unfortunate, satisfied the demands of the law, and set the captive free. It is related of Lord Byron that when he was a lad attending school, a companion of his fell under the displeasure of a cruel, overbearing bully, who unmercifully beat him. Byron happened to be present, but knowing the uselessness of undertaking a fight with the bully, he stepped up to him and asked him how much longer he intended to beat his friend. "What's that to you?" gruffly demanded the bully. "Because," replied young Byron, the tears standing in his eyes, "I will take the rest of the beating if you will let him go."
That partakes to some extent, at least enough so for illustration, of the spirit by which the Son of God was actuated when he offered himself a ransom for mankind, to redeem them from the power and dominion of death, from which they were powerless to free themselves.
There was something more, however, in the suffering of the Messiah than merely the ordinary pangs and terrors of personal death. As stated by the late President John Taylor, "The suffering of the Son of God was not simply the suffering of personal death; for in assuming the position that he did in making an atonement for the sins of the world, he bore the weight, the responsibilities and the burden of the sins of all men, which, to us, is incomprehensible. As stated, 'The Lord your Redeemer suffered death in the flesh; wherefore he suffereth the pains of all men.' And Isaiah says: 'Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows;' also, 'The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all;' and again, 'he hath poured out his soul unto death, and he was numbered with the transgressors, and he bear the sins of many;' or, as it is written in the second book of Nephi, 'For behold, he suffereth the pains all men, yea the pains of every living creature, both men, women and children, who belong to the family of Adam;' whilst in Mosiah it is declared, 'he shall suffer temptations and pains of body, hunger, thirst and fatigue, even more than man can suffer, except it be unto death; for behold, blood cometh from every pore so great shall be his anguish for the wickedness and abominations of his people.'"[C]
[Footnote C: Mediation and Atonement ch. xxi.]
By this Atonement of Messiah's there is especially one fact thrown out into bold relief, that is, the great love of God and Christ for mankind. When you come to think of the unspeakable agony, of the anguish of heart, of the pains that racked the body and distressed the mind of the Savior at the time of his betrayal, and during his trial and crucifixion, you may begin to see how great the love of the Father for mankind must be, when he would consent for his only begotten Son to pass through this great humiliation and affliction, in order to redeem mankind from the bonds of death. On such contemplation increased emphasis will be given to the passage —"In this was manifested the love of God towards us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him."[D] And also to this—"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn, the world, but that the world through him might be saved."[E]
[Footnote D: I. John iv: 9.]
[Footnote E: John iii. 16, 17.]
Then what shall we say for the greatness of the love of the Son of God, who of his own free will volunteered to take upon himself the task of man's redemption! Not only of redeeming him from death, but from the consequences of all sins, that is, on certain conditions, as we shall see further on!