"For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth whom he will." (St. John v.21.)
DISCUSSION.
1. The Helplessness of Man in the Presence of Broken Law: The preceding lesson closed with the question how can satisfaction be made to justice in order that redemption may reach fallen man. Admittedly man, the transgressor of law, is powerless to make such satisfaction. True, it is conceivable that he might repent of his transgression, and through struggle maintain himself in righteousness for the future. But that does not reach the past. If he should by struggle maintain himself in righteousness for the future, that is no more than he ought to do. Man owes that duty every day in the present and in the future. It is the breach in the law that must be mended. Man is under the sentence of eternal death, spiritual and temporal;[A] for a past transgression of the law of God. Doing what is merely his duty in the present and the future will not make satisfaction for the past. Man is helpless in the presence of that broken law; no act of his can atone for the transgression of Adam or stay the effects of the fall upon the race, or redeem them from the penalty of death.
[Footnote A: "Wherefore the first judgment which came upon man [the judgment of death] must needs have remained to an endless duration. And if so, this flesh must have laid down to rot and to crumble to its mother earth, to rise no more" (II Nephi ix:7). Because of the fall of Adam "all mankind were fallen, and they were in the grasp of justice; yea, the justice of God, which consigned them forever to be cut off from his presence" (Alma xl ii; 14).]
2. Only Deity Can Satisfy the Claims of Deity: The sin of Adam was a sin against divine law; a sin against the majesty of God. Only a God can render a satisfaction to that insulted honor and majesty. Only Deity can satisfy the claims of Deity.
And hence Alma says, in speaking of the Atonement, and in view of the inadequacy of any atonement man himself can make: "It shall not be a human sacrifice; but it must be an infinite and eternal sacrifice. * * * And behold, this is the whole meaning of the law; every white pointing to that great and last sacrifice; and that great and last sacrifice will be the Son of God; yea, infinite and eternal. * * * The plan of mercy could not be brought about except an atonement should be made; therefore God himself atoneth for the sins of the world to bring about the plan of Mercy, to appease the demands of Justice."[A]
[Footnote A: Alma xxxiv:10-14; xlii:15. See also II Nephi ix:7]
3. The Atonement Also a Matter of Power to Make It—Capacity: Moreover the Atonement is not only a matter of satisfying the insulted honor and majesty of God adequately by like meeting like, and measure answering measure; but it is also a question of power. Not only must the dishonor towards God be removed by satisfaction, but there must be power over death; there must be a power of life that that which was lost may be restored; and not only as to the spiritual life of man with God; but restored union between the spirit and body of man—physical life upon which the happiness and progress that God has designed for man depends. "Man," it should be always remembered, "is spirit." "The elements [meaning elements of matter] are eternal; and spirit and element inseparably connected receive a fulness of joy."[A] Hence the importance of man's physical life, the union of his deathless spirit with a body that must be made equally immortal; and since the fall brought to man this physical death as well as the spiritual death; his redemption, to be complete, must re-establish that physical life by reuniting the essential elements of the body of man and his spirit, in the resurrection, and the resurrection must be universal; the Atonement in its redeeming effects must be as universal as the fall. As in Adam all die, so through the Redeemer of men must all be made alive,[B] if the redemption is to be complete. It was doubtless these considerations which led some of the Nephite prophets to say that the Atonement "must needs be an infinite atonement;" by which, as I think, they sought to express the idea of the sufficiency of it; its completeness; the universality and power of it to restore all that was lost, both spiritual and physical, as well as to express the rank and dignity of him who would make the Atonement.
[Footnote A: Doc. & Cov., Sec. 93:33, 34.]
[Footnote B: I Cor. xv:22.]