He Atoned: The Price Was Paid

Atonement is a word that some of us have heard many times in our life, and a foreign word to others of
us. Today I hope to help us all understand what exactly the word Atonement means when used in the context of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The events that took place in the Garden of Eden are something that I think we have all heard since childhood. Adam and Eve were put in a perfect garden, told they could do anything but eat a specific fruit, and of course, ate that fruit. Because they ate the fruit something happened to all of the family of man. All of us that came after Adam and Eve would die and could sin. Two things that very significantly separate us from God.

This separation could leave many of us resenting Adam and Eve and angry over the situation we are in. But it gives us the possibility for an even greater blessing. And that is the Atonement. When Christ came to earth, He led a perfect and sinless life. He taught the Gospel and taught that He would the pay the price for our sins. And He did. In a very real way. 

In the New Testament Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John all write on the events of Christ's life and explain the most key event in human history. The Atonement. The Atonement occured over a series of days. The first  step of the process was the night in the garden of Gethsemane. Christ suffered the most excruciating pain in this experience. Of it He said, "Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death..." Matthew 26:38. Other prophets have said He suffered "according to the flesh that he might take upon him the sins of his people, that he might blot out their transgressions according to the power of his deliverance..." Alma 7:13. Following that night, He experienced the culmination of this experience when He suffered and then died on the cross. But the Atonement was not complete until three days later when He rose again!

Because of these events we no longer have to mourn that we are separated from God in the body and that sin can separate us in spirit. Christ has overcome the world and has made it possible for us to repent and to live again with Him and the Father. The greatest blessing ever given to man.

I know this is true. This life is not the end. And when we fall, we can get back up.