Below are the quotes that were used in the video.
Oliver Cowdrey had a simple question - "How can I build up the Church of Jesus Christ?" In God's answer, He helped Oliver expand his perspective to see the worth of others as God sees them. Section 19 adds a first person account of the Atonement of Jesus Christ and is one of the greatest revelations God has given us. Both revelations help us to see others as God sees them so that we can serve and love others more as He does.
Elder David A. Bednar: “One of the ways that I can ‘Hear Him’ is in the scriptures. The scriptures are the prerecorded voice of the Lord.” (21 April 2020, HearHim.org).
Ardeth G. Kapp: "We did not come to this earth to gain our worth, we brought it with us." ("Better Than You Think You Are").
Merrill J. Bateman: “For many years I thought of the Savior’s experience in the garden and on the cross as places where a large mass of sin was heaped upon Him. Through the words of Alma, Abinadi, Isaiah, and other prophets, however, my view has changed. Instead of an impersonal mass of sin, there was a long line of people, as Jesus felt “our infirmities” (Heb. 4:15), “[bore] our griefs, … carried our sorrows … [and] was bruised for our iniquities” (Isa. 53:4–5). The Atonement was an intimate, personal experience in which Jesus came to know how to help each of us” (‘A Pattern for All’, Ensign, November 2005).
Elder Russell M Ballard: “The irony of the Atonement is that it is infinite and eternal, yet it is applied individually one person at a time.” (The Atonement and the Value of One Soul, April Conference 2004)
Truman G. Madsen: "If souls are of value in direct proportion to the concern and sacrifice of our Redeemer, then we know that in the eyes of the Father and the Son, your soul—even yours—and mine—even mine—is of infinite worth." ("The Savior, the Sacrament, and Self-Worth," in The Arms of His Love (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2000), 248.)
“How can I build up the Church of Christ today?” (section 18)
Joseph Knight: Martin met Joseph on the road from his Pennsylvania home to Palmyra to check on the printing. Arms full of books, a distraught Martin Harris told Joseph, “the books will not sell for nobody wants them.”
“I think they will sell well,” Joseph responded.
“I want a commandment, a revelation” Martin demanded..
“Fulfill what you have got,” replied Joseph, referring to the Lord’s earlier instructions to Martin (see D&C 5: 17).
“I must have a commandment” Martin insisted 3 or 4 more times. (Joseph Knight’s Recollection, BYU Studies, v.17, #1[1976], p. 37).
President Joseph fielding Smith: Section 19 is “one of the great revelations given in this dispensation; there are few of greater import than this.” (Church History and Modern Revelation, 2 vols. [1953], 1:85).
If Christ has suffered for my sins, then why do I feel like I suffer when I sin? What is the purpose for my suffering when I sin?
Elder James E. Talmage: "To hell there is an exit as well as an entrance. Hell is no place to which a vindictive judge sends prisoners to suffer and to be punished principally for his glory; but it is a place prepared for the teaching, the disciplining of those who failed to learn here upon the earth what they should have learned.
“True, we read of everlasting punishment, unending suffering, eternal damnation. That is a direful expression; but in his mercy the Lord has made plain what those words mean.
“‘Eternal punishment,’ he says, is God’s punishment, for he is eternal; and that condition or state or possibility will ever exist for the sinner who deserves and really needs such condemnation; but this does not mean that the individual sufferer or sinner is to be eternally and everlastingly made to endure and suffer.
“No man will be kept in hell longer than is necessary to bring him to a fitness for something better. When he reaches that stage the prison doors will open and there will be rejoicing among the hosts who welcome him into a better state.
“The Lord has not abated in the least what he has said in earlier dispensations concerning the operation of his law and his gospel, but he has made clear unto us his goodness and mercy through it all, for it is his glory and his work to bring about the immortality and eternal life of man.” (in Conference Report, Apr. 1930, 97).
President J. Reuben Clark Jr: “I believe that the Lord will help us...and will give us wisdom if we are living righteously... and will answer our prayers. I believe that our Heavenly Father wants to save every one of his children. I do not think He intends to shut any of us off because of some slight transgression, some slight failure to observe some rule or regulation.
There are the great elementals that we must observe but He is not going to be captious [‘critical’] about the lesser things. I believe that His juridical concept of His dealings with His children could be expressed in this way: I believe that in his justice and mercy He will give us the maximum reward for our acts...that he can give, and in the reverse... He will impose upon us the minimum penalty which it is possible for him to impose.” (CR. Oct.1953, p. 84).
Elder Neal A. Maxwell: “We will end up either choosing Christ’s manner of living or His manner of suffering! It is either ‘suffer even as I’ (D&C 19:16–17), or overcome ‘even as [He] … overcame’ (Revelation 3:21)” (“Overcome … Even As I Also Overcame,” Ensign, May 1987, 72).
Elder Neal A. Maxwell: “There can be no real repentance without personal suffering and the passage of sufficient time for the needed cleansing and turning. This is much more than merely waiting until feelings of remorse subside. Misery, like adversity, can have its special uses. No wonder chastening is often needed until the turning is really under way! (See D&C 1:27; Hel. 12:3)" (Repentance,” General Conference, Oct 1991).
Teaching Thoughts:
Some related quotes on the Atonement of Christ, Repentance, and the Worth of Souls
Elder Jeffrey R. Holland: “I testify that the Savior's Atonement lifts from us not only the burden of our sins but also the burden of our dis-appointments and sorrows, our heartaches and our despair. From the beginning, trust in such help was to give us both a reason and a way to improve, an incentive to lay down our burdens and take up our salvation. There can and will be plenty of difficulties in life…[but] considering the incomprehensible cost of the Crucifixion and Atonement, I promise you He is not going to turn His back on us now… Whatever your distress, please don't give up and please don't yield to fear.” (Ensign/May 2006, p.70-71.)
“We cannot know to what extent his disciples fully understood the approaching events, but we do know that Christ faced his final moments alone [as] the Light of the World stepped away from human company and entered the garden grove to wrestle with the prince of darkness alone. Moving forward, kneeling, falling forward on his face, he cried with an anguish you and I will never know, ‘O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me’ (Matthew 26:39). But he knew, for our sakes, that it could not pass and that he must drink that bitter cup to the dregs!” (CR. Oct. 1989, p.32.)
Elder Neal A. Maxwell: “Thus, in addition to bearing our sins, the required essence of the Atonement, the 'how' of which we surely do not understand, Jesus is further described as having come to know our sicknesses, griefs, pains, and infirmities as well. Another 'how' we cannot now comprehend! Jesus' daily mortal experiences and His ministry ...acquainted Him by observation with a sample of human sicknesses, grief, pains, sorrows, and infirmities...But the agonies of the Atonement were infinite and first‑hand! Since not all human sorrow and pain is connected to sin, the full intensiveness of the Atonement involved bearing our pains, infirmities, and sicknesses, as well as our sins." (Not My Will, But Thine, Bookcraft [1988], p.51.)
Elder Neal A. Maxwell: “The cumulative weight of all mortal sins—past, present, and future—pressed upon that perfect, sinless, and sensitive Soul! All our infirmities and sicknesses were somehow, too, a part of the awful arithmetic of the Atone-ment. (See Alma 7:11-12.) The anguished Jesus not only pled with the Father that the hour and cup might pass from Him, but with this relevant citation. ‘And he said, Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me.’ (Mk. 14:35-36.) Jesus request was not theater! …His suffering—as it were, enormity multiplied by infinity—evoked His later soul-cry on the cross, and it was a cry of forsakenness (see Matt. 27:46). Even so, Jesus maintained this sublime submissiveness, as He had in Gethsemane: ‘Nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt’ (Matt. 26:39).” (Ensign, May 1985, p.70.)
Elder Neal A. Maxwell: “We will end up either choosing Christ’s manner of living or His manner of suffering! It is either ‘suffer even as I’ (D&C 19:16–17), or overcome ‘even as [He]…overcame (Revelation 3:21)” (“Overcome … As I Also Overcame,” Ensign, May 1987, p.72.)
Elder Neal A. Maxwell: "I give you my testimony of the glory and the reality of the great and glorious Atonement. I praise Jesus for enduring what He endured and for descending below all things in order to comprehend all things. I praise the Father for all that He experienced as He watched His Firstborn, His Beloved, and His Only Begotten, with whom He was well pleased, suffer all that Jesus suffered. I praise the Father for that divine empathy and whatever He endured and experienced in that moment. I testify that Jesus’ grip on Himself in that atoning axis between Geth-semane and Calvary was really mankind’s grip on immortality. Jesus finished His preparations, as He said, unto the children of men (D&C 19:19). Now it remains for us as mortals to claim the blessings of the great Atonement. Our gratitude for Christ and His Atonement will grow with the years and the decades. It will never cease growing. And the scriptures foretell that we will praise Him forever and ever (D&C 133:52).” (“Testifying of the Great and Glorious Atonement,” Church satellite broadcast on conversion/retention given at Provo Missionary Training Cnt., 29 August 1999; in Ensign, October 2001.)
Elder Bruce C. Hafen: "Some Church members feel weighed down with discouragement about the circumstances of their personal lives, even when they are making sustained and admirable efforts. Frequently, these feelings of self- disappointment come not from wrongdoing, but from stresses and troubles for which we may not be fully to blame. The Atonement of Jesus Christ applies to these experiences because it applies to all of life. The Savior's atonement is thus...the healing power not only for sin, but also for carelessness, inadequacy, and all mortal bitterness...The Savior desires to save us from our inadequacies as well as our sins...The Lord will not save us in our sins, but from them. However, he can save us in our inadequacies as well as from them...after all we can do, the Atonement can fill that which is empty, straighten our bent parts, and make strong that which is weak." (Ensign, April 1990, p.7,13.)
Sister Chieko Okazaki (former member of the Gen. RS Presidency): “[Christ] is 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...We know that Jesus experienced the totality of mortal existence in Gethsemane...He experienced everything – absolutely everything. Sometimes we don't think through the implications of that [as] 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…for your mother [and] for you. He knows what it felt like to lose the student body election …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 [for] there is nothing you have [ever] experienced…that he does not also know and recognize. On a profound level, He understands…and He knows!” (Lighten Up! Deseret Bk. Comp., p.174.)
Pres. Ezra Taft Benson: “It was in Gethsemane that Jesus took on Himself the sins of the world...that His pain was equivalent to the cumulative burden of all men...that He descended below all things so that all could repent and come to Him. The mortal mind fails to fathom, the tongue cannot express, the pen of man cannot describe the breadth, the depth, the height of the suffering of our Lord—nor His infinite love for us.” (Teachings of ETB, p.14.)
Elder Boyd K. Packer: “Before the Crucifixion and afterward, many men have willingly given their lives in self-less acts of heroism. But none faced what the Christ endured. Upon Him was the burden of all human transgression, all human guilt...He, by choice, accepted the penalty for all mankind for the sum total of all wickedness and depravity; for brutality, immorality, perversion, and corruption; for addiction; for the killings and torture and terror—for all of it that ever had been or all that ever would be enacted upon this earth. In choosing, He faced the awesome power of the evil one who was not confined to flesh nor subject to mortal pain. That was Gethsemane!” (CR. April 1988, p.81.)
Elder Boyd K. Packer: “I cannot with composure tell you how I feel about the Atonement. It touches the deepest emotion of gratitude and obligation. My soul reaches after Him who wrought it, this Christ, our Savior of whom I am a witness. I testify of Him. He is our Lord, our Redeemer, our advocate with the Father. He ransomed us with His blood. Humbly I lay claim upon the atonement of Christ. I find no shame in kneeling down in worship of our Father and His son. For agency is mine, and this I choose to do!” (“Atonement, Agency, Accountability,” Ensign [CR], May 1988.)
Elder Richard G. Scott: “Pondering the grandeur of the Atonement evokes the most profound feelings of awe, immense gratitude, and deep humility. Those impressions can provide powerful motivation to keep His command-ments and consistently repent of errors for greater peace and happiness.” (CR. Oct. 2006, p.44-45.)
Elder Dallin H. Oaks: “The repenting sinner must suffer for his sins, but this suffering has a different purpose than punishment or payment. Its purpose is change.The fruits of the transgressor's personal suffering are the broken heart and contrite spirit described in the scriptures. The Savior commanded, ‘Ye shall repent of your sins, and come unto me with a broken heart and a contrite spirit.’ (3 Ne. 12:19.) When the Savior did away with the sacrifices and burnt offerings of the law of Moses, he explained, ‘Ye shall offer for a sacrifice unto me a broken heart and a contrite spirit.’ (3 Ne. 9:20.) How appropriate that the new offering to remind sinners of the sacrifice and suffering of their Redeemer would be a broken heart and a contrite spirit, which could only be attained by the suffering of the penitent! Father Lehi explained that this personal condition was essential to qualify for the mercy of the atonement: ‘Behold he offer-eth himself a sacrifice for sin, to answer the ends of the law, unto all those who have a broken heart and a contrite spirit; and unto none else can the ends of the law be answered’ (2 Ne. 2:7).” (The Lord's Way, Deseret Book Co. [1991], p.223.)
Pres. Russell M. Nelson: “[You] will encounter people who pick which commandments they will keep and ignore others that they choose to break. I call this the cafeteria approach to obedience. This practice of picking and choosing will not work. It will lead to misery. To prepare to meet God, one keeps all of His commandments.” (En., May 2011, p.34.)
Elder Bruce R. McConkie: “And now, as pertaining to this perfect atonement, wrought by the shedding of the blood of God—I testify that it took place in Gethsemane and at Golgotha, and as pertaining to Jesus Christ, I testify that he is the Son of the Living God and was crucified for the sins of the world. He is our Lord, our God, and our King. This I know of myself independent of any other person. I am one of his witnesses, and in a coming day I shall feel the nail marks in his hands and in his feet and shall wet his feet with my tears. But I shall not know any better then than I know now that he is God’s Almighty Son, that he is our Savior and Redeemer, and that salvation comes in and through his atoning blood and in no other way. God grant that all of us may walk in the light as God our Father is in the light so that, according to the promises, the blood of Jesus Christ his Son will cleanse us from all sin.” (“The Purifying Power of Gethsemane,” Ensign [CR], May 1985.)
Excerpts from Elder Neal A. Maxwell’s first address as a newly-called apostle entitled: “O, Divine Redeemer” –
“Whether descriptively designated as Creator, Only Begotten Son, Prince of Peace, Advocate, Mediator, Son of God, Savior, Messiah, Author and Finisher of Salvation, King of Kings, I witness that Jesus Christ is the only name under heaven whereby one can be saved! I testify that He is utterly incomparable in what He is, what He knows, what He has accomplished, and what He has experienced. Yet, movingly, He calls us His friends. We can trust, worship, and even adore Him without any reservation! As the only Perfect Person to sojourn on this planet, there is none like Him! In intelligence and performance He far surpasses the individual and the composite capacities and achievements of all who have lived, live now, and will yet live! He rejoices in our genuine goodness and achievement, but any assess-ment of where we stand in relation to Him tells us that we do not stand at all! We kneel!
Sheri L. Dew: “The Savior isn’t our last chance; HE IS OUR ONLY CHANCE! Our only chanceto overcome self-doubt and catch a vision of who we may become. Our only chance to repent and have our sins washed clean. Our only chance to purify our hearts, subdue our weaknesses, and avoid the adversary. Our only chance to obtain redemption and exaltation. Our only chance to find peace and happiness in this life and eternal life in the world to come… Through the years I, like you, have experienced pressures and disappointments that would have crushed me had I not been able to draw upon a source of wisdom and strength far greater than my own. He has never forgotten or forsaken me, and I have come to know for myself that Jesus is the Christ and that this is His Church…I testify that in this, the twilight of the dispensation of the fulness of times, when Lucifer is working overtime to jeopardize our journey home and to separate us from the Savior’s atoning power, the only answer for any of us is Jesus Christ.” (Ensign [CR], May 1999, p.66.)Elder Jeffrey R. Holland: “[The Atonement is] Love. Healing. Help. Hope… The power of Christ to counter all troubles in all times –including the end of times.” (Ensign [CR], Nov. 2009, p.88.)
“I testify that the Savior's Atonement lifts from us not only the burden of our sins but also the burden of our disappointments and sorrows, our heartaches and our despair. From the beginning, trust in such help was to give us both a reason and a way to improve, an incentive to lay down our burdens and take up our salvation. There can and will be plenty of difficulties in life…[but] considering the incomprehensible cost of the Crucifixion and Atonement, I promise you He is not going to turn His back on us now…Whatever your distress, please don't give up and please don't yield to fear.” (Ensign [CR], May 2006, p.70-71.)
Elder Jeffrey R. Holland: “[The Atonement is] Love. Healing. Help. Hope… The power of Christ to counter all troubles in all times –including the end of times.” (Ensign [CR], Nov. 2009, p.88.)
“I testify that the Savior's Atonement lifts from us not only the burden of our sins but also the burden of our disappointments and sorrows, our heartaches and our despair. From the beginning, trust in such help was to give us both a reason and a way to improve, an incentive to lay down our burdens and take up our salvation. There can and will be plenty of difficulties in life…[but] considering the incomprehensible cost of the Crucifixion and Atonement, I promise you He is not going to turn His back on us now…Whatever your distress, please don't give up and please don't yield to fear.” (Ensign [CR], May 2006, p.70-71.)
“It ought to be a matter of great doctrinal consolation to us that Jesus, in the course of the Atonement, exper-ienced all of the heartache and sorrow, all of the disappointments and injustices that the entire family of man had experienced and would experience from Adam and Eve to the end of the world in order that we would not have to face them so severely or so deeply. However heavy our load might be, it would be a lot heavier if the Savior had not gone that way before us and carried that burden with us and for us.” (“Lessons from Liberty Jail,” Ensign, Sept. 2009, p.26–33.)
Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin: “The Lord compensates the faithful for every loss. That which is taken away from those who love the Lord will be added unto them in His own way. While it may not come at the time we desire, the faithful will know that every tear today will eventually be returned a hundredfold with tears of rejoicing and gratitude. One of the blessings of the gospel is the knowledge that when the curtain of death signals the end of our mortal lives, life will continue on the other side of the veil. There we will be given new opportunities. Not even death can take from us the eternal blessings promised by a loving Heavenly Father. Because Heavenly Father is merciful, a principle of compensation prevails.” (Ensign [CR], Nov. 2008.)
President James E. Faust: “All of us benefit from the transcendent blessings of the Atonement and the Resurrection, through which the divine healing process can work in our lives. The hurt can be replaced by the joy the Savior promised. To the doubting Thomas, Jesus said, ‘Be not faithless, but believing.’ Through faith and righteousness all of the inequities, injuries, and pains of this life can be fully compensated for and made right. Blessings denied in this life will be fully recompensed in the eternities…Heartaches can be healed, and we can come to know a soul-satisfying joy and happiness beyond our dreams and expectations. The resolution promised by the Atonement and the Resurrection continues in eternity.” (Ensign [CR], Nov. 1996, p.52.)
President J. Reuben Clark Jr.: “I believe that the Lord will help us...and will give us wisdom if we are living righteously... and will answer our prayers. I believe that our Heavenly Father wants to save every one of his children. I do not think He intends to shut any of us off because of some slight transgression, some slight failure to observe some rule or regulation. There are the great elementals that we must observe but He is not going to be captious [‘critical’] about the lesser things. I believe that His juridical concept of His dealings with His children could be expressed in this way: I believe that in his justice and mercy He will give us the maximum reward for our acts...that he can give, and in the reverse... He will impose upon us the minimum penalty which it is possible for him to impose.” (CR. Oct.1953, p.84.)
Elder David A. Bednar: “One of the ways that I can ‘Hear Him’ is in the scriptures. The scriptures are the prerecorded voice of the Lord.” (21 April 2020, HearHim.org).
Ardeth G. Kapp: "We did not come to this earth to gain our worth, we brought it with us." ("Better Than You Think You Are").
Merrill J. Bateman: “For many years I thought of the Savior’s experience in the garden and on the cross as places where a large mass of sin was heaped upon Him. Through the words of Alma, Abinadi, Isaiah, and other prophets, however, my view has changed. Instead of an impersonal mass of sin, there was a long line of people, as Jesus felt “our infirmities” (Heb. 4:15), “[bore] our griefs, … carried our sorrows … [and] was bruised for our iniquities” (Isa. 53:4–5). The Atonement was an intimate, personal experience in which Jesus came to know how to help each of us” (‘A Pattern for All’, Ensign, November 2005).
Elder Russell M Ballard: “The irony of the Atonement is that it is infinite and eternal, yet it is applied individually one person at a time.” (The Atonement and the Value of One Soul, April Conference 2004)
Truman G. Madsen: "If souls are of value in direct proportion to the concern and sacrifice of our Redeemer, then we know that in the eyes of the Father and the Son, your soul—even yours—and mine—even mine—is of infinite worth." ("The Savior, the Sacrament, and Self-Worth," in The Arms of His Love (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2000), 248.)
“How can I build up the Church of Christ today?” (section 18)
- Receive Personal Revelation (v. 1-4).
- Build on “My gospel and my rock” (v. 5).
- Repent (v. 9).
- “Remember the worth of souls” (v. 10).
- Find “joy in the soul(s) that repenteth” (v. 12-16).
- “ask in faith, believing that ye shall receive … the Holy Ghost” (v. 18).
- Have “faith, hope and charity” (v. 19).
- Don’t be contentious as you speak the truth (v. 20-21).
Joseph Knight: Martin met Joseph on the road from his Pennsylvania home to Palmyra to check on the printing. Arms full of books, a distraught Martin Harris told Joseph, “the books will not sell for nobody wants them.”
“I think they will sell well,” Joseph responded.
“I want a commandment, a revelation” Martin demanded..
“Fulfill what you have got,” replied Joseph, referring to the Lord’s earlier instructions to Martin (see D&C 5: 17).
“I must have a commandment” Martin insisted 3 or 4 more times. (Joseph Knight’s Recollection, BYU Studies, v.17, #1[1976], p. 37).
President Joseph fielding Smith: Section 19 is “one of the great revelations given in this dispensation; there are few of greater import than this.” (Church History and Modern Revelation, 2 vols. [1953], 1:85).
If Christ has suffered for my sins, then why do I feel like I suffer when I sin? What is the purpose for my suffering when I sin?
Elder James E. Talmage: "To hell there is an exit as well as an entrance. Hell is no place to which a vindictive judge sends prisoners to suffer and to be punished principally for his glory; but it is a place prepared for the teaching, the disciplining of those who failed to learn here upon the earth what they should have learned.
“True, we read of everlasting punishment, unending suffering, eternal damnation. That is a direful expression; but in his mercy the Lord has made plain what those words mean.
“‘Eternal punishment,’ he says, is God’s punishment, for he is eternal; and that condition or state or possibility will ever exist for the sinner who deserves and really needs such condemnation; but this does not mean that the individual sufferer or sinner is to be eternally and everlastingly made to endure and suffer.
“No man will be kept in hell longer than is necessary to bring him to a fitness for something better. When he reaches that stage the prison doors will open and there will be rejoicing among the hosts who welcome him into a better state.
“The Lord has not abated in the least what he has said in earlier dispensations concerning the operation of his law and his gospel, but he has made clear unto us his goodness and mercy through it all, for it is his glory and his work to bring about the immortality and eternal life of man.” (in Conference Report, Apr. 1930, 97).
President J. Reuben Clark Jr: “I believe that the Lord will help us...and will give us wisdom if we are living righteously... and will answer our prayers. I believe that our Heavenly Father wants to save every one of his children. I do not think He intends to shut any of us off because of some slight transgression, some slight failure to observe some rule or regulation.
There are the great elementals that we must observe but He is not going to be captious [‘critical’] about the lesser things. I believe that His juridical concept of His dealings with His children could be expressed in this way: I believe that in his justice and mercy He will give us the maximum reward for our acts...that he can give, and in the reverse... He will impose upon us the minimum penalty which it is possible for him to impose.” (CR. Oct.1953, p. 84).
Elder Neal A. Maxwell: “We will end up either choosing Christ’s manner of living or His manner of suffering! It is either ‘suffer even as I’ (D&C 19:16–17), or overcome ‘even as [He] … overcame’ (Revelation 3:21)” (“Overcome … Even As I Also Overcame,” Ensign, May 1987, 72).
Elder Neal A. Maxwell: “There can be no real repentance without personal suffering and the passage of sufficient time for the needed cleansing and turning. This is much more than merely waiting until feelings of remorse subside. Misery, like adversity, can have its special uses. No wonder chastening is often needed until the turning is really under way! (See D&C 1:27; Hel. 12:3)" (Repentance,” General Conference, Oct 1991).
Teaching Thoughts:
- Reading God’s prerecorded messages in the scriptures invites personal revelation.
- Invite family or class to share when the last time was that they heard the Lord’s voice answering their inquires, or speaking directly to them, as they were reading the scriptures?
- Look for how you can teach a family member’s worth to God.
- How will you build up the church today?
- Learn, Act and Share how you know.
- God’s promises are true.
Some related quotes on the Atonement of Christ, Repentance, and the Worth of Souls
Elder Jeffrey R. Holland: “I testify that the Savior's Atonement lifts from us not only the burden of our sins but also the burden of our dis-appointments and sorrows, our heartaches and our despair. From the beginning, trust in such help was to give us both a reason and a way to improve, an incentive to lay down our burdens and take up our salvation. There can and will be plenty of difficulties in life…[but] considering the incomprehensible cost of the Crucifixion and Atonement, I promise you He is not going to turn His back on us now… Whatever your distress, please don't give up and please don't yield to fear.” (Ensign/May 2006, p.70-71.)
“We cannot know to what extent his disciples fully understood the approaching events, but we do know that Christ faced his final moments alone [as] the Light of the World stepped away from human company and entered the garden grove to wrestle with the prince of darkness alone. Moving forward, kneeling, falling forward on his face, he cried with an anguish you and I will never know, ‘O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me’ (Matthew 26:39). But he knew, for our sakes, that it could not pass and that he must drink that bitter cup to the dregs!” (CR. Oct. 1989, p.32.)
Elder Neal A. Maxwell: “Thus, in addition to bearing our sins, the required essence of the Atonement, the 'how' of which we surely do not understand, Jesus is further described as having come to know our sicknesses, griefs, pains, and infirmities as well. Another 'how' we cannot now comprehend! Jesus' daily mortal experiences and His ministry ...acquainted Him by observation with a sample of human sicknesses, grief, pains, sorrows, and infirmities...But the agonies of the Atonement were infinite and first‑hand! Since not all human sorrow and pain is connected to sin, the full intensiveness of the Atonement involved bearing our pains, infirmities, and sicknesses, as well as our sins." (Not My Will, But Thine, Bookcraft [1988], p.51.)
Elder Neal A. Maxwell: “The cumulative weight of all mortal sins—past, present, and future—pressed upon that perfect, sinless, and sensitive Soul! All our infirmities and sicknesses were somehow, too, a part of the awful arithmetic of the Atone-ment. (See Alma 7:11-12.) The anguished Jesus not only pled with the Father that the hour and cup might pass from Him, but with this relevant citation. ‘And he said, Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me.’ (Mk. 14:35-36.) Jesus request was not theater! …His suffering—as it were, enormity multiplied by infinity—evoked His later soul-cry on the cross, and it was a cry of forsakenness (see Matt. 27:46). Even so, Jesus maintained this sublime submissiveness, as He had in Gethsemane: ‘Nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt’ (Matt. 26:39).” (Ensign, May 1985, p.70.)
Elder Neal A. Maxwell: “We will end up either choosing Christ’s manner of living or His manner of suffering! It is either ‘suffer even as I’ (D&C 19:16–17), or overcome ‘even as [He]…overcame (Revelation 3:21)” (“Overcome … As I Also Overcame,” Ensign, May 1987, p.72.)
Elder Neal A. Maxwell: "I give you my testimony of the glory and the reality of the great and glorious Atonement. I praise Jesus for enduring what He endured and for descending below all things in order to comprehend all things. I praise the Father for all that He experienced as He watched His Firstborn, His Beloved, and His Only Begotten, with whom He was well pleased, suffer all that Jesus suffered. I praise the Father for that divine empathy and whatever He endured and experienced in that moment. I testify that Jesus’ grip on Himself in that atoning axis between Geth-semane and Calvary was really mankind’s grip on immortality. Jesus finished His preparations, as He said, unto the children of men (D&C 19:19). Now it remains for us as mortals to claim the blessings of the great Atonement. Our gratitude for Christ and His Atonement will grow with the years and the decades. It will never cease growing. And the scriptures foretell that we will praise Him forever and ever (D&C 133:52).” (“Testifying of the Great and Glorious Atonement,” Church satellite broadcast on conversion/retention given at Provo Missionary Training Cnt., 29 August 1999; in Ensign, October 2001.)
Elder Bruce C. Hafen: "Some Church members feel weighed down with discouragement about the circumstances of their personal lives, even when they are making sustained and admirable efforts. Frequently, these feelings of self- disappointment come not from wrongdoing, but from stresses and troubles for which we may not be fully to blame. The Atonement of Jesus Christ applies to these experiences because it applies to all of life. The Savior's atonement is thus...the healing power not only for sin, but also for carelessness, inadequacy, and all mortal bitterness...The Savior desires to save us from our inadequacies as well as our sins...The Lord will not save us in our sins, but from them. However, he can save us in our inadequacies as well as from them...after all we can do, the Atonement can fill that which is empty, straighten our bent parts, and make strong that which is weak." (Ensign, April 1990, p.7,13.)
Sister Chieko Okazaki (former member of the Gen. RS Presidency): “[Christ] is 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...We know that Jesus experienced the totality of mortal existence in Gethsemane...He experienced everything – absolutely everything. Sometimes we don't think through the implications of that [as] 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…for your mother [and] for you. He knows what it felt like to lose the student body election …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 [for] there is nothing you have [ever] experienced…that he does not also know and recognize. On a profound level, He understands…and He knows!” (Lighten Up! Deseret Bk. Comp., p.174.)
Pres. Ezra Taft Benson: “It was in Gethsemane that Jesus took on Himself the sins of the world...that His pain was equivalent to the cumulative burden of all men...that He descended below all things so that all could repent and come to Him. The mortal mind fails to fathom, the tongue cannot express, the pen of man cannot describe the breadth, the depth, the height of the suffering of our Lord—nor His infinite love for us.” (Teachings of ETB, p.14.)
Elder Boyd K. Packer: “Before the Crucifixion and afterward, many men have willingly given their lives in self-less acts of heroism. But none faced what the Christ endured. Upon Him was the burden of all human transgression, all human guilt...He, by choice, accepted the penalty for all mankind for the sum total of all wickedness and depravity; for brutality, immorality, perversion, and corruption; for addiction; for the killings and torture and terror—for all of it that ever had been or all that ever would be enacted upon this earth. In choosing, He faced the awesome power of the evil one who was not confined to flesh nor subject to mortal pain. That was Gethsemane!” (CR. April 1988, p.81.)
Elder Boyd K. Packer: “I cannot with composure tell you how I feel about the Atonement. It touches the deepest emotion of gratitude and obligation. My soul reaches after Him who wrought it, this Christ, our Savior of whom I am a witness. I testify of Him. He is our Lord, our Redeemer, our advocate with the Father. He ransomed us with His blood. Humbly I lay claim upon the atonement of Christ. I find no shame in kneeling down in worship of our Father and His son. For agency is mine, and this I choose to do!” (“Atonement, Agency, Accountability,” Ensign [CR], May 1988.)
Elder Richard G. Scott: “Pondering the grandeur of the Atonement evokes the most profound feelings of awe, immense gratitude, and deep humility. Those impressions can provide powerful motivation to keep His command-ments and consistently repent of errors for greater peace and happiness.” (CR. Oct. 2006, p.44-45.)
Elder Dallin H. Oaks: “The repenting sinner must suffer for his sins, but this suffering has a different purpose than punishment or payment. Its purpose is change.The fruits of the transgressor's personal suffering are the broken heart and contrite spirit described in the scriptures. The Savior commanded, ‘Ye shall repent of your sins, and come unto me with a broken heart and a contrite spirit.’ (3 Ne. 12:19.) When the Savior did away with the sacrifices and burnt offerings of the law of Moses, he explained, ‘Ye shall offer for a sacrifice unto me a broken heart and a contrite spirit.’ (3 Ne. 9:20.) How appropriate that the new offering to remind sinners of the sacrifice and suffering of their Redeemer would be a broken heart and a contrite spirit, which could only be attained by the suffering of the penitent! Father Lehi explained that this personal condition was essential to qualify for the mercy of the atonement: ‘Behold he offer-eth himself a sacrifice for sin, to answer the ends of the law, unto all those who have a broken heart and a contrite spirit; and unto none else can the ends of the law be answered’ (2 Ne. 2:7).” (The Lord's Way, Deseret Book Co. [1991], p.223.)
Pres. Russell M. Nelson: “[You] will encounter people who pick which commandments they will keep and ignore others that they choose to break. I call this the cafeteria approach to obedience. This practice of picking and choosing will not work. It will lead to misery. To prepare to meet God, one keeps all of His commandments.” (En., May 2011, p.34.)
Elder Bruce R. McConkie: “And now, as pertaining to this perfect atonement, wrought by the shedding of the blood of God—I testify that it took place in Gethsemane and at Golgotha, and as pertaining to Jesus Christ, I testify that he is the Son of the Living God and was crucified for the sins of the world. He is our Lord, our God, and our King. This I know of myself independent of any other person. I am one of his witnesses, and in a coming day I shall feel the nail marks in his hands and in his feet and shall wet his feet with my tears. But I shall not know any better then than I know now that he is God’s Almighty Son, that he is our Savior and Redeemer, and that salvation comes in and through his atoning blood and in no other way. God grant that all of us may walk in the light as God our Father is in the light so that, according to the promises, the blood of Jesus Christ his Son will cleanse us from all sin.” (“The Purifying Power of Gethsemane,” Ensign [CR], May 1985.)
Excerpts from Elder Neal A. Maxwell’s first address as a newly-called apostle entitled: “O, Divine Redeemer” –
“Whether descriptively designated as Creator, Only Begotten Son, Prince of Peace, Advocate, Mediator, Son of God, Savior, Messiah, Author and Finisher of Salvation, King of Kings, I witness that Jesus Christ is the only name under heaven whereby one can be saved! I testify that He is utterly incomparable in what He is, what He knows, what He has accomplished, and what He has experienced. Yet, movingly, He calls us His friends. We can trust, worship, and even adore Him without any reservation! As the only Perfect Person to sojourn on this planet, there is none like Him! In intelligence and performance He far surpasses the individual and the composite capacities and achievements of all who have lived, live now, and will yet live! He rejoices in our genuine goodness and achievement, but any assess-ment of where we stand in relation to Him tells us that we do not stand at all! We kneel!
- Can we, even in the depths of disease, tell Him anything at all about suffering?
- Can those who yearn for hearth or home instruct Him as to what it is like to be homeless?
- Can we really counsel Him about being misrepresented, misunderstood, or betrayed?
- Can we educate Him regarding injustice or compare failures of judicial systems?
- And when we feel so alone, can we presume to teach Him...anything at all about feeling forsaken?
- Do we presume to instruct Him in either compassion or mercy?
- Can we excuse our compromises because of the powerful temptations of status seeking?
- Can we teach Him about enduring irony?
- Can those concerned with nourishing the poor advise Him concerning feeding the multitudes?
- Can those who are concerned with medicine instruct Him about healing the sick?
- Can we inform the Atoner about feeling the sting of ingratitude when one's service goes unappreciated or unnoticed?
- Should those concerned with lengthening the lifespan offer to enlighten the Resurrector of all mankind?
- Should we seek to counsel Him in courage? Should we rush forth eagerly to show Him our mortal medals —our scratches and bruises—He who bears His five special wounds?
Sheri L. Dew: “The Savior isn’t our last chance; HE IS OUR ONLY CHANCE! Our only chanceto overcome self-doubt and catch a vision of who we may become. Our only chance to repent and have our sins washed clean. Our only chance to purify our hearts, subdue our weaknesses, and avoid the adversary. Our only chance to obtain redemption and exaltation. Our only chance to find peace and happiness in this life and eternal life in the world to come… Through the years I, like you, have experienced pressures and disappointments that would have crushed me had I not been able to draw upon a source of wisdom and strength far greater than my own. He has never forgotten or forsaken me, and I have come to know for myself that Jesus is the Christ and that this is His Church…I testify that in this, the twilight of the dispensation of the fulness of times, when Lucifer is working overtime to jeopardize our journey home and to separate us from the Savior’s atoning power, the only answer for any of us is Jesus Christ.” (Ensign [CR], May 1999, p.66.)Elder Jeffrey R. Holland: “[The Atonement is] Love. Healing. Help. Hope… The power of Christ to counter all troubles in all times –including the end of times.” (Ensign [CR], Nov. 2009, p.88.)
“I testify that the Savior's Atonement lifts from us not only the burden of our sins but also the burden of our disappointments and sorrows, our heartaches and our despair. From the beginning, trust in such help was to give us both a reason and a way to improve, an incentive to lay down our burdens and take up our salvation. There can and will be plenty of difficulties in life…[but] considering the incomprehensible cost of the Crucifixion and Atonement, I promise you He is not going to turn His back on us now…Whatever your distress, please don't give up and please don't yield to fear.” (Ensign [CR], May 2006, p.70-71.)
Elder Jeffrey R. Holland: “[The Atonement is] Love. Healing. Help. Hope… The power of Christ to counter all troubles in all times –including the end of times.” (Ensign [CR], Nov. 2009, p.88.)
“I testify that the Savior's Atonement lifts from us not only the burden of our sins but also the burden of our disappointments and sorrows, our heartaches and our despair. From the beginning, trust in such help was to give us both a reason and a way to improve, an incentive to lay down our burdens and take up our salvation. There can and will be plenty of difficulties in life…[but] considering the incomprehensible cost of the Crucifixion and Atonement, I promise you He is not going to turn His back on us now…Whatever your distress, please don't give up and please don't yield to fear.” (Ensign [CR], May 2006, p.70-71.)
“It ought to be a matter of great doctrinal consolation to us that Jesus, in the course of the Atonement, exper-ienced all of the heartache and sorrow, all of the disappointments and injustices that the entire family of man had experienced and would experience from Adam and Eve to the end of the world in order that we would not have to face them so severely or so deeply. However heavy our load might be, it would be a lot heavier if the Savior had not gone that way before us and carried that burden with us and for us.” (“Lessons from Liberty Jail,” Ensign, Sept. 2009, p.26–33.)
Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin: “The Lord compensates the faithful for every loss. That which is taken away from those who love the Lord will be added unto them in His own way. While it may not come at the time we desire, the faithful will know that every tear today will eventually be returned a hundredfold with tears of rejoicing and gratitude. One of the blessings of the gospel is the knowledge that when the curtain of death signals the end of our mortal lives, life will continue on the other side of the veil. There we will be given new opportunities. Not even death can take from us the eternal blessings promised by a loving Heavenly Father. Because Heavenly Father is merciful, a principle of compensation prevails.” (Ensign [CR], Nov. 2008.)
President James E. Faust: “All of us benefit from the transcendent blessings of the Atonement and the Resurrection, through which the divine healing process can work in our lives. The hurt can be replaced by the joy the Savior promised. To the doubting Thomas, Jesus said, ‘Be not faithless, but believing.’ Through faith and righteousness all of the inequities, injuries, and pains of this life can be fully compensated for and made right. Blessings denied in this life will be fully recompensed in the eternities…Heartaches can be healed, and we can come to know a soul-satisfying joy and happiness beyond our dreams and expectations. The resolution promised by the Atonement and the Resurrection continues in eternity.” (Ensign [CR], Nov. 1996, p.52.)
President J. Reuben Clark Jr.: “I believe that the Lord will help us...and will give us wisdom if we are living righteously... and will answer our prayers. I believe that our Heavenly Father wants to save every one of his children. I do not think He intends to shut any of us off because of some slight transgression, some slight failure to observe some rule or regulation. There are the great elementals that we must observe but He is not going to be captious [‘critical’] about the lesser things. I believe that His juridical concept of His dealings with His children could be expressed in this way: I believe that in his justice and mercy He will give us the maximum reward for our acts...that he can give, and in the reverse... He will impose upon us the minimum penalty which it is possible for him to impose.” (CR. Oct.1953, p.84.)