| 
An
Infinite Atonement
by
Avraham Gileadi
While Nephi
takes the place of his father Lehi as the principal teacher of the
family, his brother Jacob takes Nephi’s place as a “second witness.”
Jacob, who had “beheld in thy youth his glory” (2 Nephi 2:4), is
not a step behind Nephi in his love and understanding of the scriptures.
Though his teachings have a slightly different tone than Nephi’s—as
one would expect with differences in personality and divine calling—they
are just as eloquent and original in their thoughts and expressions.
The key to Jacob’s knowledge and comprehension of the scriptures
lies in his personal study, particularly of the words of Isaiah,
and in his ability to obtain personal revelation. He punctuates
his words with “the Lord has shown me” and “in the night the angel
spake unto me” (2 Nephi 6:8–9; 10:3). All that he invites his listeners
to do and observe, he does himself in his boundless love of God
and deep solicitude for the eternal welfare of their souls.
Jacob’s grasp
of the theology behind God’s atonement for transgression matches
his familiarity with prophecies depicting the restoration of the
house of Israel in the last days and the important ministering role
the Gentiles will fulfill. He says, “It behooveth the great Creator
that he suffereth himself to become subject unto man in the flesh,
and die for all men, that all men might become subject unto him.
For as death hath passed upon all men, to fulfill the merciful plan
of the great Creator, there must needs be a power of resurrection,
and the resurrection must needs come unto man by reason of the fall;
and the fall came by reason of transgression; and because man became
fallen they were cut off from the presence of the Lord. Wherefore,
it must needs be an infinite atonement—save it should be an infinite
atonement this corruption could not put on incorruption. Wherefore,
the first judgment which came upon man must needs have remained
to an endless duration” (2 Nephi 9:5–7).
The “first judgment”
(being “cut off from the presence of the Lord”) brought permanent
physical death and spiritual bondage on the human family, unless
things could be set right (2 Nephi 9:7–9; cf. Alma 42:7–14). The
“atonement” (Hebrew kapara, also “restitution”) needed to be infinite
because God, against whom the transgression occurred, was an infinite
being. Only a “perfect” or “infinite” atonement could make restitution
in kind. Only God, therefore, could make such an atonement by suffering
the consequences of every person’s transgression in the entire human
family (2 Nephi 9:21; cf. Rom. 5; Alma 42:15). The Lord said, “I,
God, have suffered these things for all . . . Which suffering caused
myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain,
and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit—and
would that I might not drink the bitter cup, and shrink—Nevertheless,
glory be to the Father, and I partook and finished my preparations
unto the children of men” (D&C 19:16, 18–19).
Once the “demands
of justice” were thus satisfied, the way was prepared whereby all
could return into God’s presence, spiritually and physically (2
Nephi 9:41; 10:23–25; cf. Alma 42:23–24). For those who “believed
in the Holy One of Israel,” however, being restored to God’s presence
would carry the added weight of having “endured the crosses of the
world, and [having] despised the shame of it” (2 Nephi 9:18). Doing
this would fulfill the “merciful plan of the great Creator,” enabling
his children to “inherit the kingdom of God, which was prepared
for them from the foundation of the world” (2 Nephi 9:6, 18; cf.
Moro. 7:41). In other words, by suffering mortality, or the effects
of the Fall, all are given the opportunity, through the atonement
of Christ, to rise to a higher state of happiness than they could
possibly have attained without passing through mortality. For that
purpose, therefore, the atonement itself was “prepared from the
foundation of the world for all mankind” (Mosiah 4:6–7).
Types of
the Atonement
Types of God’s
atonement for transgression abound. Under the law of Moses, animal
sacrifices atoned for people’s sins in lieu of Christ’s sacrifice
(Lev. 4–9). Jacob says, “For this end hath the law of Moses been
given; and all things which have been given of God from the beginning
of the world, unto man, are the typifying of him” (2 Nephi 11:4;
cf. Alma 25:15). But the law of Moses alone “availeth nothing except
it were through the atonement of his blood” (Mosiah 3:15). For
“were it not for the atonement, which God himself shall make for
the sins and iniquities of his people, they must unavoidably perish,
notwithstanding the law of Moses” (Mosiah 13:28). Therefore it
was “expedient that there should be a great and last sacrifice;
yea, not a sacrifice of man, neither of beast, neither of any manner
of fowl; for it shall not be a human sacrifice; but it must be an
infinite and eternal sacrifice” (Alma 34:10). Then will there be
“a stop to the shedding of blood,” and “the law of Moses [will be]
fulfilled,” this being “the whole meaning of the law, every whit
pointing to that great and last sacrifice” (Alma 34:13–14).
Further typifying
Christ’s atonement was Davidic kingship. In making his atonement,
Jesus had to be a descendant of David, because David, like Nephi,
was “a king or a protector . . . on whom ye depend for safety” (cf.
2 Nephi 6:2). In Davidic kingship, divine protection was obtained
by keeping the terms of the Davidic covenant—the covenant the Lord
made with King David and his ruling heirs. These terms resemble
ancient Near Eastern covenants in which a vassal king, who proves
loyal to his emperor, obtains the emperor’s protection of the vassal’s
people. The vassal king thus becomes a proxy of his people in obtaining
their protection. Jesus (as “vassal king”), by fulfilling the will
of his Father (the “emperor”) in all things, thus purchased his
people’s ultimate divine protection—their eternal salvation.
In Jesus Christ,
the proxy roles of sacrificial atonement for sin and divine protection
based on the terms of the Davidic covenant fuse into one. (For
a comprehensive study of covenant theology, and how Christ’s kingship,
and our own as “kings and queens of the Gentiles” [2 Nephi 10:9],
impacts divine–human and human–human relationships, see Avraham
Gileadi, The Last Days: Types and Shadows from the Bible and the
Book of Mormon; Salt Lake City: Argon Press, 1998, pp. 175–261;
Avraham Gileadi, Isaiah Decoded: Ascending the Ladder to Heaven;
Escondido, CA: Hebraeus Press, 2002, pp. 169–219, 263–319.)
© 2004 Meridian
Magazine. All Rights Reserved.
|
