The Relation of the Atonement to Little Children--Jesus Assumes the
Responsibility of Man's Transgression, and Bears the Weight of his
Sins and Sufferings--The Inferior Creatures and Sacrifice--The
Terrors and Agonies of Christ's Passion and Death--The Tribulations,
Earthquakes, etc., when He gave up the Ghost--Universal Nature
Trembles--The Prophecies of Zenos and Enoch--The Testimony of the
Centurion--Heirship, and the Descent of Blessings and Curses.
The Redeemer Himself, when tabernacling in the flesh, said to His
disciples on the Eastern Continent, "Suffer little children to come
unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.
Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God
as a little child shall in no wise enter therein."--Luke, xviii, 16,
17. And after His crucifixion and resurrection He repeated this same
admonition to His Nephite disciples: "And again I say unto you, Ye
must repent, and be baptized in my name and become as a little child,
or ye can in no wise inherit the kingdom of God."--3 Nephi, xi, 38.
Without Adam's transgression those children could not have existed;
through the atonement they are placed in a state of salvation without
any act of their own. These would embrace, according to the opinion of
statisticians, more than one-half of the human family, who can
attribute their salvation only to the mediation and atonement of the
Savior. Thus, as stated elsewhere, in some mysterious,
incomprehensible way, Jesus assumed the responsibility which naturally
would have devolved upon Adam; but which could only be accomplished
through the mediation of Himself, and by taking upon Himself their
sorrows, assuming their responsibilities, and bearing their
transgressions or sins. In a manner to us incomprehensible and
inexplicable, he bore the weight of the sins of the whole world; not
only of Adam, but of his posterity; and in doing that, opened the
kingdom of heaven, not only to all believers and all who obeyed the
law of God, but to more than one-half of the human family who die
before they come to years of maturity, as well as to the heathen, who,
having died without law, will, through His mediation, be resurrected
without law, and be judged without law, and thus participate,
according to their capacity, works and worth, in the blessings of His
atonement.
Again, there is another phase of this subject that must not be
forgotten. From the commencement of the offering of sacrifices the
inferior creature had to suffer for the superior. Although it had
taken no part in the act of disobedience, yet was its blood shed and
its life sacrificed, thus prefiguring the atonement of the Son of God,
which should eventually take place. The creature indeed was made
subject to vanity not willingly, but by reason of Him who hath
subjected the same in hope. Millions of such offerings were made, and
hecatombs of these expiatory sacrifices were offered in view of the
great event that would be consummated when Jesus should offer up
Himself. With man this was simply the obedience to a command and a
given law, and with him might be considered simply a pecuniary
sacrifice: with the animals it was a sacrifice of life. But what is
the reason for all this suffering and bloodshed, and sacrifice? We are
told that "without shedding of blood is no remission" of sins. This is
beyond our comprehension. Jesus had to take away sin by the sacrifice
of Himself, the just for the unjust, but, previous to this grand
sacrifice, these animals had to have their blood shed as types, until
the great antitype should offer up Himself once for all. And as He in
His own person bore the sins of all, and atoned for them by the
sacrifice of Himself, so there came upon Him the weight and agony of
ages and generations, the indescribable agony consequent upon this
great sacrificial atonement wherein He bore the sins of the world, and
suffered in His own person the consequences of an eternal law of God
broken by man. Hence His profound grief, His indescribable anguish,
His overpowering torture, all experienced in the submission to the
eternal fiat of Jehovah and the requirements of an inexorable law.
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
responsibility, 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 bare the sins of many;" or, as
it is written in the Second Book of Nephi: "For behold, he suffereth
the pains of 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 pain 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."
Groaning beneath this concentrated load, this intense,
incomprehensible pressure, this terrible exaction of Divine justice,
from which feeble humanity shrank, and through the agony thus
experienced sweating great drops of blood, He was led to exclaim,
"Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me." He had
wrestled with the superincumbent load in the wilderness, He had
struggled against the powers of darkness that had been let loose upon
him there; placed below all things, His mind surcharged with agony and
pain, lonely and apparently helpless and forsaken, in his agony the
blood oozed from His pores. Thus rejected by His own, attacked by the
powers of darkness, and seemingly forsaken by His God, on the cross He
bowed beneath the accumulated load, and cried out in anguish, "My God,
my God, why hast thou forsaken me!" When death approached to relieve
Him from His horrible position, a ray of hope appeared through the
abyss of darkness with which He had been surrounded, and in a spasm of
relief, seeing the bright future beyond, He said, "It is finished!
Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit." As a God, He descended
below all things, and made Himself subject to man in man's fallen
condition; as a man, He grappled with all the circumstances incident
to His sufferings in the world. Anointed, indeed, with the "oil of
gladness" above His fellows, He struggled with and overcame the powers
of men and devils, of earth and hell combined; and aided by this
superior power of the Godhead, He vanquished death, hell and the
grave, and arose triumphant as the Son of God, the very eternal
Father, the Messiah, the Prince of peace, the Redeemer, the Savior of
the world; having finished and completed the work pertaining to the
atonement, which His Father had given Him to do as the Son of God and
the Son of man. As the Son of Man, He endured all that it was possible
for flesh and blood to endure; as the Son of God He triumphed over
all, and forever ascended to the right hand of God, to further carry
out the designs of Jehovah pertaining to the world and to the human
family.
And again, not only did His agony affect the mind and body of Jesus,
causing Him to sweat great drops of blood, but by reason of some
principle, to us unfathomable, His suffering affected universal
nature.
"World upon world, eternal things,
Hang on thy anguish, King of kings."
When he gave up the ghost, the solid rocks were riven, the foundations
of the earth trembled, earthquakes shook the continents and rent the
isles of the deep darkness overspread the sky, the mighty waters
overflowed their accustomed bounds, huge mountains sank and valleys
rose, the handiwork of feeble men was overthrown, their cities were
engulphed or consumed by the vivid shafts of lightning, and all
material things were convulsed with the throes of seeming dissolution.
Thus was brought to pass that which was spoken by the prophet Zenos:
"The rocks of the earth must rend; and because of the groanings of the
earth, many of the kings of the isles of the sea shall be wrought upon
by the Spirit of God to exclaim, The God of nature suffers." [1 Nephi,
xix, 12.] And it is recorded, that so confessed the Centurion, and
they that were with him watching the body of Jesus. For when they
witnessed the earthquake, and the other things that were done, they
feared greatly, saying, "Truly this was the Son of God." So also was
fulfilled that which is written in the prophecy of Enoch:
"And the Lord said unto Enoch, Look; and he looked and beheld the Son
of Man lifted up on the cross, after the manner of men; and he heard a
loud voice; and the heavens were veiled; and all the creations of God
mourned; and the earth groaned; and the rocks were rent; and the
Saints arose, and were crowned at the right hand of the Son of Man,
with crowns of glory; and as many of the spirits as were in prison
came forth, and stood on the right hand of God; and the remainder were
reserved in chains of darkness until the judgment of the great
day."--Pearl of Great Price.
Thus, such was the torturing pressure of this intense, this
indescribable agony, that it burst forth abroad beyond the confines of
His body, convulsed all nature and spread throughout all space.
The statement previously quoted, "The Lord hath laid on him the
iniquity of us all," could only be in reference to the transgression
of our first parent, who, acting as the progenitor and head of the
human family, assumed a responsibility not only for himself, but for
all of his seed; for the whole of the human family not having then
been born, could not be responsible, personally, for acts that
transpired before they had an existence on the earth. But as children
inherit blessings from their fathers, so it would also seem that they
must inherit curses, or share in their calamities. The Lord, in
speaking to the children of Israel, said He would visit "the iniquity
of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation
of them that hate" him; and furthermore "a bastard shall not enter
into the congregation of the Lord, even to his tenth generation." This
ostracism or punishment could be for no personal act of their own, for
they had no part in the sin of their parents; any more than Adam's
progeny had in the original sin or transgression. But it seems to be a
principle admitted, that if they share the blessings accruing to their
father for righteous acts, they must also share the condemnation for
acts that are unrighteous. Hence comes in the atonement of the
Messiah, which amply covers all of these acts, and more than that, for
as Paul says: "But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For
if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of
God, and the gift by grace, winch is by one man, Jesus Christ; hath
abounded unto many." Hence we say, as above, the atonement covered
more, apparently, than the transgression; for Adam, without the
transgression, would have had no increase. That transgression opened
the way for the increase, as stated by Eve, "Were it not for our
transgression, we never should have had seed, and never should have
known good and evil, and the joy of our redemption, and the eternal
life which God giveth unto all the obedient." That being the case, all
children born among any people, not having arrived at the years of
accountability, are saved through the atonement of Jesus Christ, as
stated by Moroni:
"Little children cannot repent; wherefore it is awful wickedness to
deny the pure mercies of God unto them, for they are all alive in him
because of his mercy. And he that saith, that little children need
baptism, denieth the mercies of Christ, and setteth at naught the
atonement of him and the power of his redemption. Wo unto such, for
they are in danger of death, hell, and endless torment. I speak it
boldly, God hath commanded me. Listen unto them and give heed, or they
stand against you at the judgment seat of Christ. For behold, that all
little children are alive in Christ, and also all they that are
without the law. For the power of redemption cometh on all they that
have no law; wherefore, he that is not condemned, or he that is under
no condemnation, cannot repent; and unto such baptism availeth
nothing. But it is mockery before God, denying the mercies of Christ,
and the power of his Holy Spirit, and putting trust in dead
works."--Moroni, viii, 19-23.