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Gramps, |
Dear
JGT,
The
Savior’s great atoning sacrifice was infinite in its scope. (See Alma
34:10-14). Being infinite, the sacrifice was without limits, sufficient to pay
for all the sins that ever were committed, ever will be committed or ever could
be committed. The Savior did not have to tally them up in order suffer
sufficiently to pay that particular price. If He had done that, the sacrifice
would have been finite, however staggering the magnitude.
It’s
true that if we do not repent of our own sins the great atoning sacrifice of the
Savior will avail us nothing and we will have to pay to the demands of justice
the price in suffering required for our own sins, just as if there had been no
sacrifice.
Therefore
I command you to repent--repent, lest I smite you by the rod of my mouth, and by
my wrath, and by my anger, and your sufferings be sore--how sore you know not,
how exquisite you know not, yea, how hard to bear you know not. For behold, I,
God, have suffered these things for all, that they might not suffer if they
would repent; But if they would not repent they must suffer even as I; 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-- (D&C 19:15-18).
The
great overriding sadness associated with unrepentant sin is that it must be paid
for twice. The Savior’s suffering was in vain for the unrepentant sinner. That
unspeakable pain, born of unconditional love for our Father’s wayward
children, went for naught. But the Savior undoubtedly suffers additional pain
and sorrow as his empathy reaches out for those who choose to ignore what He did
for them and must suffer even as He did.
Gramps