Elder Robb's Farewell Talk

Sunday, July 16th, 2017

In Tad R. Callister’s eminent book, The Infinite Atonement, Callister begins by making the statement: 

“If the Atonement is the foundation of our faith (and it is), then no one should be content with a casual acquaintance of this doctrine. Instead, the Atonement should be paramount in our intellectual and spiritual pursuits. The Atonement of Jesus Christ outweighs, surpasses, and transcends every other mortal event, every new discovery, and every acquisition of knowledge, for without the Atonement all else in life is meaningless.” 

For 18 years I have had the privilege to study our Savior’s Atonement, of His ultimate sacrifice, and His final ransom with the demands of justice during his mortal ministry here on Earth. For the next fifteen minutes or so, I hope to scarcely begin to scratch the surface of what the Atonement is, and what it means for all of us, as children of a loving Heavenly Father. For the sake of time, there will be three points, in which I know to be true, that I would like to make about the Atonement. 

First, the Atonement of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is universal. That in fact, the Atonement is not a principle that applies only to members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It applies to all of Heavenly Father’s children. On April 6, 1860, President Brigham Young gave a talk entitled Universal Salvation, in which he said the following: 

"How many Gods there are, and how many places there are in their kingdoms, is not for me to say; but I can say this, which is a     source of much comfort, consolation, and gratification to me: Behold the goodness, the long-suffering, the kindness, and the strong parental feeling of our Father and God in preparing the way and providing the means to save the children of men—not alone the Latter-day Saints—not those alone who have the privilege of the first principles of the celestial law, but to save all. It is a universal salvation—a universal redemption."

What truly strikes me in Brigham Young’s statement is he describes the love and care stemming from the Atonement as a ‘parental feeling of our Father and God’. I firmly believe that there is no greater way to describe this gentle love of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, then that of a parental love. 

This is because in the pre-existence, all spirits were gathered before our Father. There, in the midst of all of His children, our Father placed before us his plan to bring about the immortality and eternal life of man. That men would have their agency, that they would be able to defend the truth, or be tempted to the opposition. This plan so mercifully allowed that all of our Father’s children could potentially return to him, to become like Him, someday. It was here that our Brother, Jehovah, offered himself up as the ultimate sacrifice to allow this plan to be fulfilled. For without Jehovah, mankind would have no possible way to return to our Father. This sacrifice would later become known as the Atonement. This Atonement was so necessary, in fact, that Jehovah was foreordained there in the council of our Father to establish the Atonement unto the World. As it says in 1st Peter 1:19-20: 

"But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: 

Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you."

However, could we possibly imagine the anguish of the Father as he sent is First-Born Son, His greatest child, and His most loyal servant, to the wicked Earth to suffer the pains, sins, and the judgements of man? That our Father knew that this must be done, as so did Jehovah, but we must never forget that our God is a God that weeps. That although the knowledge of the ultimate sacrifice was understood by all of Heavenly Father’s spirit children, including us, as well as Jesus Christ Himself, there would still be no way to ever fully understand the suffering Jesus Christ was to feel. That there would never be any mortal mind that could ever comprehend this sacrifice, as well as the love that accompanies it. 

Thus we can see that when Brigham Young attempts to describe the Godly love that exposes itself within the Atonement of Jesus Christ, he chooses to describe this love as ‘a parental feeling’. I can testify in the name of Jesus Christ that because of the love my parents have shown me here, as well as the love they showed me in the life-before-this-one, that in fact, the closest feeling of love we can get to the love that our Father showed to all of us, by offering His Only Begotten Son as a sacrifice for all of His spirit children, is that of a ‘parental love’. 

Thus, even further, we can understand that just as a true parental love sees no bounds, heeds no revenge, and seeks only love for all its children, that this Atonement with its ‘parental love’ must be universal. 

Second, the Atonement of Jesus Christ has no limits, and has no boundaries. There is no simpler way to explain the Atonement in this manner, except by calling it an infinite Atonement. 

We understand that our Heavenly Father created worlds without number. In Moses 1:33 it reads: 

"And worlds without number have I created; and I also created them for mine own purpose; and by the Son I created them, which is mine Only Begotten."

We also understand, as members of this church, that all spirits begotten of the Father are literally Sons and Daughters of God. As it says in D&C 76:24: 

"That by him, and through him, and of him, the worlds are and were created, and the inhabitants thereof are begotten sons and daughters unto God."

We not only understand this, but we also know that Jesus Christ is the ONLY Begotten Son of the Father. Thus, there is ONLY one Atonement. That in fact, our Savior’s Atonement not only applies to this Earth, and this World, but the Atonement reaches across the vast and infinite amount of the universe to encompass every single one of Heavenly Father’s children. No matter where they may be. 

That the Savior in Gethsemane, as well as on the cross, suffered not just for myself, for you, for our families, and for all men and women of this World, but in fact he suffered for every spirit in Heavenly Father’s dominion. Joseph Smith attested to this truth in a publication of the Millennial Star. He writes: 

"And I heard a great voice bearing record from heav’n, 

He’s the Saviour and Only Begotten of God; 

` By him, of him, and through him, the worlds were all made, 

Even all that careen in the heavens so broad. 

‘Whose inhabitants, too, from the first to the last, 

Are sav’d by the very same Saviour of ours; 

And, of course, are begotten God’s daughters and sons 

By the very same truths and the very same powers"

Truly, the Atonement of Jesus Christ has no physically boundaries. 

Not only are the physically boundaries of the Atonement nonexistent. But, if not just as important, the Atonement has no limit in its power to heal us. Marion G. Romney, in a conference talk in 1969 put it simply: 

"The suffering he undertook to endure, and which he did endure, equaled the combined suffering of all men."

There truly is no suffering we feel, no pain we are afflicted with, and no challenge we face that is too deep for the attention of the Atonement. That although we may hear these same boundless adjectives every time we talk of the Atonement, could we possibly understand just a little bit more today of how covered we are through and by the Atonement? Simply, every action we perform, if it be good or bad, every thought that we have, if it be good or bad, or any desire or emotion we are to ever feel, if it be good or bad, is covered by the loving grace of the Atonement of our Savior Jesus Christ. 

The passage of time has never, and will never fade, the power of this Atonement. In this aspect, as in all others, the Atonement is truly infinite. We will always have its power, due to the divine authority Jesus Christ had when performing such a sacrifice, even when the last judgement has ended, and every individual is put into their proper kingdom of glory. That even then, and into the eternities, the Atonement will always exist in full force for every spirit child of the Father. 

Third, and lastly, the Atonement of Jesus Christ is purely individual. As much as the Atonement of Jesus Christ is endless, infinite, and for all mankind, the purpose of the Atonement is to strengthen the individual. Its purpose is to allow our Father’s spirit children, that means us, to return to Him someday. That although sermons, talks, and great songs can be written about the all-encompassing and endless power of this Atonement, let us never forget that this ultimate sacrifice was specifically performed for me and you. It is so easy to acknowledge and accept that the Atonement is infinite, but somehow we seem to feel (at times) that the Atonement does not apply to you, the sin you recently committed, or the sin you cannot seem to stop committing. That, sometimes, it feels that we have fallen below this bar of the Atonement, and we are unforgivable. This is never true. 

Brothers and Sisters, let us never forget that the Atonement of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is universal, and that it’s love stems from a truly ‘parental love’ from our Heavenly Father, and a brotherly love from Jesus Christ. Let us also never forget that the Atonement is infinite in all physical imaginations, as well as all spiritual ones. That truly, time does not apply to the Atonement, and we will never sink below its all-encompassing power. Lastly, may we always remember that the Atonement is made for the individual. That it is made to strengthen, give hope to, and raise up the individual to salvation. 

In closing, “Elder Neal A. Maxwell suggests that the prime reason the savior personally acts as the gatekeeper of the celestial kingdom is not to exclude people, but to personally welcome and embrace those who have made it back home.” May we return to our Home in Heaven through our Brother’s Atonement.