Tomorrow is Easter Sunday, the holiest day on the Christian calendar. It is a day when Christians celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ celebrated Passover with His Apostles on Thursday and went into the Garden of Gethsemane to pray. He was arrested in the early hours on Friday morning, tried, and crucified. He was buried in a borrowed tomb where His body laid until Sunday morning when He was resurrected. He lives today as a glorified and perfected body of flesh and bone.
After His Resurrection, Jesus Christ stood amid His disciples and said, “Peace be unto you” (Luke 24:36). They were frightened and thought that He was a ghost (Luke 24:37). He told them to touch His hands and feet, “for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have” (Luke 24:38-39). They still doubted, so He asked for food (Luke 24:40-41). They gave Him some fish and honeycomb, and He did eat (Luke 24:42-43).
Christians celebrate Easter because of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, but we also
celebrate because we will be resurrected also. Through His Atonement, Jesus Christ made it possible for all mankind to be resurrected. We celebrate because we know that our bodies and spirits will be reunited and will never be separated again.
I have been preparing for Easter for the past two weeks as I studied various scriptures about Jesus Christ and His Atonement. I was reminded that the Resurrection of Jesus Christ was necessary to overcome the effects of the Fall of Adam and Eve, who were cut off from the presence of God because of their transgression (2 Nephi 9:6). Just as the Fall brought death to all mankind, the Resurrection of Jesus Christ brings immortality to all mankind.
The Atonement of Jesus Christ is infinite (2 Nephi 9:7), meaning that it covers everyone. Without Christ’s Resurrection, all mankind would have remained subject to Satan (2 Nephi 9:8-9). God prepared the way for us to overcome death of the body (grave) and death of the spirit (hell) (2 Nephi 9:10). When we are resurrected, we will have a perfect knowledge of our guilt and uncleanness or of our enjoyment and righteousness depending on how we live in mortality
(2 Nephi 9:14). All of us will stand at the judgment seat of Christ to be judged according to our works (2 Nephi 9:15). Righteous people will remain righteous in the next life, and wicked people will remain wicked (2 Nephi 9:16). Christ’s judgments will be just (2 Nephi 9:17). All mankind will be resurrected and stand before Christ to be judged (2 Nephi 9:22).
From Alma I learned that we will be the same person after death when we rise to be judged according to our works (Alma 11:41). The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ overcame temporal death for all mankind (Alma 11:42). The spirit and body will be reunited in its perfect form, and we will have a bright recollection of all our guilt (Alma 11:43). Restoration will come to all, and all will be judged according to our works (Alma 11:44). The mortal body will be raised to an immortal body and will never die again (Alma 11:45).
Alma also taught that there is a space between death and resurrection when the spirit feels happiness or misery before resurrection and judgment (Alma 40:21). The spirit and the body will be restored to its proper and perfect frame (Alma 40:22-23). This is what restoration means as taught by the prophets (Alma 40:24).
In 3 Nephi I learned that all people, kindreds, nations, and tongues will stand before God to be judged of their works (3 Nephi 26:4). Good people will be resurrected to everlasting life, and evil people will be resurrected to damnation according to the justice, mercy, and holiness of Christ (3 Nephi 26:5).
We love Jesus Christ because He first loved us. The Bible and the Book of Mormon – Another Testament of Jesus Christ both testify of Jesus Christ as shown in the following scriptures. He loved us enough to bring salvation to all of us (Mosiah 3:7). He suffered temptation but did not yield. He was mocked, scourged, cast out, and disowned by His own people. He was crucified and slain (Mosiah 15:5-9). Jesus Christ suffer pains, afflictions, and temptations of every kind (Alma 7:11-13). He was despised and rejected of men. He was wounded, bruised, stricken, smittened, and afflicted (Isaiah 53).
Jesus Christ suffered because He is the only way or means for mankind to be saved (Mosiah 3:7). He yielded to the Father’s will to break the bands of death, to take upon Himself our transgressions, to redeem us, and to satisfy the demands of justice (Mosiah 15:5-9). He suffered to fulfill the word and to loosen the bands of death. He took our infirmities upon Himself that He might know how to succor His people in mercy. He suffered to take upon Himself our sins that they might be blotted out (Alma 7:11-13). He was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities that we might be healed (Isaiah 53). He suffered that we might obtain mercy and find grace in our times of need (Hebrews 4:14-16).
This means that we must follow Jesus Christ to be saved (Mosiah 3:7). It means that we should be more grateful to Him for His sacrifice for us (Mosiah 15:5-9). It means that we should repent of our sins and take advantage of Christ’s sacrifice for us (Alma 7:11-13). It means that we should be more willing to remember Jesus Christ and to follow Him always (Isaiah 53). It means that we should love Him and appreciate all that He does for us (Hebrews 4:14-16).
The Atonement of Jesus Christ cleanses us and helps perfect us (see Enos 1:1-19; Mosiah 5:1-2; 27:8-28:4; Alma 24:7-19). The Book of Mormon has numerous examples of people whose lives were changed as they repented came unto Christ. Some of those examples are Enos (see Enos 1:1-19), King Benjamin’s people (see Mosiah 5:1-2), Alma the Younger (see Mosiah 27:8-28:4), and the Anti-Nephi-Lehies (see Alma 24:7-19). Each of these example shows that Jesus Christ has the power to change our hearts. However, He will not change us unless we yield to Him. He has this ability to make us clean because He purchased our souls through His Atonement. President Dallin H. Oaks gave the following analogy to show why this change is so important for us to make.
We tend to think of the results of
repentance as simply cleansing us form sin, but that is an incomplete view…. A
person who sins is like a tree that bends easily in the wind. On a windy and
rainy day, the tree bends so deeply against the ground that the leaves become
soiled with mud, like sin. If we focus only on cleaning the leaves, the
weakness in the tree that allowed it to bend and soil its leaves may remain.
Similarly, a person who is merely sorry to be soiled by sin will sin again in
the next high wind. The susceptibility to repetition continues until the tree
has been strengthened.
When a person has gone through the process
that results in what the scriptures call “a broken heart and a contrite spirit,”
the Savior does more than cleanse that person from sin. He gives him or her new
strength. That strengthening is essential for us to realize the purpose of the
cleansing, which is to return to our Heavenly Father. To be admitted to His
presence, we must be more than clean. We must also be changed from a morally
weak person who has sinned into a strong person with the spiritual stature to
dwell in the presence of God (“The Atonement and Faith,” Ensign, April
2010, 33-34).
Jesus Christ loves each of us as we are, and He invites each of us to come unto Him. We can approach Him as we are, but we should not expect to remain the same. He will change us as we follow Him and do His will. I know that Jesus Christ lives and loves me, and I am grateful for His atoning sacrifice that makes it possible for me to live again and to become like Him.
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