Articles of Faith: What Do Latter-day Saints Believe About the Atonement of Jesus Christ?

Article of Faith 3

We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved,

by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel.

 This essay is the first one about the Atonement of Jesus Christ as stated in the third Article of Faith of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. To understand the importance of Christ’s atoning sacrifice, we must understand that it is the third pillar of eternity. Elder Bruce R. McConkie taught the following:

The three greatest events that ever have occurred or ever will occur in all eternity are these:

1. The creation of the heavens and the earth, of man, and of all forms of life.

2. The fall of man, of all forms of life, and of the earth itself from their primeval and paradisiacal state to their present mortal state; and

3. The infinite and eternal atonement, which ransoms man, all living things, and the earth also from their fallen state so that the salvation of the earth and of all living things may be completed.

These three divine events – the three pillars of eternity – are inseparably woven together into one grand tapestry known as the eternal plan of salvation. We view the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ as the center and core and heart of revealed religion. It brings to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. Salvation is in Christ.

But had there been no fall, there could have been no atonement. The fall of Adam brought temporal and spiritual death into the world, and it is from these deaths that man and all forms of life are ransomed through the atonement wrought by the Lord Jesus Christ. Adam brought mortality; Christ brought immortality. Salvation comes because of the fall and the atonement.

But if the earth and man and all living things had not been created in their physical and paradisiacal state, in a state of deathlessness, there could have been no fall. The fall, with its resultant probationary estate, is the child of the original and primeval creation, and the atonement is the child of the fall (A New Witness for the Articles of Faith [1985], 81).

As Elder McConkie explained, the Creation of the world, the Fall of Adam and Eve, and the Atonement of Jesus Christ are the three pillars of eternity. Heavenly Father’s plan for the eternal happiness of His children is built upon those three pillars. Now that my readers are aware of the three pillars and their importance to God, we will now move into a discussion about the Atonement of Jesus Christ. In a later chapter, Elder McConkie answered the question: “What is the Atonement?”

The atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ is the third of the three infinite events that comprise the eternal plan of salvation. The other two are the physical creation of all things and then their subsequent fall to their present mortal state. As the paradisiacal creation was the precursor of the fall, so the universal fall, first of Adam and then of all created things, is the foundation upon which the atonement rests. The creation, the fall, and the atonement, these three are the divine and eternal events through which the purposes of the Supreme God are accomplished.

Salvation, meaning eternal life, is reserved for the faithful. It is offered to all men in all ages on the same terms and conditions…. It is offered to man without money and without price; it is available to all because of the atonement…. The light of Christ is given to all men; all are guided by the still, small voice of conscience…. Obedience and good works would count for nothing if there were no atonement…. Temporal and spiritual death would reign forever if there were no atonement…. Salvation is for the obedient; it is their sins that are borne by Christ.

… Thus, salvation of every son, kind, and degree – whether it is resurrection only, on the one hand, or eternal exaltation, on the other – comes by the grace of God. There is no other way; salvation is in Christ, and it comes because of his atoning sacrifice.

This sacrifice, which only a God could make, took place in Gethsemane when he sweat great gouts of blood from every poor…. And it also took place as he hung on the cruel cross of Calvary. During the last three hours of that agonizing ordeal, while darkness overspread the land, all the pains and suffering of Gethsemane returned. He came into the world, not alone to suffer in Gethsemane, but also at Golgotha….

We can no more comprehend the atonement than we can understand the creation or the fall. It suffices, in our present state of probation, and subject to our present finite limitations, to know that we exist, to know that there was a fall, and to know that Christ is the Redeemer. It makes no more sense to reject the fall and the atonement than to reject the creation. The fact is, all three are realities; all three are the means whereby salvation comes (A New Witness for the Articles of Faith [1985], 107-110).