Note: This post was
updated October 20, 2015 to include remarks by Elders D. Todd Christofferson and
Neal Maxwell.
Alma continues discussing the plan of salvation with
Corianton.
Alma asks Corianton if he believed mercy can rob
justice? Justice cannot be robbed. If it did, God would cease to be God. We know God will never cease to be God. Hence Christ’s atonement.
God brings His purposes through the atonement. “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father
which is in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48).[1]
“And to bring about his eternal purposes in the end of man,
after he had created our first parents, and the beasts of the field and the
fowls of the air, and in fine, all things which are created, it must needs be
that there was an opposition; even the forbidden fruit in opposition to the
tree of life; the one being sweet and the other bitter” (2 Nephi 2:15).
“But, behold, I say unto you that I, the Lord God, gave unto
Adam and unto his seed, that they should not die as to the temporal death,
until I, the Lord God, should send forth angels to declare unto them repentance
and redemption, through faith on the name of mine Only Begotten Son.
And thus did I, the Lord God, appoint unto man the days of
his probation—that by his natural death he might be raised in immortality unto
eternal life, even as many as would believe;
And they that believe not unto eternal damnation; for they
cannot be redeemed from their spiritual fall, because they repent not” (D&C
29:42-44).
“For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass
the immortality and eternal life of man” (Moses 1:39).
The plan of salvation was prepared from the foundation of
the world. “And this is the manner after
which they were ordained—being called and prepared from the foundation of the
world according to the foreknowledge of God, on account of their exceeding
faith and good works; in the first place being left to choose good or evil;
therefore they having chosen good, and exercising exceedingly great faith, are
called with a holy calling, yea, with that holy calling which was prepared
with, and according to, a preparatory redemption for such” (Alma 13:3).
“Behold, I come unto my own, to fulfil all things which I have
made known unto the children of men from the foundation of the world, and to do
the will, both of the Father and of the Son—of the Father because of me, and of
the Son because of my flesh. And behold,
the time is at hand, and this night shall the sign be given” (3 Nephi 1:14).
Elder D. Todd Christofferson said:
But as a consequence of being
perfectly just, there are some things God cannot do. He cannot be arbitrary in
saving some and banishing others. He “cannot look upon sin with the least
degree of allowance.” He cannot allow mercy to rob justice.
It is compelling evidence of His
justice that God has forged the companion principle of mercy. It is because He
is just that He devised the means for mercy to play its indispensable role in
our eternal destiny. So now, “justice exerciseth all his demands, and also
mercy claimeth all which is her own.”[2]
Thus, the plan of salvation brings both the redemption of
the righteous and the destruction and misery of the wicked.
Anyone can partake of the atonement freely. “We have been
granted a probationary period to repent as a gift of the atonement which
eventually ends and during which time the full demands of eternal law on our
sins are postponed.”[3]
“Yea, he saith: Come unto me and ye shall partake of the fruit of the tree of
life; yea, ye shall eat and drink of the bread and the waters of life freely”
(Alma 5:34).
“These are they that are redeemed of the Lord; yea, these
are they that are taken out, that are delivered from that endless night of
darkness; and thus they stand or fall; for behold, they are their own judges,
whether to do good or do evil. Now, the decrees of God are unalterable;
therefore, the way is prepared that whosoever will may walk therein and be
saved” (Alma 41:7- 8)
“And now remember, remember, my brethren, that whosoever
perisheth, perisheth unto himself; and whosoever doeth iniquity, doeth it unto
himself; for behold, ye are free; ye are permitted to act for yourselves; for
behold, God hath given unto you a knowledge and he hath made you free” (Helaman
14:30).
No one is compelled to come.
It is our choice; however, at the last day we will be restored according
to our works and choices. “For that which ye do send out shall return unto you
again, and be restored; therefore, the word restoration more fully condemneth
the sinner, and justifieth him not at all” (Alma 41:15).
Elder Neal A. Maxwell said,
Ponder how Jesus was and is the
Lord of the universe (see D&C
45:1; D&C
76:24; Moses 1:33; Moses 2:1).
Yet His ministry, as we all know, was accomplished in a very tiny geographical
space. His ministerial travels were very limited. Yet therein the Savior
accomplished the Atonement for all of mankind! There were certainly much more
prominent hills than Golgotha and much more resplendent gardens than
Gethsemane. No matter; these were sufficient to host the central act of all
human history!
We can draw upon that glorious
Atonement by repenting. We can learn to serve and to forgive within our sample
of humanity, including settings no larger than the family or friendships.
The justice and mercy of God will
have been so demonstrably perfect that at the Final Judgment there will be no
complaints, including from those who once questioned what God had allotted in
the mortal framework (see 2 Ne.
9:14–15; Alma
5:15–19; Alma 12:3–14; Alma
42:23–26, 30).[4]
If we fail to repent during this probationary time, we will
be restored according to the evil we did.
“I say unto thee, my son, that the plan of restoration is
requisite with the justice of God; for it is requisite that all things should
be restored to their proper order.
Behold, it is requisite and just, according to the power and
resurrection of Christ, that the soul of man should be restored to its body,
and that every part of the body should be restored to itself. And it is
requisite with the justice of God that men should be judged according to their
works; and if their works were good in this life, and the desires of their
hearts were good, that they should also, at the last day, be restored unto that
which is good. And if their works are evil they shall be restored unto them for
evil. Therefore, all things shall be
restored to their proper order, every thing to its natural frame—mortality
raised to immortality, corruption to incorruption—raised to endless happiness
to inherit the kingdom of God, or to endless misery to inherit the kingdom of
the devil, the one on one hand, the other on the other—The one raised to
happiness according to his desires of happiness, or good according to his desires
of good; and the other to evil according to his desires of evil; for as he has
desired to do evil all the day long even so shall he have his reward of evil
when the night cometh” (Alma 41:2-5).
Alma told Corianton to stop worrying about these issues. He should deal with his sins. These should trouble him to the point he
repents. “For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented
of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death” (2 Corinthians 7:10).
“But behold this my joy was vain, for their sorrowing was
not unto repentance, because of the goodness of God; but it was rather the
sorrowing of the damned, because the Lord would not always suffer them to take
happiness in sin” (Mormon 2:13).
Corianton was told to stop denying God’s justice. “Also unto
thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy: for
thou renderest to every man according to his work” (Psalms 62:12).
“Justice and judgment are
the habitation of thy throne: mercy and truth shall go before thy face.”
(Psalms 89:14).
“Whoso causeth the righteous to go astray in an evil way, he
shall fall himself into his own” (Proverbs 28:10).
“O the greatness and the justice of our God! For he executeth all his words, and they have
gone forth out of his mouth, and his law must be fulfilled” (2 Nephi 9:17).
“Therefore if that man repenteth not, and remaineth and
dieth an enemy to God, the demands of divine justice do awaken his immortal
soul to a lively sense of his own guilt, which doth cause him to shrink from
the presence of the Lord, and doth fill his breast with guilt, and pain, and
anguish, which is like an unquenchable fire, whose flame ascendeth up forever
and ever” (Mosiah 2:38).
“Therefore, I would that ye should be steadfast and
immovable, always abounding in good works, that Christ, the Lord God
Omnipotent, may seal you his, that you may be brought to heaven, that ye may
have everlasting salvation and eternal life, through the wisdom, and power, and
justice, and mercy of him who created all things, in heaven and in earth, who
is God above all” (Mosiah 5:15).
He was told to stop excusing his sins by denying
justice. Let justice and mercy take over
and become humble.
Corianton had been called to preach the gospel to the
Zoramites. Alma charged him to declare
truth with soberness and bring people to repentance so mercy will be able to
claim them.
[1] Ye
are therefore commanded to be perfect, even as your Father which is in
heaven is perfect (Joseph Smith Translation Matthew 5:48).
[2] Free
Forever, to Act for Themselves, Elder D. Todd Christofferson, October 2014
General Conference.
[3] Review
of Doctrines of the Book of Mormon: The 1991 Sperry Symposium (1992), Mack
C. Stirling, Review of Books on the Book of Mormon 5/1 (1993): 290–304.
1050-7930 (print), 2168-3719 (online) edited by Bruce A. Van Orden and Brent L.
Top, pg.303.
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