March 25, 2022: The Atonement of Jesus Christ Part 2

March 25, 2022: The Atonement of Jesus Christ Part 2

By Joy Dios

​Read the scenario and answer the succeeding questions.

​I Don’t Think God Will Ever Forgive Me

​ Your friend Jose has been acting noticeably discouraged lately. Every time you ask him what is wrong, he responds by saying that he doesn’t want to talk about it. A few weeks later, he finally tells you that the reason he has been so sad lately is because he has been feeling guilty for some of the sins he has committed in his life.

Jose tells you that he has tried to repent in the past but finds himself struggling with the same sins over and over. He tells you that he has given up on repenting and has begun committing even worse sins. Jose tells you, “The sins I have committed are so bad that God would never want me back. I don’t think He would ever forgive me.”

Open Ended

What are some ways that you could invite Jose to act in faith in order to overcome his guilt?

Open Ended

What do you know about Heavenly Father’s plan of salvation that you could share with Jose to help him view his situation differently?

Multiple Select

Study the following quotes. Look for statements that you think could help Jose.

• “

  However late you think you are, however many chances you think you have missed, however many mistakes you feel you have made or talents you think you don’t have, or however far from home and family and God you feel you have traveled, I testify that you have not traveled beyond the reach of divine love. It is not possible for you to sink lower than the infinite light of Christ’s Atonement shines” (Jeffrey R. Holland)

• “Sometimes in our repentance, in our daily efforts to become more Christlike, we find ourselves repeatedly struggling with the same difficulties. As if we were climbing a tree-covered mountain, at times we don’t see our progress until we get closer to the top and look back from the high ridges. Don’t be discouraged. If you are striving and working to repent, you are in the process of repenting” (Neil L. Andersen)

• “God cares a lot more about who we are and who we are becoming than about who we once were. He cares that we keep on trying” (Dale G. Renlund)

​As part of His Atonement, Jesus Christ not only suffered for our sins, but He also took upon Himself the pains, temptations, sicknesses, and infirmities of all mankind.

​

Isaiah 53: 3-5​

​3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

4 ¶ Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

Open Ended

In what ways was the Savior “despised and rejected of men … and acquainted with grief” (verse 3) during His mortal life?

Open Ended

What do you think Isaiah meant, as recorded in verse 4, when he taught that the Savior “hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows”?

Open Ended

How do you think that experiencing what He did during His life and through His Atonement influences the way that the Savior sees and feels about us?

Open Ended

“Jesus’ perfect empathy was ensured when, along with His Atonement for our sins, He took upon Himself our sicknesses, sorrows, griefs, and infirmities and came to know these ‘according to the flesh’ (Alma 7:11–12). He did this in order that He might be filled with perfect, personal mercy and empathy and thereby know how to succor us in our infirmities. He thus fully comprehends human suffering. Truly Christ ‘descended below all things, in that He comprehended all things’ (D&C 88:6)” (Neal A. Maxwell, “Enduring Well,” Ensign, Apr. 1997, 7).

According to Elder Maxwell, what is Jesus Christ able to do because of what He suffered?