THE O'S

3 Pillars of Eternity: Creation, Fall, and Atonement

Today I am reading 2 Nephi 9. Jacob, like other Book of Mormon prophets, does a masterful job of linking the Fall and the Atonement in such a way as to make the entire Plan easy to understand.  I don't think a prophet ever taught the atonement without also teaching the fall and linking the two as natural companion.

The lesson manual challenged us, as we read 2 Nephi 9, to compare the O's (blessings) to the Woes (warnings). I decided to take that challenge. Today, I want to talk about the O's.

O's

O, the goodness of our God in sending His Son to atone for our sins.  Through the infinite atonement, Jesus Christ saves us unequivocally from death and offers us salvation from sin on condition of repentance. Without this great blessing of love, we would all become as Satan is: doomed to a life of separation from God and the loss of our eternal bodies. 

O, how great the goodness of our God. The Fall brought about two deaths: death of the body and death of the spirit.  Jacob calls them the awful monsters of death and hell. Jesus Christ holds the keys to death and hell.  Neither can hold us eternally.  We are not captives of the  monster.

O, how great the plan of our God.  The grave must give up its dead.  The unrepentant will have a perfect knowledge of their guilt, but the righteous will have the perfect knowledge of their righteousness and joy.  They shall be clothed in a robe of righteousness.

O, the greatness and justice of our God. Because He is God, He will administer absolute justice.  Those who repent will have their debts of justice paid by the Great Redeemer. We can rest assured that judgement is the Lord's and not ours.  We don't have to recompense for hurt.  Christ will do so with perfect knowledge of the hearts of men and women.  We can trust His justice to be pure.

O, the greatness of the mercy of our God. He delivers His saints from the monster, Satan, and from the joint monsters of death and hell.

O, how great the holiness of our God.

• He knows everything
• He came to give His life to save everyone who will hearken unto His voice.
• He suffered the pains of every living creature who belong to the family of Adam.
• He was resurrected so that all mankind may be resurrected as He was.
• He commands all to repent that they might have both salvation and exaltation.

In our day, people - even many Christians - have intellectualize God's Great Plan of Salvation - the Creation, the Fall, the Atonement, and yes, even the corporeal nature of Jesus' Resurrection. They don't understand the completeness of God's Plan.  They think because they are learned, they are wise, but they are not.  As Jacob taught all those years ago, to be learned is good, if you still give heed to the counsel of God. Jacob would later say, Brethren, seek not to counselor the Lord, but to take counsel from His hand. (Jacob 4:10)

Tomorrow, the Woes

© February 2020 Dr. Kathleen Rawlings Buntin Danielson