A common principle I have heard taught in the LDS church is that Jesus suffered for our sins. Actually, that he suffered for all our pains. One of the most common scriptures to support this principle is 2 Ne 9:21
He suffereth the pains of all men, yea, the pains of every living creature, both men, women, and children, who belong to the family of Adam.
Seems reasonable enough. But why did he do it?
Sure, he suffered for our sins, so we could be forgiven of them and then live with God again. But what about all the other pains? Why suffer for our sadness? Our grief? Our hunger? Our heartbreaks? Our sicknesses? What possible redemptive value can there be in those sufferings?
Verse 22 seems to provide an answer.
He suffereth this that the resurrection might pass upon all men, that all might stand before him at the great and judgment day.
In order for Jesus to be resurrected — and in turn for us to be resurrected — he needed to overcome death. But for Jesus, it wasn’t just simply separating his spirit from his body. It wasn’t just willing his heart to stop. For Jesus to die, he had to overcome mortality.
Jesus suffered all our mortal pains so he could experience — and then overcome — mortality.
Perhaps we could look at it this way:
I he was given the choice to overcome all pains, then as sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father, we can overcome all our pains as well.
Suffering for our sins gave us ‘insurance’ if we repent, obey the commandments.
Suffering all our pains gives us ‘assurance’ that we too can be at peace/relieved someday.
it’s all about the difference between just being and doing.. following the letter of the law and following the Spirit of the law, following the commandments and being truly converted. Christ was truly converted, we are still at the stage of following the commandments.
On the other hand.. if we suffer in silence does that mean we get a higher degree of peace someday and if we suffer out loud does that mean we’re still not there yet?
Aha!! NOW I know why I was able to have the Atonement cover a bad day that I had!
I got back from a wretched day back in 1998 and I wished I could just escape from it and I got the idea to pray for the Atonement to cover it and it seemed to all go away. It was such a relief of a burden that it seemed like the ceiling had been suddenly lifted and removed to let the sky in.
I always remembered that and I wondered why it could be done, and this finally answers my question.
Thanks so much!
Glad I could help, Michaela. :)
I always understood that He suffered all the pains of mortality so that He could be empathetic to our pains and understanding when we come to him with our grief.
So did I until I read verse 22. Now it seems it was more than that.