With the creation of our world, God planned a way for us, his spirit children, to become like Him. It involved being born into an imperfect body and having a variety of experiences to see if, no matter what happens, we will choose good over evil. Some considered it a risky proposition, failure is one of the possibilities. But God knew that mistakes and failure are learning opportunities and He prepared our Savior to remind us of the good and provide a way for us to change course when we choose evil.
Before Jesus’s atonement, animal sacrifice was part of the gospel. Sacrificing a perfect, firstborn sheep to pay for sins was a reminder to God’s children of the sacrifice our Savior would make on our behalf.
A Book of Mormon prophet named Alma taught in Alma 34 – …it is expedient that there should be a great and last sacrifice, and then shall there be, or it is expedient there should be, a stop to the shedding of blood; then shall the law of Moses be fulfilled; yea, it shall be all fulfilled, every jot and tittle, and none shall have passed away.
14 And behold, this is the whole meaning of the law, every whit pointing to that great and last sacrifice; and that great and last sacrifice will be the Son of God, yea, infinite and eternal.
15 And thus he shall bring salvation to all those who shall believe on his name; this being the intent of this last sacrifice, to bring about the bowels of mercy, which overpowereth justice, and bringeth about means unto men that they may have faith unto repentance.
During this Christmas season we celebrate the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ.
Another Book of Mormon prophet named Ether testified to us in Ether chapter 12…Wherefore, by faith was the law of Moses given. But in the gift of his Son hath God prepared a more excellent way…
Jesus taught and showed us this more excellent way and after his Atonement the sacrifice required was no longer of blood but that we sacrifice to God broken hearts and contrite spirits in repentance when we’ve failed to keep his commandments.
Yet another Book of Mormon prophet Nephi teaches us in 2 Nephi 24 – …he offereth himself a sacrifice for sin, to answer the ends of the law, unto all those who have a broken heart and a contrite spirit; and unto none else can the ends of the law be answered.
So Jesus has paid the price required by law, but now we need to have a broken heart? What does that mean? Why would we want a broken heart? Wouldn’t that be painful? Why would God want us to be in pain?
To understand why we need a broken heart, we need to understand the true source of pain. Pain is when we are separated from God, which leaves us in darkness, alone and weak. Depending on our choices that separation may be narrow or wide, short term or eternal. A hard heart is stubborn, alone and determined not to change. When we understand that God is trying to help us become like Him then we realize that a broken heart means a heart that is soft, ready to grow, ready to receive, ready to learn to love as he loves, to be truthful as he is truthful, to be able to serve as He serves, and to have power as He has power to create and bless and heal.
In order to receive all He has to offer He asks us to sacrifice, or give up, all that we possess – possess means to hold on to something, to claim it as our own. Consider the tutoring process we are in – if we hold on to something such as an opinion that we are better than others, or a belief that things are more important than people, or a desire to appear more righteous than the reality of our choices, we are possessing traits and behaviors that are not like God and will keep us from becoming like Him and returning to live with Him.
God won’t force us to Heaven – we can choose Hell if we prefer. And we often do, especially when it looks appealing. But that appeal doesn’t last.
Our Savior came as the great and last sacrifice to atone for our sins if we will repent. Is it hard to repent? To change? Sometimes yes! Very hard. We have to give up something precious to us – like our stuff or our money or our attitudes or our grudges or our comfort or our routines and habits. And Satan makes it seem like we are losing everything and will forever be poor and alone and in pain. But Satan lies, he is the Father of Lies.
God has not only provided a way for us to change, he will teach us how step by step, if we are willing.
There was a time not too long ago when I was struggling with intense anger. In my mind it was perfectly justified, I had every right to be angry. But anger and hate leave no room for God and this is true pain. Finally one day I realized that it was too much for me to handle on my own. I dropped to my knees, closed my eyes and asked Heavenly Father for help. I visualized every ounce of anger in my body and gathered it all into my hands and then I gave it to God. Here, I said, I’ve been holding onto anger for years, it hurts and and I don’t want it anymore, I want to do things differently and I need your help because I don’t know how. I need you to show me how to change. I willingly give you my anger and my hurt and my desire for revenge because I don’t know what to do with it and I’m making a mess of things. I want to forgive those who have hurt me, and I hope you will forgive me for hurting others. Please teach me how to love. Please teach me how to forgive.
At that point I received the tender mercy of sleep, and when I awoke I felt a burden lifted. I’ve had to repeat this process many times since then – I expect to continue to do so for the rest of my life, offering up my various faults and failures until I’m perfected in Christ.
The truth is that when we give up anger we gain peace in our hearts. When we give up selfishness we gain love for our neighbor – when we give up fear we gain faith in the Lord – when we give up things that we have extras of like money or food or clothing to help others we gain joy in service – when we give up our time to serve a mission we gain eternal friendships – when we give up the things of this world we gain eternal life, which means God will be with us right here, right now, we don’t have to wait until we die.
What a blessing to be able to attend church each week and partake of the sacrament – to remember the sacrifice of our Savior so that we can give up our sins to God with broken hearts and contrite spirits and receive peace and hope and forgiveness. This is the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and it is worth any sacrifice we are asked to make.
