We all make mistakes. It’s in our human nature. Often, though, we feel like we are in a cycle: we keep making the same mistake over and over again. Can we get out of it? Though it seems like we never can, or we can never get better and improve ourselves, there is a way to overcome. Jacob, a prophet in the Book of Mormon (a work of scripture used by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints), explains the Atonement of Christ and how we can overcome our weaknesses and become better.
The Fall brought physical and spiritual death into the world.
Because of the fall of Adam and Eve, we now are susceptible to two kinds of death: physical death and what Jacob calls “spiritual death.” Adam and Eve would have remained in their unchanging state in the Garden of Eden had they not eaten of the fruit. Because they ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, they had to leave the Garden, becoming mortal and prone to physical weaknesses—sickness, death, and other problems. When we die, it is our bodies dying. This is the physical death.
The second part, spiritual death, also came with the fall of Adam. Jacob tells us that spiritual death is being “cut off from the presence of the Lord” (2 Nephi 9:6). We can take this in two meanings. First, Adam and Eve were with God in the Garden of Eden. When they were cast out, they were no longer able to be in His presence. This is one form of spiritual death. The other is more personal. When we make mistakes, or sin, we pull ourselves farther from our Heavenly Father.
Christ’s Atonement covers both physical and spiritual death. Jacob tells us,
“Wherefore, it must needs be an infinite atonement—save it should be an infinite atonement this corruption could not put on incorruption. Wherefore, the first judgment which came upon man must needs have remained to an endless duration. And if so, this flesh must have laid down to rot and to crumble to its mother earth, to rise no more.”
We would die (physically) and that would be the end. As for the spiritual death, Jacob says this: “For behold, if the flesh should rise no more our spirits must become subject to that angel who fell from before the presence of the Eternal God, and became the devil, to rise no more.” We would have remained in a fallen state, unable to become better. We would have to serve the devil, because we were not saved from our sins.
Because Christ took on all our sins and sufferings, He understands everything we are going through.
However, Christ did atone for us. Latter-Day Saints believe that He not only paid for our sins, He also felt the physical and emotional pains each person would have to go through. Christ died on the cross, and three days later, rose again from the grave, thus enabling us to be resurrected—or to also rise from the grave, with life after death. This overcame the physical death. Because he also paid for the sins of each person, we can come unto Him and be forgiven, thus overcoming the spiritual death.
Our God in Heaven loves us so much to let His Son, Jesus Christ, do this for every individual, in order to bring us back to Him.
This article was written by Beth W., a student at Brigham Young University and a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. She enjoys piano, swimming, reading, and eating chocolate.
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