“It Must Needs Be an Infinite Atonement”

D. Kelly Ogden, Andrew C. Skinner

Only an infinite atonement (or redemption, ransom) could reverse the effects of the “first judgment”—death and separation from God—and allow all to rise again, from corruption to incorruption, and make eternal life—God’s kind of life—available to everyone.

In what ways is the Atonement infinite? First, it is timeless; it affects past, present, and future. It has already operated in our premortal existence to bless us (Alma 13:3; D&C 93:38). Second, it could have been, and was, accomplished only by an infinite Being, One who has never-ending power and influence throughout the universe. Third, it is infinite in that it provides immortality and potential eternal life for all of the worlds the Savior created under the direction of his Father and to all of the beings on those worlds:

By him, of him, and through him, the worlds were all made,
Even all that career in the heavens so broad.
Whose inhabitants, too, from the first to the last,
Are sav’d by the very same Saviour of ours.
16

Elder Bruce R. McConkie wrote: “Now our Lord’s jurisdiction and power extend far beyond the limits of this one small earth on which we dwell. He is, under the Father, the Creator of worlds without number. (Moses 1:33.) And through the power of his atonement the inhabitants of these worlds, the revelation says, ‘are begotten sons and daughters unto God’ (D. & C. 76:24), which means that the atonement of Christ, being literally and truly infinite, applies to an infinite number of earths.” 17

Thus, the atonement of Jesus Christ is infinite in time, space, and number. In the history of eternity nothing can fully compare to it.

Verse by Verse: The Book of Mormon: Vol. 1

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