“The Plan of Redemption Was on Conditions of Repentance”

Monte S. Nyman

Laying the plan of redemption aside (v. 11, in parenthesis) could be stated: “if there was no Christ,” there would have been no way to reclaim men from their fallen state (v. 12). Although the fall came by disobedience, it was foreknown and foreordained.

A Savior had been appointed in the pre-mortal council (see Moses 4:1–3; 1 Peter 1:19–20; Ether 3:14). The Savior was willing to pay the demands of the law of justice through his merciful Atonement, but the law of justice required a certain condition for mercy to be acceptable. That condition was the repentance of the person for the sin that had been paid (Alma 42:13). The justice of eternal law must be met or God would cease to be God. The laws are eternal, and to be a God there could be no exceptions to the law (v. 13). However, without the Atonement mankind could not be saved, for the demands of justice had to be met (v. 14). The God who made that Atonement was Jesus Christ, a perfect, a just, and a merciful God (v. 15). As Amulek testified, “it shall not be a human sacrifice; but it must be an infinite and eternal sacrifice (Alma 34:10).

Book of Mormon Commentary: The Record of Alma

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