It is my intent for this next chapter to pump you full of hope! There is too much to understand about what the Atonement is, what is covers, or how you personally can apply it in your own life and individual circumstances for me to cover it all here. It takes a lifetime of study and seeking to understand, and even then, there will be elements that we still don’t completely understand or know. You must dig deeper than what I offer here, but I hope my words are sufficient to at least spark or stir hope in you.
“And the way is prepared from the Fall of man” (2 Nephi 2:4). If there was only the Fall and no Atonement, this would be like realizing that we are powerless, but not doing anything else about it. If there was only the Fall, then wallowing in our nothingness would be appropriate because we would be stuck like that!
Again, the Fall is only part of God’s plan. The Atonement gives us more clarity. “Were it not for the Atonement, there would have been no choice between eternal life and eternal damnation. The Fall would have opened the gate to one road and one road only” (Callister, The Infinite Atonement, 254, emphasis added). “...He shall make an Atonement...because of their transgressions in all their sins” (Leviticus 16:16).
Jacob also spoke of such a world in 2 Nephi 9. He speaks praise for God’s plan and explains that it is more than just the Fall, “O how great the goodness of our God, who prepareth a way for our escape from the grasp of this awful monster; yea, that monster, death and hell, which I call the death of the body, and also the death of the spirit” (2 Nephi 9:10).
God knew that without the Atonement we would be doomed eternally. “...there must be an atonement made, or else all mankind must unavoidably perish; yea, all are hardened; yea, all are fallen and are lost, and must perish except it be through the Atonement which it is expedient should be made” (Alma 34:9).
Here is another effect of the Fall: “Behold, [God] created Adam, and by Adam came the fall of man. And because of the fall of man came Jesus Christ, even the Father and the Son; and because of Jesus Christ came the redemption of man”(Mormon 9:12). When Adam partook of the fruit, it opened the door for all God’s other children to have a chance to come to this earth. It opened the door for man to be born. Although that includes all mankind, it made the birth of Jesus Christ possible as well. And because Jesus Christ came and fulfilled the Atonement, redemption is possible.
Brad Wilcox told of a teacher beginning his lesson on the Fall by shattering a plate and explaining that this symbolized what happened because of the Fall. He proceeded to say that the Atonement would be like gluing all the pieces back together and it would be as good as new. ”His object lesson grabbed everyone’s attention, but the example assumes that we were perfect to start with---that before the Fall we were already in an ideal state---and such was not the case. The whole reason for the Creation was because our situation in the premortal existence was less than ideal. We wanted and needed better.
“In the object lesson, mortality was represented by a shattered plate. While this seems a fair representation, it does not take into consideration the fact that we were joyful at the prospect of experiencing that shattered-plate world (see Job 38:4, 7). Just like Adam and Eve, we chose it because we knew it would be better for us in the long run. We knew that through the interaction of God’s mercy and our obedience we could move beyond theory to experience.
“We were not forced to come. We signed up because we knew the Atonement of Christ not only offered us a way back, it offered us a way to be better for having come. We would not just get a new plate, but a whole new set of beautiful china” (Wilcox, The Continuous Atonement, 77, emphasis added).
Elder Holland told the story of two brothers who, on a whim, went rock climbing. As they got to the very top, they realized there was an overhanging that prevented them from getting to the top. Because they weren’t prepared, they didn’t have ropes to get back down. Finally, the older brother could boost the younger brother to safety. The older brother realized his only chance was to jump. Some may misunderstand the plan by only considering the Fall. It seems to be just like this brother, hanging desperately in his own strength. Is this God’s plan?
”What a plight! The entire human race in free fall—every man, woman, and child in it physically tumbling toward permanent death, spiritually plunging toward eternal anguish. Is that what life was meant to be? Is this the grand finale of the human experience? Are we all just hanging in a cold canyon somewhere in an indifferent universe, each of us searching for a toehold, each of us seeking for something to grip—with nothing but the feeling of sand sliding under our fingers, nothing to save us, nothing to hold onto, much less anything to hold on to us? Is our only purpose in life an empty existential exercise—simply to leap as high as we can, hang on for our prescribed three score years and ten, then fail and fall, and keep falling forever?
“The answer to those questions is an unequivocal and eternal no! With prophets ancient and modern, I testify that ‘all things have been done in the wisdom of him who knoweth all things.’ Thus, from the moment those first parents stepped out of the Garden of Eden, the God and Father of us all, anticipating Adam and Eve’s decision, dispatched the very angels of heaven to declare to them—and down through time to us—that this entire sequence was designed for our eternal happiness. It was part of His divine plan, which provided for a Savior, the very Son of God Himself—another ‘Adam,’ the Apostle Paul would call Him—who would come in the meridian of time to atone for the first Adam’s transgression. That Atonement would achieve complete victory over physical death, unconditionally granting resurrection to every person who has been born or ever will be born into this world. Mercifully it would also provide forgiveness for the personal sins of all, from Adam to the end of the world, conditioned upon repentance and obedience to divine commandments.”
Can you see how silly a partial plan would be for a Father who wants us back with Him and like Him? Can you see how the Fall by itself is insufficient for such a plan, yet a vital part of it? Does that begin to give you a tiny sliver of hope? “...the right way is to believe in Christ and deny him not” (2 Nephi 25:28).
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