The Mediator

This was a favorite video we used on my mission to explain the Atonement. I also kept a copy of the text tucked inside the front cover of my scriptures. It’s taken from Elder Packer’s talk in the April 1977 General Conference (aka, the May 1977 Ensign), and it’s included in the Gospel Principles manual in Chapter 12 (pages 63-65).

The parable of Justice and Mercy:

There once was a man who wanted something very much. It seemed more important than anything else in his life. In order for him to have his desire, he incurred a great debt.

He had been warned about going into that much debt, and particularly about his creditor. But it seemed so important for him to do what he wanted to do and to have what he wanted right now. He was sure he could pay for it later.

So he signed a contract. He would pay it off some time along the way. He didn’t worry too much about it, for the due date seemed such a long time away. He had what he wanted now, and that was what seemed important.

The creditor was always somewhere in the back of his mind, and he made token payments now and again, thinking somehow that the day of reckoning really would never come.

But as it always does, the day came, and the contract fell due. The debt had not been fully paid. His creditor appeared and demanded payment in full.

Only then did he realize that his creditor not only had the power to repossess all that he owned, but the power to cast him into prison as well.

“I cannot pay you, for I have not the power to do so,” he confessed.

“Then,” said the creditor, “we will exercise the contract, take your possessions, and you shall go to prison. You agreed to that. It was your choice. You signed the contract, and now it must be enforced.”

“Can you not extend the time or forgive the debt?” the debtor begged. “Arrange some way for me to keep what I have and not go to prison. Surely you believe in mercy? Will you not show mercy?”

The creditor replied, “Mercy is always so one-sided. It would serve only you. If I show mercy to you, it will leave me unpaid. It is justice I demand. Do you believe in justice?”

“I believed in justice when I signed the contract,” the debtor said. “It was on my side then, for I thought it would protect me. I did not need mercy then, nor think I should need it ever. Justice, I thought, would serve both of us equally as well.”

“It is justice that demands that you pay the contract or suffer the penalty,” the creditor replied. “That is the law. You have agreed to it and that is the way it must be. Mercy cannot rob justice.”

There they were: One meting out justice, the other pleading for mercy. Neither could prevail except at the expense of the other.

“If you do not forgive the debt there will be no mercy,” the debtor pleaded.

“If I do, there will be no justice,” was the reply.

Both laws, it seemed, could not be served. They are two eternal ideals that appear to contradict one another. Is there no way for justice to be fully served, and mercy also?

There is a way! The law of justice can be fully satisfied and mercy can be fully extended—but it takes someone else. And so it happened this time.

The debtor had a friend. He came to help. He knew the debtor well. He knew him to be shortsighted. He thought him foolish to have gotten himself into such a predicament. Nevertheless, he wanted to help because he loved him. He stepped between them, faced the creditor, and made this offer.

“I will pay the debt if you will free the debtor from his contract so that he may keep his possessions and not go to prison.”

As the creditor was pondering the offer, the mediator added, “You demanded justice. Though he cannot pay you, I will do so. You will have been justly dealt with and can ask no more. It would not be just.”

And so the creditor agreed.

The mediator turned then to the debtor. “If I pay your debt, will you accept me as your creditor?”

“Oh yes, yes,” cried the debtor. “You save me from prison and show mercy to me.”

“Then,” said the benefactor, “you will pay the debt to me and I will set the terms. It will not be easy, but it will be possible. I will provide a way. You need not go to prison.”

And so it was that the creditor was paid in full. He had been justly dealt with. No contract had been broken. The debtor, in turn, had been extended mercy. Both laws stood fulfilled. Because there was a mediator, justice had claimed its full share, and mercy was fully satisfied.

 

“The Mediator” by Elder Boyd K. Packer April 1977 General Conference Watch | Listen | Read

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A Formula for Laying Up Treasures

We have a tendency to create a complete dichotomy between treasures on earth and treasures in heaven. We look at the Sermon on the Mount (“Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth… [but] in heaven” – Matthew 6:19-20), the Savior’s counsel to the rich young ruler (“Sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven” – Mark 10:21), and consider how it’s “easier for a camel to fit through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God” (Mark 10:25), and we conclude that our spirituality is inversely proportional to our bank ledgers. Not so!

The key is expressed in Mark 10:24: “How hard it is for them that trust in riches to enter the kingdom of God” (emphasis mine). It is “the love of money [that] is the root of all evil” (1 Timothy 6:10, emphasis mine) – the problem is giving preeminent priority to the hoarding of worldly goods. The Nephite prophet Jacob explained the importance of placing our trust and love upon the Lord, and letting the worldly riches follow:

But before ye seek for riches, seek ye for the kingdom of God.

And after ye have obtained a hope in Christ ye shall obtain riches, if ye seek them; and ye will seek them for the intent to do good–to clothe the naked, and to feed the hungry, and to liberate the captive, and administer relief to the sick and the afflicted.

Jacob 2:18-19

I haven’t decided if “ye will seek them” is prophecy or commandment. (Also, note that the list Jacob gives is very similar to the lists in King Benjamin’s address (Mosiah 4:26), the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats (Matt 25:35-36), and “A Poor, Wayfaring Man of Grief” – I love that.)

Just be sure you don’t confuse spiritual and temporal prosperity, as did the friends of Job.

Elder Sill:

I heard somebody say it the other day that we don‘t pay people for what they do in the Church. And I thought how ridiculous can a person be? The fundamental law of the universe says that all labor must be paid for. You can no more do a good thing without some time, in some way, receiving a reward than you can do an evil thing without suffering a penalty.

We often don’t grasp that. We understand the second part – we can’t escape sin without facing punishment – but we ignore the first part. Some go so far as to convolute the two – “No good deed goes unpunished.” We don’t think of good deeds as good – they’re just not bad deeds. We’re not building up spiritual credit, we’re just not digging ourselves further into spiritual debt.

I think there’s a real danger lurking there. It sets up a lot of false opposites. We know that there must needs be opposition in all things, and in order for us to learn from that opposition, we need to understand the opposites. The opposite of Evil isn’t Nothing – it’s Good. The opposite of Sorrow isn’t Nothing – it’s Joy.

Similarly, we think of the Atonement as a power used to seek and grant forgiveness when we have sinned – it takes us from bad to neutral ground. But that's not all it does. Consider Ether 12:27. Christ tells us that as we come to Him in faith and humility, He will “make weak things become strong unto them.” As we seek to overcome our imperfections, we become perfect in Christ. We become Good. The Atonement has power not only to forgive, but to improve – line upon line, precept upon precept, until we become “a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.” (Ephesians 4:13)

Elder Oaks spoke to this in “The Challenge to Become”:

The Final Judgment is not just an evaluation of a sum total of good and evil acts--what we have done. It is an acknowledgment of the final effect of our acts and thoughts--what we have become. It is not enough for anyone just to go through the motions. The commandments, ordinances, and covenants of the gospel are not a list of deposits required to be made in some heavenly account. The gospel of Jesus Christ is a plan that shows us how to become what our Heavenly Father desires us to become.

A parable illustrates this understanding. A wealthy father knew that if he were to bestow his wealth upon a child who had not yet developed the needed wisdom and stature, the inheritance would probably be wasted. The father said to his child:

“All that I have I desire to give you--not only my wealth, but also my position and standing among men. That which I have I can easily give you, but that which I am you must obtain for yourself. You will qualify for your inheritance by learning what I have learned and by living as I have lived. I will give you the laws and principles by which I have acquired my wisdom and stature. Follow my example, mastering as I have mastered, and you will become as I am, and all that I have will be yours.”

Elder Sill expressed it thus:

Now in addition to what we might get out of it, that is, wealth isn’t so much what you have, it’s what you are. We don’t work merely to acquire, we work to become. Success in life isn’t what you can get out of it, it’s what you can become by it.

Many today want the shortcut – they want the end result, without having to put in the work and the labor and the sacrifice necessary to obtain those end results. Consider the parable of the Little Red Hen, here related by Elder Sill:

You remember that the Little Red Hen had a bag of wheat, and she decided to plant the wheat. Now that’s a good idea because wheat is worth more for planting than for any other purpose. If you eat wheat, you get one kernel for one kernel. If you plant wheat, you get a hundred kernels for one kernel. Now the Little Red Hen was a reasonable little red hen and she could see this basis for profit, and so she decided to plant the wheat. But she needed somebody to help her, and so she went around among her friends in the barnyard and said, “Who will help me plant my wheat?”

Well, for some reason, she couldn’t get anybody interested. She pointed out, I’m sure, this possibility of profit, but no one was interested. And so she did it herself. But when the wheat began to grow, she needed somebody to help her care for the wheat, and so again she went around, I suppose thinking that now that they could see this wheat growing and they knew the enterprise was going to be a success that maybe she could get them interested and I supposed again she pointed out this basis for increase, but to her despair, I suppose, nobody was interested. “Not I,” said the pig. “Not I,” said the goose. “Not I,” said the turkey. Nobody wanted to help.

But when the threshing time came, I suppose she reasoned that now that they could see this wheat that was growing, it was going to be successful, again she went around among her friends and again nobody was interested. She did the same thing at the threshing time and the grinding time and the baking time, and couldn’t get help without any result.

But when these cakes had been prepared, she again went around among her friends in the barnyard and said, “Who will help me eat my cakes?” And then she discovered that a wonderful thing had happened. Now, for some unknown reason, everybody wanted to be a part of the project. “I,” said the pig. “I,” said the goose. “I,” said the turkey. Everybody was enthusiastic now.

Now the Lord has a program just like that. He said, “Who will help me prepare to be the leaders in the Church, and in the world? Who will help me put knowledge and enthusiasm and faith into the lives of people? Who will help me give encouragement and understanding to those who need it worst?” Now sometimes we have difficulty in getting those ideas over and “Not I,” said Brother Sill. “Not I,” said Sister Jones. “Not I,” said Brother Smith.

Then, I suppose the Lord is going to some day say, “Who would like to live with me forever in the Celestial Kingdom? Who would like to enjoy the great prestige and honor and great life of a personage that has become even as God?” And then I suppose that we also are going to have a great change of heart. That is, when we stand before God, there isn’t one person in this audience who will not want to be a faithful, devoted, ardent, enthusiastic, industrious member of the church. But we have to make up our mind before that, because by that time, the harvest is over and the summer is past and our souls not saved.

The formula itself is simple: Knowledge, Attitudes, Skills, and Habits. And the Personality of the leader.

It takes work to lay up treasures in heaven, but it can be done. “He that thrusteth in his sickle with his might layeth up in store that he perisheth not, but bringeth salvation to his soul.” (D&C 4:4, emphasis mine) Just make sure your heart’s in the right place as you labor, and you’ll make it.

“A Formula for Laying Up Treasures” by Elder Sterling W. Sill
BYU Devotional, October 3, 1960

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The Purifying Power of Gethsemane

This was Elder Bruce R. McConkie’s final testimony, given in General Conference on April 7, 1985. Elder McConkie passed away 12 days later, on April 19.

I am one of his witnesses, and in a coming day I shall feel the nail marks in his hands and in his feet and shall wet his feet with my tears.

But I shall not know any better then than I know now that he is God’s Almighty Son, that he is our Savior and Redeemer, and that salvation comes in and through his atoning blood and in no other way.

I love the personal foundation of the testimony he shares.

In speaking of these wondrous things I shall use my own words, though you may think they are the words of scripture, words spoken by other Apostles and prophets.

True it is they were first proclaimed by others, but they are now mine, for the Holy Spirit of God has borne witness to me that they are true, and it is now as though the Lord had revealed them to me in the first instance. I have thereby heard his voice and know his word.

This echoes Alma’s witness of how to gain a testimony in Alma 5:45-6: “And how do ye suppose that I know of their surety? … Behold, I have fasted and prayed many days that I might these things of myself.” Alma, who saw an angel (Mosiah 27:11), gained his testimony through prayer and fasting and the witness of the Holy Ghost. Laman and Lemuel saw angels (1 Ne 17:45) but didn’t pray for a witness as Nephi did (1 Ne 11:3).

It’s a beautiful and powerful testimony. Someone has pieced his address together with video from The Lamb of God. They go together quite well.

“The Purifying Power of Gethsemane” by Elder Bruce R. McConkie
April 1985 General Conference

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The Atonement Can Clean, Reclaim, and Sanctify Our Lives

Both the regional airport and Freeman Park in Idaho Falls were built on reclaimed landfills.

I have lived in Idaho Falls nearly my whole life. I have contributed a lot of garbage to those landfills over the course of more than 50 years.

What would the city fathers think if on a given day I showed up on one of the runways of the Idaho Falls airport or the middle of one of the grassy fields in Freeman Park with a backhoe and started digging large holes? When they asked me what I was doing, I would respond that I wanted to dig up the old garbage that I had made over the years.

I suspect they would tell me that there was no way to identify my personal garbage, that it had been reclaimed and buried long ago. I'm sure that they would tell me that I had no right to dig up the garbage and that I was destroying something very beautiful and useful that they had made out of my garbage. In short, I don't think they would be very pleased with me. I suppose that they would wonder why anyone would want to destroy something so beautiful and useful in an attempt to dig up old garbage.

That last bit reminds of Elder Holland’s CES fireside back in January. “If something is buried in the past, leave it buried.”

Elder Bowen continues:

Just as the landfill requires dedicated work and attention, laboriously applying layer after layer of fill to reclaim the low-lying ground, our lives also require the same vigilance, continually applying layer after layer of the healing gift of repentance.

Just as the city fathers in Idaho Falls would feel bad about a person trying to dig up his old garbage, our Father in Heaven and His Son, Jesus Christ, feel sorrow when we choose to remain in sin, when the gift of repentance made possible through the Atonement can clean, reclaim, and sanctify our lives.

“The Atonement Can Clean, Reclaim, and Sanctify Our Lives” by Elder Shayne M. Bowen, of the Seventy
October 2006 General Conference

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Remember Lot’s Wife

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland spoke at BYU on the importance of looking forward instead of focusing on the past.

The start of a new year is the traditional time to take stock of our lives and see where we are going, measured against the backdrop of where we have been. I don’t want to talk to you about New Year’s resolutions, because you only made five of them and you have already broken four. (I give that remaining one just another week.) But I do want to talk to you about the past and the future, not so much in terms of New Year’s commitments per se, but more with an eye toward any time of transition and change in your lives—and those moments come virtually every day of our lives.

Lot’s wife’s sin wasn’t in looking back; it was in wanting to go back. Instead of hearkening to the word of the Lord which told her to go forward, she yearned to return to Sodom and Gomorrah.

So, as a new year starts and we try to benefit from a proper view of what has gone before, I plead with you not to dwell on days now gone, nor to yearn vainly for yesterdays, however good those yesterdays may have been. The past is to be learned from but not lived in. We look back to claim the embers from glowing experiences but not the ashes. And when we have learned what we need to learn and have brought with us the best that we have experienced, then we look ahead, we remember that faith is always pointed toward the future. Faith always has to do with blessings and truths and events that will yet be efficacious in our lives.

Elder Holland speaks of how the Apostle Paul left everything behind to follow Christ. He shares the poem of Miniver Cheevy, by Edwin Arlington Robinson, and the story of a young man who left his hometown to do something great, only to be torn down by his peers when he returned. He changed, but they refused to see the change in him.

He also speaks passionately about forgiving ourselves, and especially others.

When something is over and done with, when it has been repented of as fully as it can be repented of, when life has moved on as it should and a lot of other wonderfully good things have happened since then, it is not right to go back and open up some ancient wound that the Son of God Himself died trying to heal.

Let people repent. Let people grow. Believe that people can change and improve. Is that faith? Yes! Is that hope? Yes! Is it charity? Yes! Above all, it is charity, the pure love of Christ. If something is buried in the past, leave it buried.…

[Dwelling] on past lives, including past mistakes, is just not right! It is not the gospel of Jesus Christ.

“It is not right to go back and open up some ancient wound that the Son of God Himself died trying to heal.” Powerful.

“What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.” –Acts 10:15.

Many repented of a rambunctious youth and went on to serve the Lord in righteousness, including Paul, Alma, Alma the Younger, the sons of Mosiah, the Anti-Nephi-Lehis, and Moses (sort of).

“Remember Lot’s Wife” by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland
BYU Devotional, January 13, 2009

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The Challenge to Become

In the 170^th Semiannual General Conference (October 2000), Elder Dallin H. Oaks spoke of the educational process we’re currently going through. My favorite quote:

[T]he Final Judgment is not just an evaluation of a sum total of good and evil acts–what we have done. It is an acknowledgment of the final effect of our acts and thoughts–what we have become.

This is followed closely by the parable of the rich man explaining his son’s inheritance:

That which I have I can easily give you, but that which I am you must obtain for yourself. (Emphasis in the original)

I love the perspective and insight that these give. First, the importance of enduring and pushing onward. Second, the insight into why personal experience is necessary for us to learn. We’re going to make mistakes – that’s fine. It’s part and parcel with this mortal probation. Learning to make choices means that we’re going to make some bad choices along the way. Our Heavenly Father understood this, so He provided a Savior for us.

There is no tally at the end. We’re not going to stand before the judgement bar of the Almighty and cross our fingers while angels count the good and bad deeds we’ve done, hoping that the good outnumbers the bad. (“Sometimes the Ups outnumber the Downs… but not in Nottingham.”) It’s going to be an acknowledgement (I love that word there) of who we have become as the result of the deeds we’ve done.

I recently faced a tough decision. I carefully weighed the alternatives. Would the activity be worth the money I’d spend? What about the time I’d need to invest? How would this affect my wife? With all of these assessments, I could justify either decision. Finally, my mind rested upon a new question: “If I do this, will it take me closer to the man I want to be, or further away?” Once I framed the question in those terms, all doubt left my mind, and I was able to clearly see the better choice.

What will you do today to bring yourself closer to being the person you want to be?


“The Challenge to Become” by Elder Dallin H. Oaks
October 2000 General Conference

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