Believing Christ: A Practical Approach to the Atonement | Stephen E. Robinson | 1990
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 มี.ค. 2021
- Believing in Christ and believing Christ are two entirely different things. Taking a practical approach to the Atonement can help us grow our faith.
This speech was given on May 29, 1990.
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"The greatest dichotomy, the greatest problem in the entire universe, consists of two facts. The first we can read in Doctrine and Covenants 1:31: “For I the Lord cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance.” That means he can’t stand it, he can’t tolerate it, he can’t blink, or look the other way, or sweep it under the rug. He can’t tolerate sin in the least degree. The other side of the dichotomy is very simply put: I sin, and so do you. If that were all there were to the equation, the conclusion would be inescapable that we, as sinful beings, cannot be tolerated in the presence of God.
But that is not all there is to the equation. This morning I would like to talk to you about the Atonement of Christ, that glorious plan by which this dichotomy can be resolved. I would like to share with you incidents from my own life that illustrate how the Atonement works in a practical, everyday setting.
Believing Christ
First is a story about my son, Michael, who did something wrong when he was six or seven years old. He’s my only son, and I’m hard on him. I want him to be better than his dad was, even as a boy, and so I lean on him and expect a great deal. Well, he had done something I thought was incredibly vile, and I let him know how terrible it was. I sent him to his room with the instructions, “Don’t you dare come out until I come and get you.”
And then I forgot. It was some hours later, as I was watching television, that I heard his door open and heard the tentative footsteps coming down the hall. I said, “Oh, my gosh,” and ran to my end of the hall to see him standing with swollen eyes and tears on his cheeks at the other end. He looked up at me-he wasn’t quite sure he should have come out-and said, “Dad, can’t we ever be friends again?” Well, I melted, ran to him, and hugged him. He’s my boy, and I love him.
Like Michael, we all do things that disappoint our Father, that separate us from his presence and spirit. There are times when we get sent to our rooms spiritually. There are sins that maim; there are sins that wound our spirits. Some of you know what it is like to do something that makes you feel as if you just drank raw sewage. You can wash, but you can never get clean. When that happens, sometimes we ask the Lord as we lift up our eyes, “O Father, can’t we ever be friends again?”
The answer that can be found in all the scriptures is a resounding “Yes, through the Atonement of Christ.” I particularly like the way it is put in Isaiah 1:18.
Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
I like to paraphrase that for my students. What the Lord is saying is “I don’t care what you did. It doesn’t matter what you did. I can erase it. I can make you pure and worthy and innocent and celestial.”
Brothers and sisters, to have faith in Jesus Christ is not merely to believe that he is who he says he is, to believe in Christ. Sometimes, to have faith in Christ is also to believe Christ. Both as a bishop and as a teacher in the Church, I have learned there are many that believe Jesus is the Son of God and that he is the Savior of the World, but that he cannot save them. They believe in his identity, but not in his power to cleanse and to purify and to save. To have faith in his identity is only half the process. To have faith in his ability, in his power to cleanse and to save, that is the other half. We must not only believe in Christ, we must believe Christ when he says, “I can cleanse you and make you celestial.”
When I was a bishop, I used to hear several variations on a theme. Sometimes it was, “Bishop, I’ve punched my ticket wrong. I’ve just made mistakes that have gotten me off on the wrong track, and you can’t get there from here.” I’ve heard those who say, “Bishop, I’ve sinned too horribly. I can’t have the full blessings of the gospel because I did this, or I did that. I’ll come to Church, and I’ll be active, and I’m hoping for a pretty good reward,..."
These teachings ring true to my soul. Beautiful!
one of the greatest talks of all time!!!
This man’s authorship brought me to Christ over 20 years ago. I am now serving a mission in West Africa because of his books.
One of the most comforting talks ever given❤️
The gospel of Jesus Christ is plain and precious!
A deeply beautiful uplifting n strengthening talk Thanku
This is a message everyone needs to hear in an era so settled in comparing ourselves to others.
Awesome talk that each of us should hear and accept as truth...❤👼❤
I thought I understood this but now I truly do. It brings peace to my soul and trust in my Saviour.
Its going to be one year in October since I came back to church. There are times I have wondered after all I have done wether Jesus would take me to the celestial kingdom. This talk is sumply grace
Thoroughly enjoyable and really enlightening.
I love this! So much pressure, so many expectations that get too much! What do we do? We don’t want to fail. We don’t fail Him we only fail ourselves. He loves us. He knows how and how long it takes us to learn.
Thank you for believing Christ!
I needed this so bad this morning. It is an eye opener. Thank you.
Love his book BELIEVING CHRIST. Most wonderful book!!
This type of videos amaze me. not just for the content that has the power to change us, but because I see other videos with 8 billion reproductions that do not inspire or elevate, just entertain. I'm grateful for having access to this knowledge. just beautiful :)
This seems to be a key principle in this time- Believing Christ. If we can truly humble ourselves and seek the Lord with all our hearts we will find him. This is such a GREAT talk.
Thank you for sharing this wonderful thought provoking talk. I’ll never be too old to learn.
What a wonderful talk, thank you!
Today is March 9th 2021 and I heard the stock and it has changed my life forever thank you to whoever posted it my heart is full in my eyes are wet I appreciate this Thankyou
God bless you Sister Bates.
I recommend the book, it helped me understand the atonement better than growing up in Provo Utah and serving a two-year mission. Believing Christ, is the name of the book and written by Stephen e Robinson 🙏💖
Great talk. Great book.
Thank you for beautiful talk ❤️☺️🌸
Great talk!! True principles.
This is an amazing and very underated talk
Wonderful❤
Absolutely amazing talk Thank you
What a great talk ! Thanks for posting : )
I now have hope.
So good!!
Love this talk ❤️😍
Is this just recently posted? It's a classic and I barely see 5500 views. This is such a candid talk that needed saying, and still does.
Yeah, this channel has just started posting some of their older talks.
Beautiful talk. 😁
Jesus is perfect. Therefore he cannot lie. He is not lying when he says he will forgive you and cleanse you of all sins. He is not lying when he says he has paid the price for your sins.
I believe, (according to John's gospel chapter 8 and 16) Jesus died to send us the Holy Spirit as a tool to use to find the truth and set ourselves free, that's what the atonement means to me. I erred by saying 'set ourselves free': he whom the son sets free is free indeed. My simple practical idea of using the HS as a tool may help us understand the atonement in a simple way.
Oh your poor wife. And what a fright for you. Thankfully we are taught not to compare ourselves to others and that full perfection comes after this life through Christ's Atonement and your poor wife, how come she was not getting support from her counsellors or was she pushing them away? She expected too much of herself and was trying to run continually, even Jesus rested. The scriptures are a comfort to me and the hymns. I also love listening to Sissel Kyrkjebo singing Slow Down. I am glad your family are ok or better than ok, I loved the child going to room story and then you forgot to go get him, whoops, does that mean our daddy is not perfect, thankfully Heavenly Father is. Liked your talk.
Amen 🙏
Odds are you are going to be exalted!
We had to be confident that this would be a plan that would save, that it would exalt the vast majority. None of us would have been excited about a plan that we thought was such a dangerous "crap shoot" that the odds of us making it back were statistically minimal. In the pre-mortal world, we firmly believed this was doable. That this was likely and functional. That you and I had every likelihood we would make it. There was not pessimism there. It really was a plan that would maximize returns. It could not have been any other way and God would not do it any other way.
Elder McConkie stated: The spirit will not dwell in an unclean tabernacle. Therefore when men receive the Spirit of God, they become clean and pure and spotless. He pointed out, if you get a priesthood blessing and you are healed, you are also sanctified, and healed spiritually - so that you are no longer guilty of sin - because the spirit cannot dwell in unclean tabernacles. And since healing comes through the Holy Spirit, so also sanctification necessarily comes.
Whenever you and I actively have the Holy Spirit in our lives, when we know we're being prompted, comforted, guided and inspired, etc., then we know we are being acceptable to God and are being sanctified because the spirit has that influence. Sanctification and the remission of sin comes by fire and by the Holy Ghost. We remit sins symbolically in baptism, but the actual remission comes when we receive the Holy Ghost and it purges out those sins. Certainly the thing that you're promised in the sacramental prayer through renewal of covenants is that you may always have His spirit to be with you. Why? Because it sanctifies you. It burns out sin, so if you and I are living in such a way that we can have the Holy Spirit with us, if we are feeling the spirit regularly in our lives because we are reading the Scriptures, we're having conversations with God, we are seeking a life of holiness, we're going to the temple, we're engaging in ministering and reaching out to others. If we're doing that... Then the testimony of the holy apostles and prophets is that we will have His spirit to be with us, and when that spirit is with us, sin cannot remain within us because it burns it out.
Salvation and exaltation are pretty simple: do things that provoke the Holy Ghost. If you do that, God's Spirit will be with you and you will be clean, purified and accepted before the Lord. And you will be changed as a being, because the spirit doesn't simply sanctify you in the sense of burning away sin, although it does that, it also works on who you are. It douses the flame of the natural man. It weakens its hold on you. It gives you the desire to do good, to be good, to live a holy, and loving, and a forgiving, and a Grace-filled life.
I have believed this for many years - that if I perceive God as judgmental, unforgiving, angry and unhappy with me, it's probably because I'm unrighteous or not living the way I ought to. If I project this on other people, if I treat other people judgmentally, in an unforgiving and un-Christlike way, it's likely because of my perception of God. If we recognize God for what He is and recognize the power of the spirit to sanctify us, you'll tend to see God as forgiving and loving, and filled with grace and mercy, and we will tend to be that way towards others.
Retention of the Holy Ghost is the key to our exaltation. Each of us knows what things chase the Spirit from our lives. We know what things the Brethren have in wisdom counseled us to avoid - to be prohibited from entering into our lives and hearts. If we are honest with ourselves and with the Lord then the task of seeking exaltation will be an easy one. Do the things that invite the spirit, and don't do the things which would prevent the companionship of the Holy Ghost.
From:
"Odds are you're going to be exalted" See "Mormon Faircast" on iTunes
By Alonzo Gaskill
We are learning our way to Heaven rather than earning our way.
"If through fragility we fall a thousand times in a day, yet if we do repent again, we have alway mercy laid up for us in store in Jesus Christ our Lord."
-William Tyndale