The Fulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ

My purpose is to convey how the Gospel of Jesus Christ unlocks the healing power of the Atonement. The Prophet Joseph Smith once said "All things pertaining to our religion are apendages to the Atonement." The Atonement is what makes our return to the Father possible. It is the act whereby fallen man is reconciled to a perfect, exalted Father. We access the atonement when we live the principles of the Gospel.

Why did we need the Savior? Why is the Atonement so important to our Salvation? Perhaps an experience from my childhood will help explain. On our property we have a ditch that is bigger and more circular than the other ditches. When it rains it becomes a small pond and my friends and I treated it as such. We would have a wonderful time playing in it and getting muddy and nasty. On occasion we would get lucky and my sisters would wonder out of the house unprotected. On these occasions we would grab them and throw then in. This happened on this day and we were having a grand time. My mother decided to take advantage of the distraction and clean our perpetually dirty house. Eventually the ditch lost its appeal to us children so we set off towards the house to play inside the toy room. my mother saw us coming and met us at the door. In my young eyes my mother who is usually about 5'2" turned into a 10' giant with laser vision. She then lovingly directed us to the back of the water hose and hosed us down. Only then were we allowed to enter her house and go to the bathroom to finish the cleaning process with a much needed (though undesired) bath. In like manner, when we were born, we left the perfectly clean home of our Heavenly Father to wallow in a mud pit. It was necessary to our progression but, as a result "All mankind [became] fallen...which consigned them forever to be cut off...[We] were cut off from the presence of the Lord" Because "If [we] be filthy [we] cannot dwell in the kingdom of God; if so, the kingdom of God must be filthy also. But, the kingdom of God is not filthy" "Wherefore, save [there] should be an infinite atonement" we could not dwell in Gods home. The only way that we can be clean again is by "washing our garments in the Blood of the Lamb" The atonement is represented in this analogy by the water coming out of the water hose. The water that cleaned us off. But in order to access this water several things needed to occur before hand. First, the water bill had to be paid. Second, we had to turn the nozzle to release the water. We turn the nozzle when we live the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ paid the water bill, he paid the price for our Salvation. His payment began in the Garden of Gethsemane where his anguish over the wickedness and abominations of his people was so great that he sweat great gout's of blood. This was swiftly followed by the betrayal of Judas, the abandonment of his remaining Apostles. The Savior then experienced the irony of being a God convicted of blaspheme. The degradation of being beaten and mocked by the Rulers of the Jews and then by the Gentile Rulers. The inhumanity of being scourged with 40 stripes save one and then being forced to carry his own cross down to his own crucifixion. In less than 48 hours every mortal form of support had left him and then the unthinkable happened, our Savior felt the divine spirit of God withdraw. "My God My God! Why has thou forsaken me?!" what human mind can fathom the significance of that awe-full cry? In addition to the agony of crucifixion the agony of Gethsemane returned, intensified beyond human capacity to comprehend much less endure. In his bitterest hour, the dying Christ was completely alone. That the supreme sacrifice of the Son might be consumated in all its fullness, the Father withdrew the comfort of his immediate presence and the support of his divine spirit, leaving our Savior completely, utterly alone. In order to pay our water bill our Savior literally "Descended below it all" surely "He has born our griefs and carried our sorrows, [surely] he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquity and with his stripes we are healed."

The water bill has been paid. Jesus Christ said "Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again. But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life." The Savior invites us to "Come...everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters; and he that hath no money, come buy and eat; yea, come buy wine and milk without money and without price"

I testify that the water bill has been paid. I testify that as we turn the nozzle to access the cleansing water of the Atonement that we will be made clean. We will be allowed to return to the clean house our or Father.