Perfect love and the ultimate sacrifice

The New Testament teaches us about the life of Jesus Christ. However, we don't learn much about the life of Christ from the scriptures until He starts his ministry around age 30. (We know about His birth and Him teaching in the temple at age 12, but that's basically it until age 30.) But today I'm focusing on the last day of His life.

Most people have heard of the atonement, but might not completely understand it, so I'll try to explain it as simply as I can. The night before Jesus’ death He atoned for our sins in the Garden of Gethsemane. He paid the price for the sins that every person had ever committed or would ever commit. The pain of this was so great that Jesus bled great drops of blood from every pore. This is part one of the atonement. Part two is that Jesus suffered for our pains and our afflictions.

There is a passage in The Book of Mormon that says,

"And He shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith He will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of His people. And He will take upon him death, that He may loose the bands of death which bind His people; and He will take upon Him their infirmities, that His bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that He may know according to the flesh how to succor His people according to their infirmities."

I love how this explains what Jesus went through and why. Jesus didn't have to do what He did, but He chose to because He loves us and He wants to understand us. Jesus is not a silent observer in our lives. He personally knows the pains we face. There is nothing that we experience that Jesus can't understand since He has personally experienced it. He knows what it's like to be in pain, He knows what it's like to be sad and lonely, He knows what it's like to suffer diseases and other physical/mental afflictions. He knows what it's like to suffer from addictions and compulsions. He knows what it's like to lose a loved one, or lose the use of your body and many more things, too. When we face hard times and feel like there's no one who could possibly understand our pain, there is one person who understands it perfectly, and that person is Jesus Christ. We can take comfort in that.

The atonement is the greatest expression of love… ever! God and Jesus Christ DO love us and They are always there. Pure and simple!