Paisley Imperfect

It Had to be Jesus

Because of His divine lineage, Jesus had the power to stop what was happening to Him at any time. When the soldiers came to get Him; when Pilot washed his hands; when they nailed His hands to the cross. At any time, He could have stopped it.

It required a being who was sinless; who possessed a boundless capacity to suffer the consequences of all our sins and ailments; and who, in fact, descended beneath it all.
Although in agony he hung, No murm’ring word escaped his tongue. His high commission to fulfill, His high commission to fulfill, He magnified his Father’s will. ‘Father, from me remove this cup. Yet, if thou wilt, I’ll drink it up. ‘I’ve done the work thou gavest me, I’ve done the work thou gavest me; Receive my spirit unto thee.’
The Old Testament has many references to atonement, which called for animal sacrifice. Not any animal would do. Special considerations included: the selection of a firstling of the flock, without blemish [see Leviticus 5:18; 27:26], the sacrifice of the animal’s life by the shedding of its blood [see Leviticus 9:18], death of the animal without breaking a bone [see Exodus 12:46; Numbers 9:12], and one animal could be sacrificed as a vicarious act for another [see Leviticus 16:10]. The Atonement of Christ fulfilled these prototypes of the Old Testament. He was the firstborn Lamb of God, without blemish. His sacrifice occurred by the shedding of blood. No bones of His body were broken—noteworthy in that both malefac
Because of his birthright and the conditions surrounding his coming to the earth, he became the Redeemer of men; and through the shedding of his blood we are privileged to return into the presence of our Father, on conditions of our repentance and acceptance of the great plan of redemption of which he is the author.
... in our first estate Jesus was the incomparable individual among all our Father’s spirit children. He helped to prepare this planet for us and led—not pushed—us from our premortal post. I thank him for the untold things he did, across the ages of that first estate, to prepare perfectly for his unique role...
I ask the Lord’s blessings to be with us, that we can understand the importance of the atoning sacrifice in our lives, that it is the greatest event in all history. In fact, the Atonement was the very purpose of the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, coming to earth.
We know there is a great purpose in Christ’s suffering because this was an act of free agency. Jesus could have called upon legions of angels to bring Him down from the cross, but He did not.
Then the heavens grew black. Darkness covered the land for the space of three hours, as it did among the Nephites. There was a mighty storm, as though the very God of Nature was in agony. And truly he was, for while he was hanging on the cross for another three hours, from noon to 3:00 p.m., all the infinite agonies and merciless pains of Gethsemane recurred. And, finally, when the atoning agonies had taken their toll—when the victory had been won, when the Son of God had fulfilled the will of his Father in all things—then he said, “It is finished” (John 19:30), and he voluntarily gave up the ghost.