In a volume
on Latter-day Saint soteriology, one author, instead of opting for a “penal”/forensic
understanding of the atonement, “hit the nail on the head” so to speak about
the nature of the atonement and Christ’s sufferings:
It is important to recognize that an infinite atonement is, by definition, unlimited. The Father did not add up the
debt incurred by each of his children for each of their sins on each of his “worlds
without number,” past, present and future, and then ask his Beloved Son to
suffer for them on a tit-for-tat basis. Rather, the price paid far exceeded the
debt owed, for the price paid was infinite.
Because of it we do not need to worry about how much of a burden our individual
sins may have added to Christ’s suffering—infinite
plus or minus n is still infinite. We need only be grateful that
his sacrifice was sufficient to cover all of the sins of all men belonging to
the family of our Heavenly Father, worlds without number. He suffered so we won’t
have to suffer. All he requires is what we feel sorry for those things we have
done or have failed to do that have brought pain and suffering and injustice to
others, and to love him and to love one another, and to accept his gift of
forgiveness and redemption through faith and repentance.
Some have imagined that in bearing our sins
Christ somehow experienced each of our sins individually in some mystical,
omniscient way. We believe what he experiences was the consequence of our sins—or of anyone’s sins, and not our sins
themselves. It seems to us that to experience, even vicariously, anger or hate
or covetousness or lust is to be
angry, hateful, covetous or lustful. Whereas, to experience the consequence of
such sins is to experience the pangs of conscience and alienation, and the
withdrawal of violating the royal law of love. In Jesus’ case, that involved
descending below all things, even to the lowest hell, by experiencing complete
abandonment and withdrawal of the powers of heaven. (Owen K. Peterson, The Joy of our Redemption: An LDS Scriptural
Journey [4th rev.; 2017], 69 n. 1)
