Christ truly descended below all
things (see Ephesians 4:8-10, Doctrine and Covenants 88:6). The Redeemer has thus
“trodden the wine-press alone, even the wine-press of the fierceness of the
wrath of Almighty God” (Doctrine and Covenants 76:107; 88:106; 133:50; see also
Isaiah 63:3).
It isn’t that God the Father is
angry or disgusted or even frustrated with His Beloved Son. No, it is like
Isaiah recorded when he spoke of the coming Messiah: “Surely he hath borne our
griefs, and carried our sorrows; he was bruised for our iniquities; the
chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes [welts, bruises,
scars] we are healed.”
A bit later Isaiah records that “it
pleased the Lord to bruise him; he [God the Father] put him [Jesus Christ] to
grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed”
(Isaiah 53:4-5, 10; Mosiah 14:5-6, 10). “The chastisement of our peace was upon
him” is rendered as follows in an alternate translation: “the punishment that
brought us peace was brought upon him” (New International Version).
And what of the expression, “it
pleased the Lord to bruise him”? It certainly wasn’t the case that Elohim found
delight in His Only Begotten Son’s agonizing pain. Rather, our Heavenly Father
was pleased that His perfect Son, indeed His perfectly obedient and dependable
Son, had faithfully carried out the much-needed sufferings in our behalf. (Robert
L. Millet, How Great Thou Art: Revealed Insights into God, Our Heavenly
Father [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2026], 152)
