Well, hello everyone and welcome to Redeem Through His Blood podcast where we discuss
hope, healing and redemption through the Atonement of Jesus Christ.
I'm Scott Durfee and it's my pleasure to introduce my partner in this project, our
teacher, brother, David Durfee.
Thank you, Scott.
So nice to be able to talk about these sacred points of doctrine concerning our Savior and
Redeemer.
We've got some really great stuff to talk about once again today, but so let's just
take care of a couple of things real quickly here.
First off, I just wanted to give thanks to everybody who's been sending us emails or
texts or whatever.
He redeems us at gmail.com.
That is, he redeems us at gmail.com.
Again, we encourage your questions and comments and appreciate them very much.
And speaking of questions and comments through, he redeems us at gmail.com.
This is a letter that we got.
This is one of our listeners, Dave, that sent this to us after one of our sessions on the
fall of all.
And this person writes the following, I learned so much and honestly feel so liberated and
hopeful.
I've realized, much like others, I'm sure, that my focus and understanding and identity
as a child of God was misguided and misunderstood.
I've always focused much on working towards perfection and eliminating all in my humanness
and weakness and being resentful at my afflictions and shortcomings and feeling so much worry
and anxiety because I just can't seem to get it right ever.
I now feel like I'm kind of starting to, in quotation marks, get it.
And that is certainly taking a bit of a load, so to speak, off of me.
I know I need to continue to learn and improve, but now I feel like I can stop focusing on
getting it right and instead focus on putting on the atonement of Jesus Christ.
Anyways, thank you.
And that awesome, Scott, I love that communication and I actually know who that person is and
love her.
And I'm so thankful that she would share that with me and I had someone else call me that's
close to me and share with me that they had never considered ever thanking God, our Heavenly
Father, for the fall and for their weakness and kind of how liberating that was for them.
But he made these things not only possible, Scott, but essential in our lives, meaning
mortality, the fall, sin and weakness, is all part of what not only he knew we would
experience, but what he wanted us to experience in order to really not only experience opposition
in our life because of the law of opposition of all things, but to also strengthen us.
I love how Paul describes in the New Testament that out of weakness I am strong.
And the reason he can say that is because shortly before and after he bears testimony
that his weakness allows him to focus on a Savior and Redeemer whose atoning sacrifice
can strengthen him.
And I know that God gives unto man weakness as Moroni taught in Ether chapter 12 that
man was given weakness by loving God and that through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, by
humbling ourselves, relying and depending upon a Redeemer, that weak things can become
strong.
None of us are good enough.
None of us can do enough in this life to be able to earn redemption.
We believe in a gospel of redemption, not assimilation.
It is not about putting on perfection.
It's about putting on Christ.
That's what we should be focused on.
And today I'm thankful we can talk more about the events of the Atonement of Jesus Christ.
Thanks for your letters.
Thanks for your emails.
Thanks for your correspondence.
We're really grateful for those.
And you know, maybe we could do that.
Maybe I could just invite our listeners, those of you who would be willing to.
Would you mind just sending us an email and just letting us know that how being thankful
for the fall of us all has and being really being able to embrace that maybe you could
just share with us some experiences in your own life, how that that change in thinking
or that change in approach in your life has changed you or maybe made things better or
more understanding or easier to deal with.
If you wouldn't mind doing that, that'd be awesome.
Again, he redeems us at gmail.com will protect your identity, of course.
But if you wouldn't mind sending that way to appreciate that.
So again, encourage also any other questions.
We've had some great questions.
We're over past weeks.
We've had some great questions.
If you have questions, don't hesitate to send those to us.
We'll do our best to get to those as well.
So we just concluded Dave, a great segment last podcast.
As we begin to talk about the effects of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, and we ended,
I believe, with the quote from C.S. Lewis about how being Heavenly Father and being
Jesus Christ, in fact, it was specific to Jesus Christ, but how being Jesus Christ
and being perfect and going through what he did actually helped increase his understanding
of the turmoil, the torments, the transgressions, the sins, everything of this world because
of his sinless life.
We spent a great deal of time talking about his sinless life, that because of that, that
allowed him to sucker us more fully, which was just one component of the Atonement of
Jesus Christ.
Now, as we start moving into more of the traditional thinking, the more when we think of the Atonement
of Jesus Christ, typically, if I were to say to somebody in my Sunday school class, say,
what do you think of when you think of the Atonement of Jesus Christ?
Inevitably, three things are going to come up.
We're going to talk about the Garden of Gethsemane.
We're going to talk about the Cross and Golgotha, and we're going to talk about the Garden
and the Resurrection.
Among other things, but those three things will be common denominators every time we
say what are we going to talk about when we talk about the Atonement of Jesus Christ.
So today, we're going to start focusing, Dave, on the events of the Atonement of Jesus Christ
as we move into those types of things.
So where do we start?
Well, so the Sinless Life was our last episode, and I want to just remind everyone, not only
does it allow him to sucker us, but we should feel greater compassion, love, gratitude for
him for what he suffered in his temptations.
It just softens my heart when I think about this holy, innocent, pure being, Jesus Christ
being attacked by Satan and his legions.
There's just something about that that gives me greater compassion and love for Jesus,
and it helps me to feel closer to him and to strengthen my relationship with him and
to trust in him more because I know that all the temptations I suffer, he suffered and
even more.
So let's move from there, Scott, from his Sinless Life to the last week of his life.
Dave, before you do that, can I just interrupt you real quick?
There's something that's come to my mind, I think, that I need to just say.
As we start moving into these types of things, we need to remember, and I really believe
we do need to remember this.
In our first few episodes, we spent a great deal of time on our identity, and we talked
about how important it is that we spend time with him, Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father,
through the Spirit of the Holy Ghost, that we spend time with them so that we can know
them.
We talked about familial relationships.
I recalled and related stories about your father, my grandfather, and how I knew him,
and because I knew him and was close to him, I knew a lot of how he would behave.
And I still sometimes today draw on what would grandpa say or what would so and so say that
I knew before.
That knowing, though, required a big investment of time on my part.
I needed to spend time with him.
So this is my invitation as we start to move into the events of the Atonement of Jesus
Christ.
This is my invitation that we take this opportunity to really get to know him there.
We've gotten to know him through his ministry.
We have gotten to know him through his teachings.
But let's really get to know him in this scenario, in this situation, because knowing
him here will save us forever.
And so, Dave, having said that, didn't mean to interrupt you there, but I think that was
an important thing for me to at least put out there.
No, thank you, Scott.
Hopefully, as I mentioned in our last episode, our readers will take some time.
I'm really, it would be my greatest desire that the purpose of these podcasts are to
help our readers to be more interested or motivated, to move into the Scriptures and
to study some of these events and points of doctrine for themselves.
Well, the last week of Jesus' life began when he comes to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover,
which I believe he did every almost year of his life.
We know Mary and Joseph took him there when he was 12.
And maybe he did that every year of his life.
We just don't have any record.
We know that in his ministry, we have two of the three years recorded that he went to Jerusalem.
I think he did all three years.
It's just not recorded.
But this is his final year, and he goes to Jerusalem in the spring of the year, probably
the beginning of April sometime, and he goes there to celebrate this great feast of the
Jews we call Passover, which is, of course, as we're studying the Old Testament.
Most of the church is familiar with Passover and what that means, that the Jews as slaves
in Egypt were counseled by Moses that if they would put the blood of a lamb on their doorposts,
that the destroying angel would pass by them.
That's what Passover really means.
That's what it celebrated.
And all of that was to point toward to be a type and shadow and symbol for Jesus Christ
and the Lamb of God and how his blood would allow the destroying angel, Satan, to pass
us by or how the blood of the lamb would save and redeem us as children of God.
So he goes to Jerusalem to celebrate this, stays in Bethany and in the evenings with
Mary, Martha, Lazarus, their family, his disciples.
We know that his mother Mary is there and several friends.
And he goes back and forth each day.
Wednesday he probably stays home and stays close to his family all day.
And then it's on Thursday that he goes into Jerusalem to actually participate in the feast
of the Passover and participates in what has become known as the Last Supper with his disciples
in the upper room.
We talked about this when we described the events of Easter week, Scott, when he washed
the feet of his disciples, including Judas, and gave them some of the best teachings of
Jesus were saved, I think.
It's gratefully recorded by John during that meeting or that Last Supper.
Judas leaves, the betrayer has been identified and he's left and they sing of him.
And then they leave the upper room and walk through the streets of Jerusalem.
They walk outside the city gate of Jerusalem.
So now they're outside the walls of Jerusalem.
What time of day are we talking here?
This is nine o'clock at night.
So it'd be dark?
Dark.
Yep.
Would it be dark?
And what time of year would it be about springtime?
Yep.
So the temperature would be cool, probably a cool dark evening.
And they walk outside the walls of the city of Jerusalem and they walk across the little
Kidron Valley and to the base of the Mount of Olives on the east side of the city.
And where there are olive trees and where there was a garden called Gethsemane, where
there was probably a press, oil press, a press that would crush the olives and the
olive oil would ooze out of this huge vat where stones would be used to crush the olives,
including the pits.
And this olive oil, olive oil is such a great symbol.
The olive leaf is a symbol of peace and olive oil is a symbol in the scriptures of light.
That's the source of their light from their candles that they would use.
And it's a source of healing.
Olive oil was a great source of healing.
So this was a place, I believe, Scott, where Jesus must have frequently visited.
Every time he was probably in Jerusalem, I think he possibly went to the Garden of Gethsemane.
He contemplated what would happen there at the end of his life.
He might have prayed.
There must have been a beautiful little spot where he was secluded, where he could have
some solitude and where he could meditate and pray.
And this night he would pray, but there would be no solitude.
There would be no real peace for Jesus this night in Gethsemane.
He leaves Peter, James, and John.
It's recorded as stones cast away.
So maybe, I don't know, you could throw a stone further than I can, Scott, but maybe
fifty yards and he goes further into this garden.
It's recorded in Matthew.
I think I want to maybe read this, is that this is the way Matthew records it.
And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee and began to be very sorrowful
and very heavy.
Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death.
Terri ye here and watch with me.
And he went a little further and fell on his face.
It's pretty descriptive of how sorrowful and heavy it already was for him as he contemplated
what would happen there that night.
That he would begin, I stress the word begin, to take upon himself the sins, the addictions,
and all of the negatives, all the pain, all the sorrow, all of the separation, everything
that was because of the effects of the fall.
You imagine how heavy he felt as he fell on his face.
So in that state, and he three times he prays, he goes back to his disciples, they're sleeping,
he goes back again and prays, and then he goes back to his disciples, they're sleeping.
So he actually offers three different prayers.
Luke records in Luke 22 that he knelt.
So in one of the prayers he kneels, as Matthew describes it, he fell on his face.
He's laid out in this particular prayer in Matthew.
And he prays, and his prayer consistent in the Gospel writers, the one common line they
all use is that he cries out, if there be any other way, if there be any other way.
I wanted to read what, how Mark describes the words of his prayer, how poignant, how
personal, how tender his prayer is.
This is in Mark chapter 14, verses 32 through 36.
They came to a place which was named Gethsemane.
Gethsemane, Scott means, it's an Aramaic word that literally means oil press.
So there must have been an olive oil press there, and that's where it gets its name.
And as you think about the press and the sins of all the world pressing upon him and him
literally being crushed, Scott, and hope and healing and light oozing out as his blood
oozes out of every pore, which we'll talk about in just a minute.
But he goes to Gethsemane.
This is back to Mark.
And he saith to his disciples, Set ye here while I shall pray.
And he taketh with him Peter and James and John and began to be sore amazed and to be
very heavy and saith unto them, My soul is exceedingly sorrowful unto death, terry ye
here in watch.
And he went forward a little and fell on the ground and prayed that if it were possible
the hour might pass from him, and he said, Abba, Father, all things are possible unto
thee.
Take away this, come from me.
Nevertheless, not what I will, but what thou wilt.
This is precious, this record that Mark gives us that he prays Abba, Father.
Abba, of course, is the really most intimate title for Father, really meaning in our vernacular
Daddy, crying out to his Daddy and cries out if there's any way possible.
Take this cup, this is the bitter cup.
Nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt.
I think I think about that verse a lot, Scott, when I'm in the temple.
When I'm in the temple and those who may be or listening who have been to the temple,
if they think about the ordinances of the temple, the symbols of the temple, I think
of a cup.
I always think of this verse, the bitter cup.
Nevertheless take away this cup from me.
I don't know, I think about that, Scott, and how sweet that is to see the submission,
the humility, the obedience, ultimately the love that Jesus has for his Father, that his
will was swallowed up in the will of the Father, and that ultimately his love for us, that
he would not try to escape this, but go through it.
So as we begin to get into these kinds of things, and we're well into it, we're not
just getting into it, we're well into it at this point.
It occurs to me that as we look back to our episode just prior to this episode, and we
talked about his life, his sinless life, and what it would have been like to know him then,
to all of the potential things that were difficult for him to go through, for his challenges,
his trials.
We talked about losing Joseph prior to his ministry, probably.
We talked who would have been his stepfather, obviously, probably very close.
All of the trials and struggles of his life were actually because of and for what is now
taking place.
So everything that Jesus has gone through has led him to this spot.
So where he's now able to not just sucker, but here's where, Dave, he really starts
to begin to carry the weight and pay the price of sin that we're unable to pay for, not just
sin, but all those other things, right?
This is where the ransom and reconciliation of God really begins, Scott, where Jesus purchases
us with his blood.
The title of our podcast, Redeemed Through His Blood, Acts, Chapter 20, Christ Purchased
Us With His Blood.
This is where that ransom purchasing us really begins.
And I want to read from the account that Luke gives us, where he begins to talk about the
blood of the atonement.
This is Luke chapter 22.
I'm going to read 39 through 44.
And he came out and went as he was want to the Mount of Olives.
And his disciples also followed him.
And when he was at the place, he said unto them, Pray that ye enter not into temptation.
And he was withdrawn from them about a stone's cast and kneeled down and prayed, saying,
Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me.
Nevertheless not my will, but thine be done.
And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him.
That's an important verse.
Luke is the one who records that an angel came to strengthen him.
Elder McConkey in a conference report several years ago in 1984 said that Adam would have
been that angel, the archangel, Adam, Michael, would have been the angel who came to strengthen
Jesus in his hour of need in Gethsemane.
But listen to verse 44, Scott.
And being in an agony, he prayed more earnestly, more earnestly.
And his sweat was, as it were, great drops of blood falling down to the ground.
I know again we talked about this during Easter week, but as members of the Church of Jesus,
Christ, where are the saints?
We should be so grateful for the revelations of the Restoration that we know that Jesus
bled from every pore.
That's the way King Benjamin describes what happens in Gethsemane as an angel and describes
the atonement and envision he sees Jesus in Gethsemane.
And King Benjamin says, this is Mosiah in the Book of Mormon, chapter 3, verse 7, and
lo, he shall suffer temptations and pain of body, hunger, thirst, and fatigue, even more
than man can suffer.
We talked about that last week.
Talked it, be unto death, for behold, blood cometh from every pore.
So great shall be his anguish for the wickedness and the abominations of his people.
No other Christian church denomination believes that Jesus bled from every pore.
That's only two places in the scriptures here in Mosiah chapter 3 and in Doctrine and Cumbins,
section 19.
So when Luke records, and being in agony, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was,
as it were, like great drops of blood falling to the ground, as it's worded here in the
Bible, it says his sweat was like blood.
And most other Christian denominations believe that he was, this is what one minister told
me personally, when I asked him about what was really happening in Luke 2244, a certain
minister, described to me that he was sweating profusely, thinking about his suffering and
death the following day on Friday.
And I said, so you don't think he's sweating blood?
And he said, no.
I've had other ministers tell me that maybe there were a few drops of blood that was mingled
with his sweat because of the anguish that he was experiencing in Gethsemane.
But no one, Scott, believes and understands that Jesus bled from every pore so great was
his anguish for his people.
In fact, Joseph Smith, in the Joseph Smith translation, changes Luke 22, verse 44, and
it should read, and he sweat, as it were, great drops of blood.
He changes the word sweat from a noun to a verb.
It's not that his sweat was like blood.
According to Joseph Smith's translation, he sweat blood from every pore.
Well, this blood, this is such an important part of the atonement that for centuries before,
the sacrifices, blood was the center of all the covenants that were made with God, and
all of the sacrifices of lambs and animals and the shedding of blood was pointing to
this event as well as to what would happen on the next day on the cross and the scourging
and everything else that happened in the last 24 hours of Jesus' life.
According to him giving all of his blood, and I maybe believe that's literal, that because
he was a God, he could choose to die anytime he wanted.
Most people could have never survived Gethsemane, let alone the scourging and the cross and
everything else that went with it.
But Jesus literally, I believe, bled out in Gethsemane, scourging on the cross.
This was a bloody sacrifice.
All of it had been foretold, prophesied, everything in the law of Moses, and even before with
even Adam and Eve when they were commanded to sacrifice a lamb on the altar, and the
angel told them, this is in similitude of the only begotten Son.
This is the beginning of that bloody sacrifice and the reconciliation and ransom of God for
man.
Well, so Dave, there's so much of this that has to do with and is directly associated
to the blood sacrifice.
So what?
Last week, and I don't mean that disrespectfully, and I don't mean it to be a reverend at all,
but we do need to identify the so what part of this.
Last week we really talked about, all of this is important and good, and you shared that
as you taught Institute that you would say, okay, now so what?
So can we do that now?
So what's the importance or what's the significance?
How does this apply to us?
Well, I think it's really important that we understand the Middle East kind of symbol,
and this is true of all other cultures as well, Native American cultures and others,
of the symbolic significance of blood, and the importance of understanding that this,
that blood was seen as the fountain of life.
You know, we see it in our culture differently.
We see it as more like a symbol of death, and I know it can symbolize that too.
The loss of blood can symbolize death, but they saw it, the shedding of blood as a symbol
of life, a symbol of starting over, a symbol of beginning as they sprinkled blood on the
altar as the priests sprinkled blood, splattered blood on the people as he sprinkled blood
on the Ark of the Covenant.
All of this was symbolic of a new beginning of life, a spiritual life, a physical life,
all of it pointing, of course, we know, to Jesus Christ.
Unfortunately, the Jews had, I think, lost the significance of that and didn't really
understand because of going beyond the mark what happened that last week of Passover or
the week of passion in the life of Christ.
But nevertheless, blood was a symbol of life.
It was also a symbol of a covenant.
We read in really Exodus, or I'm sorry, Genesis chapter 15.
In Genesis chapter 15, when God makes a covenant with Abraham, the real word there means, the
Hebrew word means, he cut a covenant with Abraham.
There was blood associated, a mingling of blood associated with the covenants that Abraham
and Israel throughout the history of the Old Testament made with God this mingling of blood.
This is the most sacred form of a relationship.
The Native Americans would call it blood brothers or they would cut themselves and shake hands.
This symbolism has really been throughout so many cultures and was the center, really,
of the Jewish culture for thousands of years.
Now Jesus is the fulfillment of that, of cutting a covenant and even in the Last Supper, he
tells them, take this and eat.
This is my flesh.
Then take this cup and drink and this is my blood.
This new and everlasting covenant of taking into ourselves, his blood, Scott, is reenacted
every Sunday in our sacrament meetings.
Do we think that we understand the significance of drinking that and mingling his blood, taking
into ourselves symbolically?
His blood, everything centers around that when it comes to this atonement.
There's several scriptures, Dave, that talk about the cleansing effect of the blood.
Sound on that for us a little bit, will you?
How does the blood, and I think that we understand it maybe from a conceptual, the cleansing,
but can you explain it to us?
Well, medically.
Medically, there's... I'm not a doctor far from it and I wouldn't be an expert at all
on this, but medically, Scott, blood carries all of the impurities out of our system.
It carries the impurities from the lungs, the air, from the kidneys, from everything
about our blood that runs through our circulatory system is to take out impurities.
Blood is the cleansing agent of our bodies, literally, medically.
It is also the key to our healing.
Blood symbolizes cleansing, blood symbolizes healing.
So that's further, I think, why this had to be a blood sacrifice that Jesus would bleed
from every pore and then later in the scourging and on the cross even more.
Yeah.
And here we go.
This takes us right back to some of the beginnings of our podcast.
We talked about how important it was to know him.
And again, here we are getting to know just this aspect a little deeper and a little better.
And I think, Dave, as we do this and I'm inviting all of us to run this experiment in our own
lives, but as we do this, as we come to know him this way and as we come to study and understand
the cleansing effects of the blood of the Savior Jesus Christ and his Atomant as it
was acted out, I think that as we begin to understand these things and see them symbolized,
not just in the temple, but their symbolism of this in life.
Dave, as you know, Abraham 5, you talked about it, but in Abraham 5, he talked about, actually
you talked about Genesis.
In Moses 5, they're making the covenant there.
They talk about three things that are associated to the covenant and those are water, blood,
and spirit.
Yeah.
That's really about Adam.
Moses 5 describes Adam and the sacrifice that he makes and the three essential elements
of salvation and redemption, which are blood, water, and spirit.
And we see that in so much.
We begin life that way.
We begin life in the similitude of that covenant as we come through the water, the blood, and
our spirit enters into our bodies.
We begin it there.
This is laid out for us in our learnings through life, throughout our life, and everything
that we do.
Scott, blood is mentioned so many times in the scriptures, in the standard works.
I made a quick count and there's almost 700 references to blood.
Now all of those aren't to the blood of Jesus.
And that was not a quick count if there were 700.
Yeah, no, but technology helps me.
Almost 400 in the Old Testament alone.
160, 50 something in the Book of Mormon.
Anyway, it just runs throughout all the scriptures, the references to blood as a symbol of love,
of life as a symbol of cleansing and healing.
So it's an important part of the doctrine of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
And so many times in the scriptures we read something like this.
This is Aaron teaching King Lamona's father and it reads, now Aaron began to open the
scriptures under them.
This is Alma chapter 21, verse nine.
Aaron began to open the scriptures under them concerning the coming of Christ and also
concerning the resurrection of the dead.
And that there could be no redemption for mankind save it were through the death and
sufferings of Christ and the atonement of his blood.
Wow.
Honestly, that's in the scriptures dozens of times that the atonement was through by
the blood of Jesus Christ.
And so many times in the scriptures, including the book of Revelation and throughout the
book of Mormon, we read that the blood of Christ would cleanse us, not only redeem us,
but would cleanse us here and now that our garments, our bloody garments, the blood and
sins of this generation could only be cleansed by the blood of Christ.
I've always found that to be so interesting.
How can bloody garments be cleaned or cleansed by blood?
Well, so you and I have a little bit of insight into this being both sons of dry cleaners.
Maybe you can enlighten us with that.
It's really interesting to me that blood cleanses blood, Scott.
Many years ago, when I was in college, my father owned a dry cleaners and Provo and
I was going to school there at BYU and he taught me pretty early not to waste this certain
chemical and there was this bottle of blood remover and he taught me the importance of
my of well, he helped me to understand that the reason this was so expensive was because
it was extracted from blood that back in those days, that would not have been easy to get
the plasma, the proteins, the elements, the chemical elements that make up blood into
this bottle, which was the chemical that we use to remove blood.
So whenever I had bloody garments that I was trying to clean and spot before we ran it
through the dry cleaning machine, I would turn to this bottle.
I wish I would have known then what I know now about what the scriptures teach that it
takes blood.
This is a fact.
This is a scientific fact, not just an incredibly great edifying symbol.
It takes Christ's blood to cleanse our blood and the sins of this generation.
That's right.
And it's not just any blood.
It has to be Christ's blood.
It can't be the animal sacrifice.
It can't be any of that.
It has to be Christ's blood.
And so that blood had to go through or had to be go through a process is probably not
the.
Yeah, I think it did.
I think that Christ had to go through that process to have that blood to that point where
it would be the type of blood that can clean the sins and the blood of the world, right?
Just like the blood in the bottle.
And I had that same bottle on the same spotting board in Dry Cleaners in Salt Lake City where
I was doing the same thing you were doing at approximately the same age and had the
same directive by my dad who was your older brother, is your older brother.
But that blood or that they didn't look like blood.
It wasn't read in that bottle.
It had been through a process and it had been just like Jesus Christ's process.
Just like he was the only blood because of the process and the atonement of Jesus Christ
that became available to us to cleanse the blood and sins of our worlds.
Yes.
And Jesus makes it really clear to his disciples even before the atonement and even before
Gethsemane and the cross and before he sheds all the blood that he sheds in John chapter
six, when he is teaching his disciples and he says, then Jesus said unto them, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood,
ye have no life in you.
Whoso eats my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life, then I will raise him up
at the last day, for my flesh is meat indeed and my blood is drink indeed.
He that eats my flesh and drinketh my blood, get this, dwelleth in me and I in him.
Ultimately, Scott, this symbol, this sacrifice of blood is about a relationship.
It's about a relationship.
It's about becoming blood brothers and more even more so much more intimate than even
that.
Right.
Yeah.
Him becoming our Father, us taking upon ourselves his blood, taking it in ourselves, his blood,
dwelling in him and him dwelling in us.
What we do in the sacrament is that we do that every Sunday and we should contemplate
what that means.
Not only does the sacrament promises that we'll have his spirit to be with us always,
but we are taking in ourselves Christ that he dwells in us and we dwell in him.
It all comes down to relationship and blood was certainly a powerful symbol of a relationship
and a covenant.
And therefore, I had an interesting discussion years ago, Scott, in a seminary faculty that
I was on.
And in this seminary faculty, I don't know how it got to this, but during a lunch hour,
during a lunch hour, we were talking about, did Jesus really have to be crucified?
So this is what the talk around the water cooler looks like.
I see.
Okay.
Did Jesus really have to be what if there would have been guns?
Could he have been shot?
Why couldn't somebody just knock him out, kill him, hit him over the head with a rock,
spear him, shoot him with a bow and arrow?
Why did he have to be crucified?
I don't think we really, as I can't remember anybody in our faculty really pointing this
out then, like I understand it now.
It had to be bloody.
And Scott, really this, these events of Gethsemane, the scourging, the crucifixion, there has never
been more blood shed by anyone.
I believe he was blood out, literally out of every poor that this, this sacrifice, this
atonement was about him giving all of his blood for all of us as a covenant that we
could have him in us and us in him and return to our Heavenly Father and our heavenly home.
Well so as we, we talk about the blood, we talk about the crucifixion, we talk about
Gethsemane and all of this, it seems to me, you know, Dave, the purpose behind what we're
doing here is to help people understand our Heavenly Father's love for each of us through
the Atonement of Jesus Christ, because it's through the Atonement of Jesus Christ that
all healing and all cleansing takes place, which is what we're after, because when I
talk about healing and cleansing, what I'm really talking about is removing the things
from our life that are not, that are anything unlike celestial stuff.
We don't have happiness, we don't have joy, we have trials, we have tribulation, we have
all of these things that come up.
And so really the purpose behind what we're talking about here, and we talk, we say it
in our introduction, you know, hope, healing and redemption through the Atonement of Jesus
Christ, well that hope and healing comes through the blood, through the blood, that's right.
And so everything needs to be cleansed.
If we have something going on in us that's not right, it needs to be cleansed.
How is that cleansed?
Well we have just learned today that that's cleansed through the blood of Jesus Christ
that's because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ.
Blood cleanses blood, blood heals, blood nourishes, nourishes us, blood strengthens us.
I think, Scott we're coming near the end I think of this episode, and in the next episode
we'll continue to talk about the events of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, finishing up
with Gethsemane and on to the mockery of a trial and the scourging and the crucifixion
and all that goes with that.
But I want to maybe end my part of this by reading just two verses from the Book of Mormon
in Alma chapter 34 verses 10 through 11.
This is Amuelik's amazing discourse on the infinite Atonement, term that he uses four
times in this chapter.
And he says this, for it is expedient that there should be a great and last sacrifice.
Yea, not a sacrifice of man, neither of beast, neither of any manner of foul, for it shall
not be a human sacrifice, but it must be an infinite and eternal sacrifice.
This is verse 12, therefore there can be nothing which is short of an infinite Atonement which
will suffice for the sins of the world.
Infinite Atonement, infinite sacrifice, I think it means really four things when we speak
of it being infinite, Scott.
It means first of all that it must be a God.
Only a God could offer this sacrifice.
Only a blood of a God could make this sacrifice.
It's interesting, Scott, that in the Old Testament, lambs were used, sometimes other animals were
used as a substitute for the blood of God.
It was a symbol of the blood of Christ.
It was used as a substitute, their blood as a substitute for the blood of Christ.
And Israel would receive redemption and forgiveness through the blood.
The blood of animals is a substitute for the blood of God.
It's interesting that in the New Testament, Jesus Christ's blood is a substitute for the
blood of the Father.
The Father, of course, no blood.
Jesus Christ as a substitute, intermediary, as a redeemer, as a Savior for his Father,
representing his Father, sheds his blood for all of us.
It took a God, Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of the Father, to offer this blood sacrifice.
That's the first point.
The second point, it is infinite in time.
It goes all the way back to our premortal existence.
We've talked about how the Atonement influenced us, strengthened us, blessed us in the premortal
existence, and will throughout eternity, I believe, will draw strength from the Atonement
and blood of Jesus Christ.
So it's for all time.
It's for all people.
This is another unique part of the Restoration.
We believe the Atonement of Jesus Christ God affects all of God's children that's ever
been born on this earth, that the Atonement of Jesus Christ unconditionally covers them,
that spiritual death, physical death, unconditionally for all mankind, is overcome because of the
Atonement of Jesus Christ.
So all people are affected by the Atonement of Jesus Christ.
It's for all people, and it covered all sins.
All the sins of all mankind are covered, suffered for, the prices paid, a cost and punishment
made to cover all of the sins of all mankind.
So this term, infinite Atonement, had to be a blood Atonement of a God for all of his
children.
Dave, would it be safe to say on number four that it covered not just the sins, but all
the sins and infirmities, right?
Everything.
Everything that's not in its absolute perfected state.
It doesn't matter what that is.
Anything that's not in its absolute perfected state or God-like state, that's another synonym
for that perfection, God.
Anything that's not in its God-like state was covered by the effects of the Atonement
of Jesus Christ.
And so what is that?
That is everything.
I mean, that's our, and we go back to this, and I keep saying these things because I think
that so many times, and this has been my experience, is Deb and I are participating, my sweet wife
and I are participating in teaching an institute class for a young single adult group, and
we're teaching these very things or things very similar to this.
I think that that's the thing that sometimes can get lost in the shuffle here.
We understand how important this is for our sins.
We understand that because we sin, that makes us unclean, and because we're unclean, not
only can we not, are we prohibited in entering into our Heavenly Father's presence, but
His Spirit can't be with us or can be with us, only limited because of that as well.
So we understand that, but the other infirmities that are so besetting, so rough in life, and
we've talked about some of those, but just to name a few again, any kind of illness,
sickness, mentally, physically, emotionally, any kind of relationship struggles, any kind
of worry and concern for a loved one, be that a child, a spouse, a friend, what have you,
any kind of turmoil, even among societies, you know, what we see that happens in conflict
across the world, all of that, the answer to all of that because of the infinite nature
of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, all of that is covered under your number four point there.
Yes, we should be so grateful.
And as we come to an understanding of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, the events and
the effects of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, I know our gratitude, Scott will grow and
as our gratitude grows, our desires to have a relationship with Him increase.
And I'm looking forward to discussing next week, moving on, finishing up Gethsemane
and moving on to the rest of the events of the Atonement.
Thank you.
That's the way.
Yeah, thank you.
Great session today, Dave.
This really touched me today as we were talking about a lot of this.
Folks, I hope that you have been equally edified as we've gone into just the most important
things that we could possibly be talking about on a beautiful day today.
But as we get into this and as we start to continue, as we as we continue down, not start
to, but as we continue down this path of learning and experience, our invitation stands open
to please let Heavenly Father spirit into your life to experience the effects of the
Atonement of Jesus Christ.
Any time that any of us have anything in our life that feels like it's a little bit out
of balance or maybe completely out of balance, the remedy is here, completely here within
the Atonement of Jesus Christ.
So as we go through the week, notice where the Atonement of Jesus Christ through His
blood, notice where cleansing is happening currently in your life, notice where healing
is currently happening in your life.
Remember to focus on the winds, focus on the things that are happening that are good.
Pay some attention and through personal inventory on the things that maybe need to be brought
back to center.
You know, we talk about and we didn't spend a lot of time on this, but we will about the
justification of the Atonement through the Atonement of Jesus Christ.
And as we think about that justification, you know, when we make justification to a word
document or what have you, what that means is to bring back into perfect alignment.
And so as the Atonement of Jesus Christ through His blood brings us back into perfect alignment
with our Heavenly Father Spirit, may His peace abide with us this week and forever.
Remember to send us your emails, your comments, your questions, your suggestions to HeRedeemsUs
at gmail.com.
We look forward to seeing you next week, ladies and gentlemen.
May God's spirit, may His peace be continually with you as we seek it through the Atonement
of Jesus Christ.
Have a great weekend, everybody.