Parables of the Atonement

How do we liken the Atonement onto us if it’s so infinite, eternal, and incomprehensible as we liken the scriptures onto us? 1 Nephi 19:23? Here are a few examples to help get you started.

Below are a few parables I’ve collected that may help you liken the atonement unto your life, situation and circumstances. I would love to hear your thoughts on each of them and additional analogies of the atonement you come across. There is not one parable that completely or accurately describe the divine nature, process or principle, but it’s start because:

“we don’t know it all, but we know enough.”

Swimming

• http://www.newcoolthang.com/index.php/2007/10/an-atonement-parable-from-truman-g-madsen/452/#more-452

The Pianist

• http://www.newcoolthang.com/index.php/2005/11/parable-of-the-pianist/170/
• If practice was never required we would never become pianists

The Mediator

• Elder Packer 1977 (he purchased the debt from the creditor and assumed the role of creditor. At this point he is able to create his own terms for the settlement of the debt. At no point in the situation did he become the debtor in a literal sense)
• Remember why the debt in the first place.
• What he saved us from, but also for
• Not just a favor for us but an investment

The Mortgage

http://www.newcoolthang.com/index.php/2005/07/the-parable-of-the-mortgage/101/ not rent

Deposits in savings account, not paying off debt

• Building character not destroying corruption (credit)
• BYU Magazine, Winter 2012, pg. 37
• Not just about being saved but becoming like the Savior Moroni 7:48
• Continue in patience until we are perfect DC 67:13

Energy supply not booster engine when exhausted

• Not the finishing touch, but the finishers touch Hebrews 12:2

Light in the tunnel not at the end of the tunnel

• Not waiting at the finish line 2 Nephi 25:23

Build character (change) not a checklist

• Initiates a developmental process
• The broken heart, Bruce C. Hafen pg.149
• Heaven will not be heaven for those who aren’t heavenly
• Are we abandoning God and becoming comfortable with sin or abandoning sin and become comfortable with God?
• His strength is mad perfect in weakness 2 Cor. 12:9, Ether 12
• Don’t look for escapes or excuses or someone to blame. Look for someone to help you. Look for the Lord.
• Change is a process and repentance is a pattern in our lives
• http://www.rubenfamily.org/Elder%20Bednar’s%20Regional%20Conference%20Talk.pdf

Master traits of Godliness

• “master the traits of godliness while under intense pressure—the pressure that is required to produce those very traits within us. His grace allows us to be purified and sanctified by that pressure without being crushed by it”
• “Snatching us completely out of what King Limhi called our “effectual struggle” (Mosiah 7:18) would negate the very reason we came to earth”
• We could miss what this understanding of succoring and grace offers us if we don’t also grasp what it asks of us, and why… not to please or appease Him, but rather to engage us
• The Contrite Spirit, pg 65

Subsidized Student Loans

• Have you been saved by grace? Yes. Have you been changed by grace?
• Not just cleansed and consoled but transformed Romans 8

The Bicycle (Stephen Robinson)

• Only able to pay $.17 of $100 for a brand new bike.

The Piano Teacher (Brad Wilcox)

• Mom providing music lessons for child
• Not punishment or payment. Purpose is change, preparing for heaven by practicing for it.
• Not earning heaven, learning it
• No unclean thing can enter, but no unchanged person will want to. Alma 40:26
• So easy to see in context of learning piano but hard to see in context of learning heaven
• When you hit a wrong note you don’t say you’re unworthy to keep trying

The mansion builder

• Not just go home, but feel at home
• Heaven will not be heaven for those who have not chosen to be heavenly.
• “After all we can do not because all we can do” Elder Utchdorf Oct 2015

Atonement Algebra

• http://www.newcoolthang.com/index.php/category/theology/atonement/

M = Me
J = Jesus
S = Achieving my exaltation
N = the time I’ve existed (infinity)
M^N < S
J <> S
M^N + J = S

Source

Where is the line between our part and his part?

• Two dots on a piece of paper, one at top (Christ) one on bottom (Us). Draw a line, where is his part, where is our part? How much is Christs part?
• There is no line, he paid our debt in full
• He doesn’t fill the gaps, he fills us
• We aren’t paying the demands of justice, we are showing appreciation and becoming
• Grace isn’t the absence of Gods high expectations, but the presence of his power Philip. 4:13, Luke 1:37
• BYU Magazine, Winter 2012, pg. 37 BYU devotional http://magazine.byu.edu/article/his-grace-is-sufficient

Three key parts

• Message, Ministry, Mission

Yoke of Christ

• There is no salvation without hitching to Christ.
• Matthew 11:28-30

Questions

“If Jesus Christ is at the center of the gospel and the temple, why doesn’t the endowment teach the story of the life of Christ? What’s all this about Adam and Eve?” We have come to believe that while the story of Christ’s life is the story of giving His Atonement, the story of Adam and Eve is the story of receiving His Atonement. And their story is our story.” The Contrite Heart, 44

Tags: atonement, Grace, Jesus Christ, Saved, Savior