Lesson 2

1. Lesson 2 “Behold, I am Jesus Christ, the Savior of the World”

2. Purpose • To help you feel the powerful witness of the Savior that comes through the Doctrine and Covenants and to help you strengthen your testimonies of the Savior’s Atonement.

3. Discussion • Why is this branch unable to receive the nourishment it needs?

4. “Root of Christian doctrine” • “[The Atonement of Jesus Christ] is the very root of Christian doctrine. You may know much about the gospel as it branches out from there, but if you only know the branches and those branches do not touch that root, if they have been cut free from that truth, there will be no life nor substance nor redemption in them” (in Conference Report, Apr. 1977, 80; or Ensign, May 1977, 56). • ~Elder Boyd K Packer

5. The testimony • “Finally, the testimony that is given of Jesus Christ—his divinity, his majesty, his perfection, his love, and his redeeming power—makes this book of great value to the human family and of more worth than the riches of the whole earth.”

6. D&C 50:41-44

7. D&C 76:22-24 • “This is the last testimony to the fact that He lives, a resurrected and glorified Being; not the final testimony but the last up to the time of this vision”

8. titles of Jesus Christ • 60 Titles • “Redeemer,” “Savior,” and “the light and the life of the world.” • What are other titles? • Index pg. 174-185

9. Names or titles for Christ • "Lord" (more than 300 times) • "Jesus Christ" (81 times) • "Redeemer" (24 times) • "Savior" and "Jesus" (19 times) • "Alpha and Omega“(13 times) • "Only Begotten" (13 times) • "the Beginning • and the End" (12 times)

10. Names or titles for Christ • "Eternal" (11 times) • "Jehovah" (6 times) • "Advocate," (5 times) • "Endless," (5 times) • "Bridegroom" (5 times) • "Lawgiver" (3 times) • "I Am" (3 times)

11. Discussion • • What do Jesus’ titles teach about His attributes and His mission? • • Why is it important for you to know these roles and attributes of the Savior? • • How have the revelations in the Doctrine and Covenants enriched your testimony of the Savior?

12. D&C 19:23 • How can this truth help you • receive peace?

13. Background(D&C 19) • March, 1830 [in Manchester, New York]. • Martin Harris had come to Joseph Smith seeking further assurance in relation to his standing before the Lord. • No indication in the History of the Church as to the reason why the revelation was given, and the exact day is unknown when it was given. • Great comfort to Martin, and it is one of the great revelations given in this dispensation; there are few of greater importance than this.

14. D&C 19:16-20 • Here, in a personal revelation of His own suffering, Jesus revealed how unbearable His pain was during the Atonement. Luke’s is the only Gospel that mentions the blood during the agony of Gethsemane: • “And his sweat was as it were great drops of blood” (Luke 22:44). For this reason many commentators have said Luke only used a metaphor, that it was not actually blood but only like blood. In this revelation Jesus dispelled that idea. Suffering is the price for violating the laws of God. In the Garden the Savior paid that price for all the sins of the world.

15. Incomprehensible • “We cannot comprehend the great suffering that the Lord had to take upon himself to bring to pass this redemption from death and from sin. We get into the habit of thinking, I suppose, that his great suffering was when he was nailed to the cross by his hands and his feet and was left there to suffer until he died. As excruciating as that pain was, that was not the greatest suffering that he had to undergo, for in some way which I cannot understand, but which I accept on faith, and

16. Incomprehensible • some way which I cannot understand, but which I accept on faith, and which you must accept on faith, he carried on his back the burden of the sins of the whole world. It is hard enough for me to carry my own sins. How is it with you? And yet he had to carry the sins of the whole world, as our Savior and the Redeemer of a fallen world, and so great was his suffering before he ever went to the cross, we are informed, that blood oozed from the pores of his body.” • ~ Joseph Fielding Smith (1947)

17. Unfathomable • “Christ’s agony in the garden is unfathomable by the finite mind, both as to intensity and cause. . . . He struggled and groaned under a burden such as no other being who has lived on earth might even conceive as possible. It was not physical pain, nor mental anguish alone, that caused Him to suffer such torture as to produce an extrusion of blood from every pore; but a spiritual agony of soul such as only God was capable of experiencing. No other man, however great his powers of physical or…

18. Unfathomable • mental endurance could have suffered so; for his human organism would have succumbed, and syncope would have produced unconsciousness and welcome oblivion. In that hour of anguish Christ met and overcame all the horrors that Satan, ‘the prince of this world’ could inflict. . . . “In some manner, actual and terribly real though to man incomprehensible, the Savior took upon Himself the burden of the sins of mankind from Adam to the end of the world.” (Jesus the Christ, p. 613.) • ~ James E Talmage

19. inconceivable • “I believe that none of us can conceive the full import of what Christ did for us in Gethsemane, but I am grateful every day of my life for His atoning sacrifice in our behalf.” • ~ President Thomas S Monson

20. What Does the AtonEment Mean to US? • Through the Atonement, we will all be resurrected • Through the Atonement, we can be forgiven of our sins and inherit celestial glory • Through the Atonement, the Savior gained perfect empathy for us in all our sorrows, pains, and afflictions

21. D&C 29:13; 76:15-17; 138:12-14 • “The assurance that the resurrection will include an opportunity to be with our family members—husband, wife, parents, brothers and sisters, children, and grandchildren—is a powerful encouragement for us to fulfill our family responsibilities in mortality. It helps us live together in love in this life in anticipation of joyful reunions and associations in the next.” • ~ Dallin H Oaks

22. D&C 1:32; 31:5; D&C 61:2; 93:33 • “Christ came to save us. If we have taken a wrong course, the Atonement of Jesus Christ can give us the assurance that sin is not a point of no return. A safe return is possible if we will follow God’s plan for our salvation.” • ~President Dieter F. Uchtdorf

23. D&C 18:11–12; 19:16–17, 20; 58:42; 76:62–70. • “The Savior has suffered not just for our iniquities but also for the inequality, the unfairness, the pain, the anguish, and the emotional distresses that so frequently beset us. There is no physical pain, no anguish of soul, no suffering of spirit, no infirmity or weakness that you or I ever experience during our mortal journey that the Savior did not experience first. You and I in a moment of weakness may cry out, “No one understands. No one knows.” No human being, perhaps, knows. But the Son of God perfectly knows and understands, for He felt and bore our burdens before we ever did. And because He paid the ultimate price and bore that burden, He has perfect empathy and can extend to us His arm of mercy in so many phases of our life. He can reach out, touch, succor—literally run to us—and strengthen us to be more than we could ever be and help us to do that which we could never do through relying upon only our own power.” • ~ David A Bednar

24. Conclusion & challenge • How can you show the Savior your gratitude for His Atonement?