Our Savior's Love

Carolyn's talk on Our Savior's Love, given 31 August 2014

Our Savior, Jesus Christ, taught many principles through parables, or stories. One of these parables is that of the prodigal son. There once was a man who had considerable wealth, enough that he had lots of servants. He also had two sons who would someday inherit his wealth. The younger son came to him one day and asked for his portion of the inheritance. The man gave the son his portion and not long after, the younger son traveled to a far country and spent all his inheritance on riotous living.

Eventually, he ran out of money. And after he ran out of money, he apparently also ran out of friends. The story goes that he had to go beg for work and was given the task of feeding someone's pigs. He was apparently still so hungry that he thought about eating the slop he was supposed to feed to the pigs.

Around this time, he was certainly reminiscing and feeling sorry for himself and remembered that back home, even his father's servants were taken care of and had plenty to eat. So the younger son decided to travel home and offer to be a servant for his father since he no longer felt worthy to be called his father's son.

As he got close to home, his father saw him walking down the road. The man ran and embraced him. Even after the son told his father how he didn't feel worthy to be his son anymore, the man called for new clothes and shoes for the younger son. The man also called for his servants to prepare a feast and a party saying that his son who had been lost was found so they would celebrate.

Around this same time, the older son was out working in the fields - we haven't heard much about him yet. When he heard all the music, the older son came toward the house and asked what was going on. When he found out about his younger brother coming home and his father welcoming him and throwing him a party, the older son was angry and wouldn't even go in the house.

His father came out to see what all the ruckus was and the older son told him: I've stayed here with you all my life, I've done everything you've asked me to do but you've never thrown me a party. You've never treated me this way. My younger brother wasted all your money and did all these sinful things and yet..., look how you're treating him.

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There was a time in my life when I very much felt what the prodigal son's older brother felt. When I was younger, there was something I wanted very, very badly. I felt this desire was a righteous desire and also felt I was doing what I needed to prepare for it. I knew that the time wasn't right yet for me to have this something but that didn't stop me from wanting it.

Then one day, I found out a friend of mine was getting this something - the same something that I wanted so badly. My friend was getting it before me and after making some not-so-great choices. I was hurt and angry and frankly - jealous. Here I was, doing the best I knew how, trying to follow the commandments, slowly working toward this goal that I so badly wanted, but apparently this friend didn't have to do it the "hard" way. I was definitely identifying with the prodigal son's older brother.

I spent a lot of time praying to understand and praying to have my heart softened so I could be happy for my friend and give up my negative feelings. At the end of the week when I got the news, I found myself reading this parable about these two sons and pondering on what the father told his older son when he was so angry about how he had been treated. In Luke chapter 15, verses 31 and 32, "And he said unto him, Son, thou are ever with me, and all that I have is thine. It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad; for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found."

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After some time, I finally started to understand that there isn't always the "hard" way or the "easy" way - there's just the way - whatever the way our Heavenly Father has prepared for us. And most of all, I started to understand why the father in the parable would have acted the way he did - it was out of love.

The father in the parable loved both of his sons: good choices, bad choices, hard worker, riotous non-worker - he loved them both regardless. And when his younger son came home, no matter what had happened, no matter what restitution might still need to be made, he wanted to celebrate because his son was alive; his son was home.

The Savior feels the same for us. He wants us home with Him and with our Heavenly Father and when we get there, He will rejoice with us. No matter our choices along the way, Christ loves us and wants us home. His love is infinite and eternal but not unconditional.

As Elder Russell M. Nelson teaches us,

"While divine love can be called perfect, infinite, enduring, and universal, it cannot correctly be characterized as unconditional. The word does not appear in the scriptures. On the other hand, many verses affirm that the higher levels of love the Father and the Son feel for each of us—and certain divine blessings stemming from that love—are conditional...... Examples include: 'If ye keep my commandments, [then] ye shall abide in my love;' and 'I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say; but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise"...Why is divine love conditional? Because God loves us and wants us to be happy. 'Happiness is the object and design of our existence; and will be the end thereof, if we pursue the path that leads to it; and this path is virtue, uprightness, faithfulness, holiness, and keeping all the commandments of God.... God’s love—including eternal life—includes blessings for which we must qualify, not entitlements to be expected unworthily." %

Our Savior's love doesn't excuse our sins. Christ didn't come to save us in our sins, He came to save us from our sins - when we do our part. We can't make things right by ourselves but we still need to do the best we can. In the same talk, Elder Nelson also said, "Does this mean the Lord does not love the sinner? Of course not. Divine love is infinite and universal. The Savior loves both saints and sinners. The Apostle John affirmed, “We love him, because he first loved us..... In climbing the pathway of repentance, both the effort and the result count. The Lord taught that spiritual gifts are given to “those who love me and keep all my commandments, and [who] seeketh so to do." %

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I can promise you that none of us can make it back to our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ on our own. There is simply no way we can do it alone. When I was younger and was first learning this concept, I remember wondering what the point was of me trying at all since I could never achieve the goal. It seemed like a bum deal: I was supposed to try my best but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't do it? Then a wise Primary teacher shared a version of this story from Stephen E. Robinson he calls the Parable of the Bicycle:

"I was sitting in a chair reading. My daughter, Sarah, who was seven years old at the time, came in and said, “Dad, can I have a bike? I’m the only kid on the block who doesn’t have one.”

Well, I didn’t have the money then for a bike, so I stalled her. I said, “Sure, Sarah.”

She said, “How? When?”

I said, “You save all your pennies, and soon you’ll have enough for a bike.” And she went away.

A couple of weeks later I was sitting in the same chair when I heard a “clink, clink” in Sarah’s bedroom. I asked, “Sarah, what are you doing?”

She came to me with a little jar, a slit cut in the lid, and a bunch of pennies in the bottom. She said, “You promised me that if I saved all my pennies, pretty soon I’d have enough for a bike. And, Daddy, I’ve saved every single one of them.”

My heart melted. My daughter was doing everything in her power to follow my instructions. I hadn’t actually lied to her. If she saved all of her pennies, she would eventually have enough for a bike, but by then she would want a car. I said, “Let’s go look at bikes.”

We went to every store in town. Finally we found it—the perfect bicycle. She was thrilled. Then she saw the price tag, and her face fell. She started to cry. “Oh, Dad, I’ll never have enough for a bicycle!”

So I said, “Sarah, how much do you have?”

She answered, “Sixty-one cents.”

“I’ll tell you what. You give me everything you’ve got and a hug and a kiss, and the bike is yours.” Then I drove home very slowly because she insisted on riding the bike home.

As I drove beside her, I thought of the atonement of Christ. We all desperately want the celestial kingdom. We want to be with our Father in Heaven. But no matter how hard we try, we come up short. At some point all of us must realize, “I can’t do this by myself. I need help.” Then it is that the Savior says, in effect, All right, you’re not perfect. But what can you do? Give me all you have, and I’ll do the rest.

He still requires our best effort. We must keep trying. But the good news is that having done all we can, it is enough. We may not be personally perfect yet, but because of our covenant with the Savior, we can rely on his perfection, and his perfection will get us through." ^

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Though the older son in the parable of the prodigal son had stayed with his father and generally made good choices, he wasn't perfect - none of us are. Only Jesus Christ led a perfect life. We will all make bad choices; we are all sinners. Christ will still welcome us back with open arms but we must do our part; we must repent.

The prodigal son in the parable had been brought low before he made it home to his father - probably lower than he had ever imagined he could be. And as he went home to his father, he was humble and meek and ready to take the lowest position available if he could just be home. So we will also need to humble ourselves and repent as we travel home to our Father and our Savior.

Our way home through repentance is possible through the greatest example of our Savior's love for us: the Atonement. Christ himself said, "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."

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In discussing the Atonement as a testament of Christ's love for us, Elder John H. Groberg of the Seventy taught that "Jesus Christ was filled with unfathomable love as He endured incomprehensible pain, cruelty, and injustice for us. Through His love for us, He rose above otherwise insurmountable barriers. His love knows no barriers. He invites us to follow Him and partake of His unlimited love so we too may rise above the pain and cruelty and injustice of this world and help and forgive and bless." *

President Gordon B. Hinckley said "The magnitude of that Atonement is beyond our ability to completely understand. I know only that it happened, and that it was for me and for you. The suffering was so great, the agony so intense, that none of us can comprehend it when the Savior offered Himself as a ransom for the sins of all mankind."$

The Atonement is, for me, the greatest gift my Savior has given me. My life, my family, my joys and talents would all be wasted if not for the Atonement. Jesus was called to be the one to perform the Atonement - no one could or would force Him to take all the sins and woes of the world upon Himself. It wouldn't have been the Atonement that we all need so desperately if anyone had. Heavenly Father asked Him to do it and He did. Why? "Why was the Savior willing to keep His covenant with the Father and fulfill His divine mission to atone for the sins of the world? It was His love for His Father and His love for us."@

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In addition to the repentance that Christ's Atonement makes possible, it also makes possible another wonderful gift and testament of Christ's love for us: forgiveness. Forgiveness is an essential step in repentance. We must ask forgiveness from both God and anyone we have wronged in our sin. And we are also required to forgive all men or else we will be guilty of a greater sin (see D&C 64:9-10).

This doesn't mean that forgiveness will be easy or quick but it is a commandment from God that we grant it to everyone. As in so many things, Christ is one of our best examples in this and how forgiveness is an expression of love between us when we forgive each other and how it is especially an expression of Christ's love for all of us.

President Monson taught: "Actually, love is the very essence of the gospel, and Jesus Christ is our Exemplar. His life was a legacy of love. The sick He healed; the downtrodden He lifted; the sinner He saved. At the end the angry mob took His life. And yet there rings from Golgotha’s hill the words: “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do”—a crowning expression in mortality of compassion and love. There are many attributes which are manifestations of love, such as kindness, patience, selflessness, understanding, and forgiveness."+

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In the October 2013 General Conference, Elder Timothy J. Dyches related a story about forgiveness that really struck me:

"Corrie ten Boom, a devout Dutch Christian woman, found such healing despite having been interned in concentration camps during World War II. She suffered greatly, but unlike her beloved sister Betsie, who perished in one of the camps, Corrie survived.

After the war she often spoke publicly of her experiences and of healing and forgiveness. On one occasion a former Nazi guard who had been part of Corrie’s own grievous confinement in Ravensbrück, Germany, approached her, rejoicing at her message of Christ’s forgiveness and love.

“‘How grateful I am for your message, Fraulein,’ he said. ‘To think that, as you say, He has washed my sins away!’

“His hand was thrust out to shake mine,” Corrie recalled. “And I, who had preached so often … the need to forgive, kept my hand at my side.

“Even as the angry, vengeful thoughts boiled through me, I saw the sin of them. … Lord Jesus, I prayed, forgive me and help me to forgive him.

“I tried to smile, [and] I struggled to raise my hand. I could not. I felt nothing, not the slightest spark of warmth or charity. And so again I breathed a silent prayer. Jesus, I cannot forgive him. Give me Your forgiveness.

“As I took his hand the most incredible thing happened. From my shoulder along my arm and through my hand a current seemed to pass from me to him, while into my heart sprang a love for this stranger that almost overwhelmed me.

“And so I discovered that it is not on our forgiveness any more than on our goodness that the world’s healing hinges, but on His. When He tells us to love our enemies, He gives, along with the command, the love itself.”" =

What a wonderful blessing for both them to use Christ's Atonement this way. The love of Christ allowed her to forgive him and for him to forgive himself.

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Our Savior's love makes so many things possible, namely the Atonement and through the Atonement comes repentance and forgiveness. We are all sinners to some degree and we all have need of the Atonement every day and it is so incredible to me that Jesus Christ loves me enough to have done that for me.

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When I was young, I felt that I didn't understand the Atonement and that I probably wouldn't until I had "done something bad enough to need to use it." :) I'm glad I had good parents and teachers that corrected that notion pretty quickly. There is a song that really touches me about how the Atonement is for everyone and how Christ's love is extended to everyone. The song that references another parable that Christ taught in Luke chapter 15 verses 4-6:

"What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it? And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost."

This is the parable of the lost sheep and the song is from the perspective of one of the ninety-nine sheep.

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Here is a portion of the lyrics:

"I am one of the ninety and nine
I’m not perfect but basically I’m doing fine
I have not lost my way, I have not gone astray
I’m just one of the ninety and nine

I am here in the heart of the fold
I’m not mindless but I try to do as I’m told
I’m not tempted to run and become the lost one
I am here in the heart of the fold
.....
I’m just one of the ninety and nine
I have stumbled and fallen, but I’ve kept in line
I’m not one he must seek; I’m not all that unique
I’m just one of the ninety and nine

So why is my shepherd treating me like a lost lamb?
He’s searching to find me 
And he’s holding me now....
And teaching me who I am
.....

You are one of the ninety and nine
Have you any idea how brightly you shine?
You are safe in this fold, and it’s time you are told
That I know where you’ve been so I know where you’ll be
Because all of your life you’ve been following me
You are more than just one of the sands of the sea
Or just one of the ninety and nine

You are mine, you are mine...."

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I testify that I know Jesus Christ lives and loves us all deeply and personally. I testify that He took our sins and pains - physical, mental, and emotional - upon Himself in the infinite Atonement so that we don't need to suffer them if we will repent and turn to Him. I testify that our Savior's love is available to every single person if we will do what we need to do to fulfill the conditions He has set for us and turn to Him in repentance when we fall short, as we inevitably will. I love my Savior and I know He loves me and each of you.

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

* John H. Groberg, "The Power of God's Love", October 2004 General Conference

+ Thomas S. Monson, "Love - the Essence of the Gospel", April 2014 General Conference

@ Linda K. Burton, "The Power, Joy, and Love of Covenant Keeping", October 2013 General Conference

% Russell M. Nelson, "Divine Love", February 2003 Ensign

$ Gordon B. Hinckley, "Forgiveness", October 2005 General Conference

= Timothy J. Dyches, "Wilt Thou Be Made Whole?", October 2013 General Conference

^ Stephen E. Robinson, "Believing Christ", April 1992 General Conference