Mosiah 3 - The angel speaks good tidings of great joy to King Benjamin

King Benjamin conveyed the words an angel had spoken to him concerning the ministry of Jesus Christ. King Benjamin testified that through faith in Jesus Christ and repentance, those who have sinned can receive salvation. He also taught that through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, an individual who yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit “putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint”

Elder Richard G. Scott of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles taught that we should seek to understand all we can about the Atonement of Jesus Christ:

     “None of us can ever adequately appreciate in mortality the full beneficial consequences of the Atonement.

     “There is an imperative need for each of us to strengthen our understanding of the significance of the Atonement of Jesus Christ so that it will become an unshakable foundation upon which to build our lives. As the world becomes more devoid of foundational standards and as honor, virtue, and purity are increasingly cast aside in the pursuit of appetite, our understanding of and faith in the Atonement of Jesus Christ will provide strength and capacity needed for a successful life. It will also bring confidence in times of trial and peace in moments of turmoil.

     “I energetically encourage you to establish a personal study plan to better understand and appreciate the incomparable, eternal, infinite consequences of Jesus Christ’s perfect fulfillment of His divinely appointed calling as our Savior and Redeemer. Profound personal pondering of the scriptures accompanied by searching, heartfelt prayer will fortify your understanding of and appreciation for His priceless Atonement. Another powerful way to learn of Jesus Christ and His Atonement is through consistent temple attendance” (“He Lives! All Glory to His Name!” Ensign or Liahona, May 2010, 77).

 

Elder James E. Talmage of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles:

     “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. … 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, 3rd ed. [1916], 613).

Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles about the effect of the Atonement on all of Heavenly Father’s children:

     “We … read that ‘his blood atoneth for the sins of those … who have died not knowing the will of God concerning them, or who have ignorantly sinned’ (Mosiah 3:11). Similarly, ‘the blood of Christ atoneth for [little children]’ (Mosiah 3:16). These teachings that the resurrecting and cleansing power of the Atonement is for all contradict the assertion that the grace of God saves only a chosen few. His grace is for all. These teachings of the Book of Mormon expand our vision and enlarge our understanding of the all-encompassing love of God and the universal effect of His Atonement for all men everywhere” (“All Men Everywhere,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2006, 77).