Applying the Atonement of Jesus Christ in Our Lives

Summary: On May 18, 2025, I was asked to give a church sacrament meeting talk on the topic of “having our hearts and minds aligned to the Savior’s mission.” I ended up rephrasing that a little and talking about how to apply the atonement of Jesus Christ in our lives. I post the talk here with a few edits to make it more enduring. 

Spiritual Moment on Airplane Realizing the Atonement is Bigger than the Atoning Sacrifice

Many years ago, I was on a business trip, and I took an airplane from Salt Lake City, Utah to Las Vegas, Nevada. It was on that flight that I had one of the most spiritually significant events of my life where I gained wonderful insight into the meaning of the Atonement of Jesus Christ that has greatly affected my life ever since then. I was reading that day in 2^nd Nephi chapter 2 and when I hit verse 10, I had several profound realizations which I now recognize as an outpouring of teaching from the Holy Ghost.

2 Nephi 2:10 “10 And because of the intercession for all, all men come unto God; wherefore, they stand in the presence of him, to be judged of him according to the truth and holiness which is in him. Wherefore, the ends of the law which the Holy One hath given, unto the inflicting of the punishment which is affixed, which punishment that is affixed is in opposition to that of the happiness which is affixed, to answer the ends of the atonement.”

I realized that this was the first appearance of the word atonement in the Book of Mormon. And when I realized that I thought I should put aside any previous notion of what I thought atonement meant and look at with new eyes—look at it from the author’s original intent perspective. As I studied the context, the word atonement took on new meaning. I had previously equated atonement with the atoning sacrifice, suffering, and death of Jesus Christ. And what I learned is that the atonement is a whole lot bigger than that. As infinite as the atoning sacrifice is, the atonement overall is infinitely bigger.

The Spirit taught me that the atonement is God’s process for us to become at one with him. The atonement is God’s plan for us to be healed, saved, perfected, and returned to his presence. I learned the atonement is more closely equivalent to the overarching plan of salvation than to Jesus’ sacrifice and death. I learned that the atonement isn’t just something Jesus did for us, though that is a critical component of it, but it’s the way, the plan, and the process for the whole family of God to receive celestial glory, eternal life, and exaltation.

Atonement of Jesus Christ is His Mission

As I have studied the topic of atonement in the years since that experience, what the Spirit taught me on that occasion has been confirmed in the words of the scriptures and modern prophets. Let me start with one example from our living prophet, President Russel M. Nelson. In an April 2017 General Conference talk, he said:

“It is doctrinally incomplete to speak of the Lord’s atoning sacrifice by shortcut phrases, such as ‘the Atonement’ or ‘the enabling power of the Atonement’ … These expressions present a real risk of misdirecting faith by treating the event as if it had living existence and capabilities independent of our Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. …As Latter-day Saints, we refer to His mission as the Atonement of Jesus Christ, which made resurrection a reality for all and made eternal life possible for those who repent of their sins and receive and keep essential ordinances and covenants” (see Drawing the Power of Jesus Christ into Our Lives).

As I heard that prophetic teaching, it confirmed the thing the Spirit had taught me years before that it was doctrinally incomplete to equate atonement with the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The atonement of Jesus Christ is His eternal mission, from his pre-mortal foreordination as our Savior, to His atoning sacrifice during His mortal life, to His resurrection and role today leading the Church and bringing salvation to all of God’s children. It’s all part of His mission. It’s all part of His atonement.

How to Apply the Atonement?

Because of this spiritual experience I had on the plane, along with other such experiences, I have often spoken with friends and family about the true nature of atonement and the ramifications of that knowledge. One day, I received an email from a dear friend who had questions about how the atonement applies to our everyday real lives. She wanted to know exactly how the atonement of Jesus Christ blesses us and gives us power to overcome trials, now or in eternity. In her email to me, she used the common, yet incomplete definition of atonement as the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and expressed confusion about how that applies to us or helps us. And then she said something that has stuck with me ever since. She said, “Aside from the psychological value of not feeling alone, how does Christ’s [atonement]…create a transformational power” to give us rest or healing?

As my mind was taken back to that email exchange, it occurred to me that many of you may have had similar questions and asked, “exactly how does the atonement work and how does is it relevant to my life?” I’d like to share with you some of the things I told her on that occasion about how to apply the atonement to create transformation change, healing, and power to overcome trials in our lives. Learning to apply the atonement in our lives is a lifelong quest for most anyone who learns how to do it, but the following are three key things I have learned that have helped me:

1. The atonement is the process of becoming one with God through Jesus Christ
2. Our Savior Jesus Christ has an indispensable role in this process
3. We each, individually, also have a role in the process

1. Atonement is the Eternal Process of Becoming One with God made Possible by Jesus Christ

One of the first steps in applying the atonement to our lives is proper understanding of what that word means. I’ve touched on that a little, but let’s revisit it some more because, like President Nelson said, many people use the word atonement as a “doctrinally incomplete…shortcut phrase” equating it with the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and this can create the “risk of misdirecting faith.”

As infinite as was His suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the cross, the atonement is actually infinitely more than that. I testify that the atonement of Jesus Christ is an eternal process of becoming at one with God made possible through our Redeemer Jesus Christ. And when we are at one with God, we are like Him, we enjoy His power and blessings, and we are healed from all wounds physical, emotional, and spiritual.

LDS scholar Hugh Nibley, who played an important role in helping increase my understanding of the atonement, confirms the etymology or root meaning of the word atonement. He said the word “Atonement … comes from neither a Greek nor a Latin word, but is good old English and really does mean, when we write it out, ‘at-one-ment,’ denoting both a state of being ‘at one’ with another and the process by which that end is achieved.” (The Atonement of Jesus Christ, Part 1 by Hugh W. Nibley, emphasis added).

The commandment, or better said, goal, that we should also strive for, to be at one with God, is well documented in scripture. In His great Intercessory Prayer in John 17:21, Jesus prays that we “all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us.” In D&C 38: 27, the Lord reiterates this commandment in the latter days. “I say unto you, be one; and if ye are not one ye are not mine.”

Given the goal of becoming one with God, it makes sense that God would make a plan or process for that to happen. Given our fallen state, we needed a Savior, to heal us and bring us back to a state of oneness with God. That’s the more full definition of the atonement of Jesus Christ–to follow our Savior, God’s perfect Son, back to God’s presence and be one with them for eternity. The Bible Dictionary confirms this broader definition of Jesus’s atonement and explains how it started long before His atoning sacrifice. It says it started in the Council of Heaven in the pre-earth life.

“By [Jesus’] selection and foreordination in the Grand Council before the world was formed, His divine Sonship, His sinless life, the shedding of His blood in the garden of Gethsemane, His death on the cross and subsequent bodily resurrection from the grave, He made a perfect atonement for all mankind.” (Bible Dictionary)

President Joseph F. Smith taught how Jesus’ mission, His atonement, was something that won’t be complete until the end of time when all of God’s children have been saved. He said:

“Jesus had not finished his work when his body was slain, neither did he finish it after his resurrection from the dead; although he had accomplished the purpose for which he then came to the earth, he had not fulfilled all his work. And when will he? Not until he has redeemed and saved every son and daughter of our father Adam that have been or ever will be born upon this earth to the end of time … That is his mission.” (See Gospel Doctrine, 442. Or See also Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph F. Smith, p. 87)

When we define atonement as the process of becoming one with God, we begin to look at scriptures about the atonement in a whole new light. Foundational scriptures we have known since we were primary children take on a whole new meaning. Take Article of Faith 3 as an example. “We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel.” In other words, given our expanded understanding of atonement, you could reword that to say we believe that through the process of becoming one with God that Jesus has enabled and exemplified, all men and women will achieve salvation. Now that’s a profound, true statement.

I encourage you to continue to read and understand scriptures about the atonement in that new light, and once we understand this broader vision, we can better understand the differences between what Jesus does in the process, and what we have to do in the process. Which takes us to my next insight.

2. Jesus’ Indispensable Role in the Process of Atonement 

Now let’s talk about that second step in understanding and applying the atonement and that is to understand Jesus’s role, His mission, His life, His atoning sacrifice, and His power save us. When we better understand His role, we’ll be better positioned to apply His healing power to overcome the trials of our lives and to bring us back to the presence of God, Our Father in Heaven.

Jesus’s role has two main parts, taking our sins and shortcomings upon himself and giving us an example to follow. Jesus’ chief apostle, Simon Peter, taught this succinctly when he said that Christ did “bare our sins” and “suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps” (1 Peter 2: 21,24). John the Baptist similarly confirmed these two major roles of Jesus when he said, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). Jesus Himself confirmed these two aspects of his role when He said to the Nephites, “I am the light … of the world … and have glorified the Father in taking upon me the sins of the world” (3 Ne 11: 11).

I’d like to focus today on Jesus’ role as our exemplar, not to discount in any way his role in taking our sins upon Himself. In fact, the “awful arithmetic”(1) of how Jesus took upon himself our sins is just so grand, I think we should try to tackle that another day. But I will echo the words of both the New Testament and the Book of Mormon in reiterating that there is no other way and no other name whereby mankind can reach salvation except through the atoning blood of Jesus Christ.(2)

Jesus is the example we are to follow in becoming one with God ourselves, so given that His mission is His atonement, let’s examine a few key moments in the eternal life of Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, our Savior and Redeemer. From His pre-mortal life to His ultimate position as our Advocate with the Father at Judgement Day, He provides us with an indispensable example to follow.

Jesus’ voluntary self-sacrifice in the Council of Heaven: As discussed, the atonement of Jesus Christ neither began in Gethsemane nor ended at the resurrection. His atonement stretches back to the foundation of the world when, in the Council of Heaven, before the world was created, Jesus volunteered to be our Savior. When God the Father asked who he should send, Jesus stood and said, “Here am I, send me” (Abraham 3:27). From the beginning, Jesus was an example of voluntary self-sacrifice.

Jesus’ Guided Ancient Israel: Jesus is the God of the Old Testament. He taught Father Adam and Mother Eve about sacrifice and obedience. He wept with Enoch and Noah due to the wickedness of the world. He appeared to Moses in the Burning Bush and called him to lead the people of Israel out of bondage. He appeared in a cloud by day and a pillar of light by night to guide the Israelites to the promised land. He inspired the prophecies of Isaiah. He guided the people of old and He will guide us in our lives today, if we let Him.

Jesus’ Humble Birth and Increasing in Wisdom: Then Jesus came to earth as a humble child. We celebrate his virgin birth each year at Christmas. Nephi called the birth, life, and mortal ministry of Jesus “the condescension of God” (1 Nephi 11). Luke tells us, “the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him. …And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.” (Luke 2:40,52) All of those are qualities we should strive to follow to achieve oneness with God.

Jesus’ Resisting All Temptations: Jesus faced all manner of temptation but heeded them not. Hebrews 4:15 says Jesus “was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” None of us are perfect like Jesus, but we can follow His example by striving to obey the commandments of God, resist temptation, and say “Get thee behind me, Satan” (Matt 16:23).

Jesus’ Miracles, Healing Bodies and Souls: He turned water into wine at the request of his mother, providing an example of deference to our earthly parents. Jesus healed the sick and healed the souls of men and women during his earthly ministry. To the paralytic He said, “But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, …Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house” (Matt 9:6). He healed the physically lame as a demonstration of His power to forgive and heal our spiritual souls languishing from the consequences of sin.

Jesus’s Atoning Sacrifice Put God’s Will Before His Own: When Jesus suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane caused himself, “even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit” (D&C 19:18) He plead “Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done” (Luke 22:42). Jesus gave us the example of putting the will of God before our own desires.

Jesus’s Scourging Demonstrated Patience and Forgiveness: Consider how Jesus was arrested, mocked, beaten, scourged almost to death, yet He pleaded with the Father on behalf of the soldiers to “. . . forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). That’s an example of looking at situations with an eternal perspective, being patient, and forgiving—an example we would all benefit from following.

Jesus’s Death and Resurrection Overcome All Things to Make Us Whole: In the midst of excruciating spiritual and physical pain on the cross, the Savior offered hope and reassurance to one of the thieves beside him saying, “To day shalt thou be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). This was another example of how Jesus always looked outward to the needs of others and to comfort them, even while He innocently suffered. On the third day after His death, He broke “the bands of death that the grave should have no victory” (Mosiah 16:7). He rose again and promised that “as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:22). Jesus showed that He had power over all things, disease and death, and that through faith in Him, we could all be healed and made whole again physically and spiritually.

Jesus’ Appearance in America, an Example of Ministering One by One: After His resurrection, Christ visited the Nephites and invited them one by one to come meet Him and feel the wounds in His hands, feet, and side (3 Nephi 11). This is a powerful example of ministering to individuals one by one, being aware of their needs, and compassionate regarding their circumstances, an example we would all be wise to follow.

Jesus’s Ongoing Ministry in the Latter-days Shows He Knows Us: The restoration of the Gospel in the latter days is certainly part of the atonement of Jesus Christ–a reminder that the Lord’s work, the Savior’s mission, His atonement, is ongoing and He has not forgotten His covenant people. When God the Father and Jesus appeared to the Prophet Joseph Smith, they called him by name (JSH 1:17), indicating they knew him individually–a reminder that we should get to know the people we serve individually, know them by name, know their needs so we can minister to them better.

Jesus’ Righteous Judgement and Forgiveness: As discussed, the atonement of Jesus Christ neither began in Gethsemane nor ended at the resurrection. His atonement stretches to the end of the world when all mankind is to be judged before returning to the presence of God. The scriptures say Christ will be judge the world in truth and righteousness (John 8:16 and Psalm 9:8)–a reminder that we too should be careful and judge righteous judgement (JST, Matthew 7:2). And those who have repented will be forgiven (D&C 58:42, Mosiah 26:30)–a reminder that we have been asked to similarly forgive others their trespasses against us (D&C 64:10, Matt 6:14).

Jesus’ exemplary role in the atonement provides us an example to follow back to God’s presence. He set an example of how to live life and then commanded us to follow him (Luke 18:22). Jesus has the power to save and as we follow Him and put into practice in our own live the attributes and characteristics He exemplified, we will be applying that power and become whole, physically and spiritually, complete, at-one with God and able to live in His presence in eternal glory.

3. Our Role in the Process of Applying the Atonement in Our Lives

My third key point in learning to apply the atonement to our lives is understanding our own role in the process. Jesus explained our role simply “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15). In the latter days, the Lord was even more direct when He told Joseph Smith and the early Saints, “Behold, this is your work, to keep my commandments, yea, with all your might, mind and strength” (D&C 11:20).

The Book of Mormon also reinforces that message of obedience to commandments when, in the story of the 2,000 stripling young men, it says “they did obey and observe to perform every word of command with exactness” (Alma 57: 21). In the temple, we are also taught to keep the commandments with exactness.

All gospel commandments help us become one with God, but one closely tied to today’s theme of atonement is honesty. Atonement means to be whole, complete, and live with integrity—which implies being fully unified with God. Integrity includes always speaking the truth and dealing honestly with our fellow beings.  On Mount Sinai, this commandment was etched into stone when the the Lord declared, “Thou shalt not bear false witness” (Exodus 20:16).

When you tell a lie, you are lacking integrity or unity with yourself and with God. So set a goal to always speak the truth and never say or pretend to be something you are not. Be true to yourself, be true to God, be true to what you know is right, and don’t ever be persuaded to move from that foundation of truth. Then, at least in that one area of your life, you will have fully applied to principle of atonement to your life.

Several years ago, I was on a business trip where my integrity was tested. I was attending the South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive Conference. Many of you may be aware of SXSW and their more popular music and film festivals. Well, at the same time of those festivals, SXSW has a digital marketing conference, which is what I was attending, and not the music or film shows.

Went I arrived at SXSW, I went to the registration station to pick up my badge that would let me to get into all the speeches and events. I gave them my name and then they proceeded to give me my lanyard with my access badge, and I proceeded on my way. After I left the venue, I looked more closely at my badge and realized that though it had my name on it, James Smith, it was not the type of pass I paid for. It was a much better pass, a Gold pass, that would let me into all SXSW events, the digital marketing events, as well as the music and film festival events. The type of pass they gave me was probably ten times as expensive as the one I paid for.

Well, of course, I went back in, explained to the workers that they had accidentally given a better pass than I had paid for. The workers were astonished at my honesty when I turned in the Gold pass in exchange for the lesser pass. They said I could have easily gotten away with using the Gold badge to get into all the cool shows for music and film and they would have never known the difference.

But I would have known I was being dishonest, and in so doing, I would not have been able to live with integrity or unity with God. I have made covenants with God to obey his commandments, and I had to honor that promise of honesty if I was to apply the principle of atonement to my own life.

Furthermore, I knew that by keeping the badge that wasn’t mine, I would be causing major headaches for the other James Smith who would soon be walking through that registration booth looking for his Gold pass. I wanted to follow the Saviors admonition to “do to others as you would have them do to you” (Matt 7:12, NRSV).

As I left, I also hoped that my example of honesty and integrity would help those SXSW workers have the courage to do the same in their lives, and always tell the truth. If they did, the world would be a much better place, much closer to the Zion society we are all striving for. A Zion society, which by the way, the Lord defined as being at one with God. “And the Lord called his people Zion, because they were of one heart and one mind, and dwelt in righteousness” (Moses 7:18).

Conclusion and Testimony

Brother and sisters, I know as we strive to better understand the atonement, the role of Jesus and our own role in the process, and apply those lessons to our lives, that we will receive all the promised blessings of healing and wholeness and of a fulness of joy that will come when we return to live with God Our Father in Heaven in the celestial kingdom of Heaven.