Elder Gerrit W. Gong of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles spoke in the Sunday afternoon session of April 2019 Conference a talk titled: ‘Good Shepherd, Lamb of God’

. . . .”Abinadi testified of Jesus Christ’s atoning sacrifice: “All we, like sheep, have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the [iniquity] of us all.”³⁶ Alma called the great and last sacrifice of the Son of God the “one thing which is of more importance than they all.” Alma encouraged, “Have faith on the Lamb of God”; “come and fear not.”³⁷

 . . . .A dear friend shared how she gained her precious testimony of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. She grew up believing sin always brought great punishment, borne by us alone. She pleaded to God to understand the possibility of divine forgiveness. She prayed to understand and know how Jesus Christ can forgive those who repent, how mercy can satisfy justice.

One day her prayer was answered in a spiritually transforming experience. A desperate young man came running out of a grocery store carrying two bags of stolen food. He ran into a busy street, chased by the store manager, who caught him and began yelling and fighting. Instead of feeling judgment for the frightened young man as a thief, my friend was unexpectedly filled with great compassion for him. Without fear or concern for her own safety, she walked straight up to the two quarreling men. She found herself saying, “I will pay for the food. Please let him go. Please let me pay for the food.”

Prompted by the Holy Ghost and filled with a love she had never felt before, my friend said, “All I wanted to do was to help and save the young man.” My friend said she began to understand Jesus Christ and His Atonement—how and why with pure and perfect love Jesus Christ would willingly sacrifice to be her Savior and Redeemer, and why she wanted Him to be.^{38(see below)}

No wonder we sing:

As Lamb of God, our Savior knows when we feel alone, diminished, uncertain, or afraid. In vision, Nephi saw the power of the Lamb of God “[descend] upon the saints of the church of the Lamb, and upon the covenant people of the Lord.” Though “scattered upon all the face of the earth … they were armed with righteousness and with the power of God in great glory.”⁴⁰

38. Conversation with Pornthip “Tippy” Coyle, Feb. 2019, used with permission

39. “Dear to the Heart of the Shepherd,” Hymns, no. 221.

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