From the book “The Infinite Atonement” Tad R. Callister shared: “Just as true omnipotence is being able to do anything, anyplace within the confines of inexorable laws of justice, so too the infinite nature of the Atonement redeems every person from every sin in every age throughout the universe, as far as is possible within the laws of justice. At some point the laws of justice require effort on our part, a softening of our hearts, a refining of our souls before exaltation can be achieved.6 Alma taught this principle: “Mercy cometh because of the atonement . . . and also mercy claimeth all which is her own; and thus, no one but the truly penitent are saved” (Alma 42:23-24).
Recognizing the Savior’s merciful outpouring, Truman Madsen spoke these consoling words: “Men have stood at pulpits and elsewhere—great men—and have testified that their knees have never buckled, that as one said of another, ‘He had nothing to hide.’ We have had monumental men who did not need redemption as much as they needed power, and who never fell very far from the communing light of which I have spoken. I cannot bear that kind of testimony. But if there are some of you who have been tricked into the conviction that you have gone too far, that you have been weighed down with doubts on which you alone have a monopoly, that you have had the poison of sin which makes it impossible ever again to be what you could have been—then hear me.
“I bear testimony that you cannot sink farther than the light and sweeping intelligence of Jesus Christ can reach. I bear testimony that as long as there is one spark of the will to repent and to reach, he is there. He did not just descend to your condition; he descended below it, ‘that he might be in all and through all things, the light of truth;’ (Doctrine and Covenants 88:6).”7
The Atonement of the Savior covers every repentable sin known to man.8 This is both logical and reassuring. Certainly in the premortal council the Lord must have known of the depths to which mankind would sink. He was no novice at creating. He had been over the course time and time again. He had observed our spirits throughout the eons. He understood the inner workings of each man’s heart. As he told the prophet Samuel, “The Lord seeth not as a man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7). He had witnessed the tragic war in heaven and seen one third of his brothers and sisters turn against him to choose the most notorious infidel of all time. Surely he understood there would be Sodoms and Gomorrahs and crimes of most heinous proportions. And surely he took this into account as he worked with the Father in planning a redemption that would encompass it all. ~Truman G. Madsen, as quoted here from “The Infinite Atonement” by Tad R. Callister, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2000), 196-99 (pocket book edition).
