From his book, ‘The Gift of the Atonement’, Truman G. Madsen wrote:
“To those of us . . . who thirst, I plead, Come to him. He turns no penitent away. Would you, if you had paid so much in suffering? Would you ever give up? All doors that are locked against the Lord are locked by us. He is always waiting, promising life where there has been death, healing where there has been sickness, forgiveness where there has been sin. And sin is poison. He sets us all an inversion of our own example. We say to people that have hurt us: “If you will change, I will forgive you—but not until. If you deserve forgiveness, you shall have it.” But Christ said to the woman taken in adultery, as he wrote in the sand in the outer court of the temple (the only writing of his that is mentioned in the four Gospels), “Where are thine accusers?” You remember her reply. He said: “Neither do I condemn thee; go, and sin no more” (JST, John 8:10-11) The Joseph Smith Translation adds a sentence: “And the woman glorified God from that hour and believed on His name.” The offering of forgiveness before we have changed in order that we may change—that is the power of Christ. And it brings flowing, living water to the famished soul. . . .
How more could the Lord have taught us this than when he identified himself over and over with the elements of life?
“I am the living bread.”
“I am the true fountain.”
He that believeth on me , as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. But this [says John] spake he of the Spirit.”
“I am the vine.”
“Ye are the branches.”
“I am the life.”
“Without me ye can do nothing.”
May God bless us to come hungering and thirsting and receive the birth and rebirth that is in Jesus until we, like him, are “quickened in the inner man.” ~Truman G. Madsen, The Gift of the Atonement (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2002), 122-23
