From the book ‘The Gift of the Atonement’, Brent L.Top writes of the Atonement:
President Harold B. Lee once stated, “The heaviest burden that anyone can carry is the burden of sin.” Each of us has borne and continues to bear that to some degree or another. . . .
. . . Who among us has not felt the fear that comes from acknowledging the justice of God’s pronouncements and indictments against our evil ways? Who among us has not tasted the bitterness of that cup? Who among us has not felt the spiritual and emotional turmoil of the soul like unto a “troubled sea” that “cannot rest”? Who among us has not experienced similar to those described in the Book of Mormon by Alma? “But I was racked with eternal torment, for my soul was harrowed up to the greatest degree and raked with all my sins . . .” (Alma 36:12). . . .
The burden of sin also creates feelings of worthlessness as well as unworthiness. It often makes us feel that we can do nothing right. Our sense of shame falsely makes us feel that we are unworthy to approach our Father in Heaven in worship or prayer. This further estranges us from our most important advocate and ally. “There is no loneliness so great, so absolute, so utterly complete,” wrote Elder Richard L. Evans, ” as the loneliness of one who cannot call upon his or her God’ (Richard Evans’ Quote Book, Salt Lake City, 1971, 148).
Sinning brings a sense of loneliness even when we are surrounded by others. . . . The Spirit of the Lord is grieved and withdrawn, and we are left alone, without the comfort, enlightenment and inspiration of the Holy Ghost. There is no greater emptiness than to be void of the Spirit of the Lord. . . .
All too often accompanying our sin-induced spiritual sickness is the added discomfort of deception—of hiding a “dark secret.” Many of us have felt that sense of hypocrisy that comes from knowing that our life does not reflect our professed ideals. One student who had cheated on a test in school described an audible voice speaking to his soul each time he attempted to pray or bless the sacrament. It whispered, “You’re a liar! You’re a cheat! You’re a hypocrite!”. . .
When we are weighed down with the burdens of sin, our souls are truly like the river of filthy waters (see 1 Nephi 15:26-30), made turbulent by the constant churning of guilt and shame. It seems as if there is no relief from the despair and the discouragement and the horror of hypocrisy. Even Alma’s graphic description of his agony does not fully capture the unquenchable, spiritual, and mental “fire” that burns within a sinner’s soul. . . .
. . . . From our own suffering and sorrow for sin come such soul-searching questions as “What if this burden of sin can never be lifted?” and “What if I must feel ‘eternal torment’ and the ‘pains of hell’ forever? Surely such thoughts strike within us a feeling described by Alma as “inexpressible horror.”
Such would have been the case without the intervention of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Without the “infinite atonement,” not only would we suffer the pains of hell and carry the burdens of sin in mortality, but also ultimately “our spirits must have become like unto [the devil], and we become devils, angels to a devil, to be shut out from the presence of our God, and to remain with the father of lies, in misery, like unto himself” (2 Nephi 9:7,9). As Elder Boyd K. Packer testified, “I readily confess that I would find no peace, neither happiness nor safety, in a world without repentance. I do not know what I should do if there were no way for me to erase my mistakes. The agony would be more than I could bear” (Ensign, May 1988, 71. “O how great the goodness of our God,” declared Jacob, “who prepareth a way for our escape from this awful monster; yea, that monster, death and hell” (2 Nephi 9:10). The way has been prepared that troubled souls can be soothed and calmed. The stains of sin can be cleansed. Hope can replace despair and the tears of sinful sorrow can be wiped off our faces. Joy can swallow up guilt. “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool” (Isaiah 1:18). We need not carry life’s heaviest burden any longer. The terrible price of our iniquities has already been paid for us. . . .
[The] incomprehensible suffering of the Savior was [truly] a vicarious suffering. It was [our] suffering—“inexpressible horrors”—which the Lord willingly and lovingly took upon himself in order that we might be spared such torment if we repent. Though he, of himself, was sinless and thus would not have had to experience in any degree the penalty for sin, he could not bear to let us suffer when he had the power to intercede on our behalf. Why would he willingly consent to such unfathomable and unspeakable suffering when we as mere mortals shrink from comparatively infinitesimal discomfort? Why? Because of his infinite and incomprehensible love for us. ~Brent L. Top, The Gift of the Atonement (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 2002), 71-73
