President Howard W. Hunter Prophet, Seer, Revelator, 1994-1995, said:
Surely the resurrection is the center of every Christian’s faith; it is the greatest of all the miracles performed by the Savior of the world. Without it, we are indeed left hopeless. . . .
Go with me back in time to those final scenes in the Holy Land. The end of our Lord’s mortal life was near. He healed the sick, raised the dead, and expounded the scriptures, including those prophecies of his own death and resurrection. He said to his disciples.
“Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn him to death,
“And shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify him: and the third day he shall rise again” (Matthew 20:18-19). . . .
In the hours that followed, he sweat drops of blood, was scourged by the very leaders who claimed to be custodians of the law, and was crucified in the company of thieves. . . .
Think of it! When his body was taken from the cross and hastily placed in a borrowed tomb, he, the sinless Son of God, had already taken upon him not only the sins and temptations of every human soul who will repent, but all of our sickness, and grief, and pain of every kind. He suffered these afflictions as we suffer them, according to the flesh. He suffered them all. He did this to perfect his mercy and his ability to lift us above every earthly trial.
But there remained one more set of chains to be broken before the Atonement could be complete: the bands of death. . . .
When the women came to the tomb, they found it open and empty. The angels had tarried to tell them the greatest news ever to fall on human ears: “He is not here, for he is risen, as he said” (Matthew 28:6). . . .
In the days that followed his resurrection, the Lord appeared unto many. He displayed his five special wounds to them as if to prove beyond a doubt that a resurrected body is indeed a physical body of tangible flesh and bones. . . .
It is the responsibility and joy of all men and women everywhere to “seek this Jesus of whom the prophets and apostles [testified]” (Ether 12:41) and to have the spiritual witness of his divinity. It is the right and blessing of all who seek, to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit, bearing witness of the Father and his resurrected Son.
As one called and ordained to bear witness of the name of Jesus Christ to all the world, I testify . . . that he lives. He has a glorified, immortal body of flesh and bones. He is the Only Begotten Son of the Father in the flesh. He is the Savior, the Light and Life of the world. ~President Howard W. Hunter, The Gift of the Atonement (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2002) 78-9
