From Stephen E. Robinson’s book ‘Believing Christ’ . . . .
In Christ there is a real transfer of guilt for innocence. Through the oneness of our covenant relationship, my guilt becomes Jesus’ guilt, which he experienced and for which he suffered. At the same time his innocence and perfection become mine, and I am rendered clean and worthy. In Christ our sins cease to be ours, and as far as the justice of God is concerned, we never committed them. Through the Atonement, we are not merely forgiven—we are rendered innocent again.
If Jesus had assumed only the punishment for our sins but not the sins of themselves, then when the penalty was paid, we would merely be “guilty but not forgiven,” instead of being sanctified through the Atonement, being perfect-in-Christ, and being innocent and worthy of the presence of the kingdom of God and the presence of the Father. Part of the good news of Christ’s atonement is that it renders us sinless, innocent, perfect, and celestial, which could not have happened if we stubbornly insisted in suffering for our own sins. In that case, while our sins might eventually be paid for, they would remain ours, like canceled checks. Without the atonement of Christ that removes guilt as well as pays its penalty, we can never receive the innocence to dwell in the presence of God. (D&C 1:31; 19:4-19.)
In experiencing both our punishment and our guilt, Jesus learned vicariously through the Atonement what it would have felt like to commit sins he never committed. Thus, in a sense it would be correct to say that while Jesus committed no sins, he was guilty of them all and knows ultimately and personally their awful weight. Through us, by bearing our guilt, the sinless One experienced the full horror of human sinfulness, not merely the sins of one life, but of all lives—the sins of the world. Thus, through His vicarious atonement, Jesus knows more than anyone about the dark side of being human. Even in that he is preeminent among us.
At one point in his vicarious agony, Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matt. 27:46.) Is it possible that Heavenly Father had really forsaken him? Could God have abandoned him in this most sacred and terrible hour? Yes, indeed. For Christ had become guilty of the sins of the world, guilty in our place. What happens to the rest of us when we are guilty of sin? The Spirit of God withdraws from us, the heavens turn to brass, and we are left alone to stew in our guilt until we repent. In Gethsemane the best among us vicariously became the worst among us and suffered the very depths of hell. And as one who was guilty, the Savior’s experience for the first time in this life was the loss of the Spirit of God and of communion with his Father.
There was for him no support, no help—neither from his friends who slept through his agony, nor from the Spirit of God, which departed from him. No one has ever been alone as Christ in the Garden. This is the significance of Isaiah 63:3: “I have trodden the winepress alone.”
~Stephen E. Robinson, Believing Christ (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1992), 206-09) Dwarsligger edition)
