Celeste’s Talk January 26, 2014
Salvation Through Suffering
The
Plan of Salvation is often known by several other names. The Plan of Happiness. The Plan of Righteousness. The Plan of Mercy. Those words I understand, but there is one
title that has always mystified me a little, and that is the Plan of
Redemption. I knew that you could redeem a coupon for free ice cream at Cold
Stone. I knew that a bad argument could
be redeemed by one really great point. I’d
heard of people redeeming mortgages or the government redeeming bonds. I knew most importantly, and this is of
course the real focus of my talk today, that the scriptures are replete with
testimony that the Savior of mankind came to redeem His people. So with all these many, very different
usages, what does this word really mean?
I
learned these past few weeks that the word redeem
has its roots in Latin and means to “buy back.”
If the Savior redeemed us, He must have bought us back from something, and back to something. What is it?
And he bought us with a price.
What price? Elder Holland once
taught (and I’m paraphrasing a little for context), “I am convinced that
(gospel living) is not easy because salvation
is not a cheap experience. Salvation never
was easy. We are The Church of Jesus
Christ…how could we believe it would be easy for us when it was never, ever
easy for him? It seems to me that (members) have to spend at least a few
moments in Gethsemane…Now, please don’t misunderstand. I’m not talking about anything anywhere near
what Christ experienced…but I believe that…to come to the truth, to come to
salvation, to know something of this price that has been paid, we will have to
pay a token of that same price…If (the Savior) could come forward in the night…and
cry, ‘Abba, Father (Papa), if this cup can pass, let it pass,’ then little
wonder that salvation is not a whimsical or easy thing for us. If you wonder if there
isn’t an easier way, you should remember you are not the first one to ask
that. Someone a lot greater and a lot
grander than you asked a long time ago if there wasn’t an easier way…the only
way to eternity is through Him—the Way, the Truth, and the Life.”[i]
Today,
I’ve been asked to focus on a different but similar quote from Elder Holland,
given in the most recent General Conference.
He taught of the struggles and trials that come to all of us, “in
striving for some peace and understanding in these difficult matters, it is
crucial to remember that we are living—and chose to live—in a fallen world
where for divine purposes our pursuit of godliness will be tested and tried
again and again. Of greatest assurance
in God’s plan is that a Savior was promised, a Redeemer, who through our faith
in Him would lift us triumphantly over those tests and trials, even though the
cost to do so would be unfathomable for both the Father who sent Him and the
Son who came. It is only an appreciation
of this divine love that will make our own lesser suffering first bearable,
then understandable, and finally redemptive.”[ii]
I
think most of us understand that when we actively apply the Atonement, the
Savior is there to help us bear our burdens.
We think of the Comforter or of the promised blessings that await us,
and we know that, first, these things are bearable. And then, I think we mostly know, and can all
testify, that our trials do become understandable, even if only in
hindsight. We learn valuable lessons and
skills, we grow into our Divine Nature, we see how the Savior helps us and our
testimony of Him is strengthened. I’m
not going to talk about that either. J I’d like to
focus on the last part of Elder Holland’s quote, where our trials can be
“finally redemptive,” or how we can be saved from our sins through them.
Even
more specifically, we basically have two kinds of trials—those that are
consequences of our choices, and those over which we have no control. I think we understand that, as we sin and
consequently suffer, we are drawn into the repentance process and can be
forgiven of sins. So I’m not even going
to cover that today. But can we be saved
from our sins even through suffering that occurs through no fault of our
own? The answer? Absolutely!
As
I’ve pondered the variety of trials I have endured in my own life, I can
testify on a very personal level that there is truly salvation in
suffering. Why? How is it done? I’m honestly not totally sure. But the scriptures testify of it again and
again. And I have felt it. I noticed in studying this topic that it is
particularly mentioned by the Book of Mormon prophet Nephi, the New Testament
Apostle Paul, and to the early Saints in the Doctrine and Covenants. This comes as no surprise if you consider the
task that lay in front of each of them, establishing new branches of the
Kingdom of God, which of necessity requires a cleansing, purifying power to make
it His, make it work, and make it last.
Nephi
and his brothers endured suffering and temptations of nearly every kind, and
severe chastening by the Lord. Of course
we know that Laman and Lemuel brought a lot of the chastening on themselves
through wickedness, but even Nephi exclaimed in the throes of grief after his
father (the prophet Lehi) passed away, “O wretched man that I am! Yea, my heart sorroweth because of my flesh;
my soul grieveth because of mine iniquities. I am encompassed about, because of
the temptations and the sins which do so easily beset me. And when I desire to
rejoice, my heart groaneth because of my sins.”[iii] This is NEPHI. He has come to be known to millions as the
quintessential prophet of righteousness and obedience! He had visions and blessings abound, but he
was not exempt from suffering, usually at the hands of his brothers but
sometimes just because that is life. Yet even in this moment of his most profound sadness,
he declared, “Nevertheless, I know in whom I have trusted. My God hath been my support (there’s the bearable)…He hath heard my
cry by day, and he hath given me knowledge by visions in the night-time (there’s the understandable)…He hath
filled me with his love, even unto the consuming of my flesh” (and THERE is the redemption).
It is
this humility, this ultimate leaning on the Lord and submissiveness to His
will, patiently bearing all things, that enabled Nephi to be “bought back” from
his sins and weaknesses and be made whole enough in spite of them to lead a
family, and soon a whole people, into a promised land. Nephi, a righteous prophet of God, was sanctified
through his suffering.
The
writings of the Apostle Paul abound with encouragement to the early Christians
to not only bear their sufferings patiently but to rejoice in them. “Rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of
Christ’s sufferings…if ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye;
for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you.” [iv]
(Bearable.) We are divine children of
God with knowledge and power, “but we have this treasure in earthen vessels,
that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.” [v]
(Understandable.) “Therefore I take
pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in
distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I
am weak, then am I strong.”[vi]
(There’s salvation in there.) He taught that even Christ Himself not only
earned our salvation through His
suffering, but His own: “Though He were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the
things which he suffered; And being made perfect, he became the author of
eternal salvation unto all them that obey him.”[vii]
The
early Saints in this dispensation have a similar story. They were trying to do a massively great
thing—establish the Lord’s church and kingdom again on the earth, with Jesus
Christ at its head. Sometimes mistakes
were made, and sometimes they just needed refining. “Zion cannot be built up unless it is by the
principles of the law of the celestial kingdom,” the Lord taught, “and my
people must needs be chastened until they learn obedience, if it must needs be,
by the things which they suffer.” [viii]
“Behold, this is the blessing which I have promised after your
tribulations…your redemption, and the redemption of your brethren.” [ix]
“Yet I will own them, and they shall be mine (for He truly bought them with a heavy price)…therefore, they must
needs be chastened and tried…for those who will not endure chastening, but deny
me, cannot be sanctified.”[x] We know our history; we know how the Saints humbled
themselves and grew through their sufferings into this divine vision. Zion was indeed established in the Latter
Days.
So it
appears that much of our suffering is intended to humble us enough to come to
the Lord again and again. It is possible to come unto Christ without
immense suffering, but most of us need a little hardship now and again as a
reminder. President Harold B. Lee taught
of this suffering, “Some of us have been tried and have been tested until our
very heart strings would seem to break…Sometimes when you are going through the
most severe tests, you will be nearer to God than you have any idea, for like
the experience of the Master himself in the temptation on the mount, in the
Garden of Gethsemane, and on the cross at Calvary, the scriptures record, ‘And
behold, angels came and ministered unto him.’ Sometimes that may happen to you
in the midst of your trials.”[xi]
“We
don’t seek out tests, trials, and tribulations.
Our personal journey through life will provide just the right amount for
our needs…At times it may seem that our trials are focused on areas of our
lives and parts of our souls with which we seem least able to cope…it should
come as no surprise that the trials can be very personal—almost laser guided to
our particular needs or weaknesses. And
no one is exempt, especially not Saints striving to do what’s right.”[xii]
I
know I have experienced this again and again, most recently when I lost Paul.
There are no words to describe the pain that has come with this separation; it
has been my greatest trial, facing day after day without him, knowing that it
will be so for the rest of my time in mortality. But there is also a very sacred sweetness
that has come into my life as I have had to make the Savior my constant
companion, one which I don’t have adequate words for but that doesn’t make it
any less real or true. In the midst of my grief and in wrestling with the
Spirit, on my knees I have come to know my Savior in a new light. I felt this especially in the first weeks
after his passing, largely, I know, because of the prayers and fasting of many
of you on my behalf. I was compelled to
rely on others, and I felt the Spirit pouring down from heaven profoundly. (It was
bearable.) As I pondered this Plan of Redemption that I always believed, a
more sure knowledge settled in my soul “as the dews from heaven,” and there are
things of the Spirit I now know.
Additionally, I was blessed to understand how the Lord had prepared me through
other trials in my life to meet this challenge, and know that He would take
care of me. (It was understandable.) I
especially felt the love of our Savior when I needed it most, assuring me that
I was forgiven and being purified, and that I was capable of loving and forgiving
others. (I knew I had been redeemed, and would be again and again as often as I
came unto Him.) I don’t always feel this way now—life has a way of
distracting us from these revelations—but I feel this especially when I sit at
Paul’s graveside. I’m human, of
course--I worry and doubt and sin—but a calm assurance always comes that lets
me know I am known and loved of the Lord.
I feel, again and again, saved. Redeemed.
Bought back. Back from my own sinfulness, back to that God
that gave me life. I have come to know
that we must endure suffering to be reminded of our vulnerability, of our
ultimate powerlessness and reliance on the Lord, to seek that constant
connection that saves us. I think no
matter how righteous we are, we will spend our whole lives learning over and
over again to “come unto Christ, and be perfected in Him, and deny (ourselves)
of all ungodliness…then are (we) sanctified in Christ by the grace of God,
through the shedding of the blood of Christ.”[xiii]
I add
my witness to that of the prophets of His redeeming power, and of the
redemptive power of our trials. We are
saved through suffering—our own, and that of the Savior. It is why we are here, and it is why He
came. I so testify in the name of our
beloved Redeemer, even Jesus Christ, amen.
[i]
“Missionary Work and the Atonement,” Jeffrey R. Holland, Mar. 2001 Ensign
[ii]
“Like a Broken Vessel,” Jeffrey R. Holland, October 2013 General Conference
[iii]
2 Nephi 4: 17-21, 23
[iv] 1
Peter 4: 13-14
[v] 2
Corinthians 4: 7
[vi] 2
Corinthians 12:10
[vii]
Hebrews 5: 8-9
[viii]
D&C 105: 5-6
[ix]
D&C 103: 13
[x]
D&C 101:3-5
[xi]
In Conference Report, Munich Germany Area Conference, 1973, pg. 114
[xii]
“More than Conquerors Through Him that Loved Us,” Paul V. Johnson, April 2011
General Conference
[xiii]
Moroni 10: 32-33
See also Romans
8: 37-39; Alma 5:26; Isaiah 43: 1-2; 2 Corinthians 1: 5-6; 1 Peter 1: 3-9;
Hebrews 12: 6-14; Isaiah 53: 5; Galatians 3:24; James 1: 2-6; D&C 90: 36;
Luke 21:28; Psalms 49:8; 3 Nephi 9: 13-14, 17, 21-22; Ephesians 1: 6-7; Mormon
9: 12-13; Alma 34:16; Alma 12: 33-34; “The Purifying Power of Gethsemane” by
Bruce R. McConkie (April 1985 General Conference); “An High Priest of Good
Things to Come” by Jeffrey R. Holland (October 1999 General Conference); “None
Were With Him” by Jeffrey R. Holland (April 2009 General Conference); “Broken
Things to Mend” by Jeffrey R. Holland (April 2006 General Conference)
