"For the mystery of godliness, how great it is!" (D&C 19:10). One of the mysteries is the Atonement. This is no idle question; everything hangs on understanding and applying it.
I would like to take a stab at a question that various people have scratched their heads at and gone on with the umbrella statement that there are certain things we don’t know: What caused the pain of the Atonement?
Why the Atonement had to happen is fairly easy to grasp; economic metaphors, the three dimensional learning devices nature of animal sacrifice and ordinances, and other scriptural teaching devices help us to understand our accountability and our need for someone to help us out of the hole we have dug for ourselves. But many parts are not so easy to grasp; the questions of how the Atonement was worked out defy mortal comprehension—they all terminate in superlatives.
Source of Joy
Joseph Smith spoke of the First Vision in terms of light. As soon as the light appeared, Satan left him. One account of the First Vision said that he expected the light to start the surrounding forest on fire. He also wrote that for many days afterward, the experience filled him with great love and joy.
He said in one account of the experience, "A pillar of fire appeared above my head; which presently rested down upon me, and filled me with unspeakable joy" (Joseph Smith's First Vision, by Milton V. Backman Jr., p. 159)
What few snippets of quotation we get from the Lord during that vision have little to do with love or joy. Jesus expresses His displeasure with the corrupt preachers and the general sinful activities of the inhabitants of the earth, telling Joseph that He plans on destroying the whole lot at the Second Coming. This is dire; why did the encounter with God and the Son fill him with such great love and joy? We can derive at least one reason from the account: Because of the light they radiated—Joseph got to "enjoy" (D&C 130:2 says) eternal glory for a brief moment while in mortality, not just with a spirit body, but with a physical body at the same time as well. He got a taste of the celestial kingdom during his mortal probation, and the memory probably carried him through a life that would have shattered a man not so fortified.
D&C 88 teaches that when we fulfill the measure of our creation (whatever activities that may include) we are given a portion of glory, glory that has a celestial quality. We do not receive a fullness until after we are resurrected, but we are plugged into a celestial circuit, so to speak, anyway. Performing, or even diligently attempting or sincerely intending ("willing," the sacrament prayer says) to perform one’s work brings the Spirit; the Spirit empowers us to complete our work. "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me…" (Isa. 61:1). Isaiah then lists the duties, a job description, of the Messiah. That is the general idea behind anointing; we are assigned a certain task, and when we are anointed, the Spirit comes upon us to a great enough degree to allow us to accomplish our duties. So grace is delivered by the Spirit; the Spirit is received in what the scriptures call "portions," which can increase or decrease in size. The bigger the portion, the greater the grace.
Even if we are not receiving a portion of the Spirit that is great enough to be plainly visible, viz. Joseph Smith during the First Vision, we are still able to receive enough that it imparts peace, love, and joy, as well as power in the priesthood, and activating other spiritual gifts.
Source of Pain
Hell has been described and envisioned as a burning pit of sulfur, but that is only true in a metaphorical, poetic sense. The clinical description, "outer darkness," gives the true essence of what hell is: the complete absence of light. Just as the Spirit quickens and invigorates, so its absence is all that is required for life and matter itself to unravel. To destroy the universe would be an act of omission, not commission, for God; simply withdraw His sustaining influence, and everything would disintegrate. The maelstrom of chaos is the forwarding address of hell. By contrast, God dwells in everlasting burnings: “[The angels] reside in the presence of God, on a globe like a sea of glass and fire, where all things for their glory are manifest, past, present, and future, and are continually before the Lord” (D&C 130:7). And if we can make it back into His presence with a celestial, resurrected body, we will have a fullness of His joy.
In D&C 19:20, Jesus warns, "Wherefore, I command you again to repent, lest I humble you with my almighty power; and that you confess your sins, lest you suffer these punishments of which I have spoken, of which in the smallest, yea, even in the least degree you have tasted at the time I withdrew my Spirit." Earlier in section 19, he is describing His Atonement; in other words, the sustaining light of God was deliberately and completely withdrawn from Him during the Atonement. He experienced outer darkness while on earth in mortality.
Alma the younger had a similar experience. But while Alma was in his coma, what was he suffering for? He was incapable of atoning for his own sins; why would the loving Savior put him through hell? 3Ne. 9:20 tells us that those who come to Christ with broken hearts and contrite spirits will be born again, baptized with fire and with the Holy Ghost. As the sustaining light was withdrawn from him, Alma's heart and spirit were being broken ("punctured" is the literal translation of "contrite" from Old Testament Hebrew) to the point that he could experience the mighty change of heart. Jesus’ suffering already paid for all sin; the point of punishment, here or hereafter, is to humble us so we can be reborn and rid of the DESIRE to sin, sinfulness. It may satisfy justice to a degree, but not enough to merit any joy by it. We cannot pay our own way; we spend our ability to do so when we sin, a catch-22. Those who are penniless and in debt are unable to pay their debts.
Jesus took our names, our identities, ergo our punishments, onto Himself in the Garden and on the Cross. The punishment for sin is the loss of the light, the Spirit. We try to take His name, his reputation, and identity, upon ourselves. This means we get to enjoy some of His powers and privileges, including always having His Spirit to be with us (see Isa. 61:1). As He suffers the punishments we earned, we experience the peace, love, joy, and power He deserved, and lost for our sakes when atoning for sin (see Isa. 53). He dies; we live. He suffers; we feel comfort. He is injured; we are healed. It is a reflexive symmetry of opposite poles, pluses for minuses, and ups for downs.
Even if the light of God does not completely withdraw when we sin, we still lose it in such a way that we feel sorrow, discontent, perhaps even anger. We are exposed more to the attacks and temptations of the adversary when the Spirit withdraws. Our spiritual gifts and sensitivity decline. We are getting a little taste of hell.
The Importance of Bodies
We receive the Spirit, the light, according to obedience, and lose it according to disobedience. Disobedience makes us subject to Satan, and he uses what light we are still receiving to warm his hands, drawing light off from us, when we sin. This is why the evil legion wanted to be sent into the 2000 Gadarene swine—they wanted to enjoy a particular property of a physical body; its enhanced ability to pick up, absorb, receive, that greater light. In this sense, the body acts like a satellite dish or antenna, absorbing a greater portion of the light than a spirit body alone can absorb. D&C 93 calls the elements the "tabernacle" of God; that spirit and element inseparably combined receive a fullness of joy.
Is this the reason those with bodies have more power than those without? The reason why the absence of a physical body seems to be bondage? The reason why addictions are easier to overcome during mortality? Because a body can receive more of that light which eminates from the presence of God and "fills the immensity of space" (D&C 88:)? I believe it is. We talk about the importance of having a body to procreate, and the range of other physical experiences it allows us to have in mortality; this is true, but are these physical abilities conferred by a physical body the main reason it allows us to have "a fulness of joy"? Ironically, the joy-enabling power of the physical body is, ultimately, spiritual.
Spirits in the presence of God are unable to have a fullness of joy because they lack bodies, and cannot pick up as much of the light in which they are basking; we here on earth with physical bodies are unable to have a fullness of joy because we are not in His presence, enjoying immortal glory. It is not just being in His enjoyable company that makes heaven a desirable home; it is basking in the glory He radiates that makes heaven heavenly. Jesus was the main focus of the Nephites when He arrived, not the miracles or anything else desirable. He was a light source to them, and they looked on Him with longing. "And that same sociality which exists among us here will exist among us there, only it will be coupled with eternal glory, which glory we do not now enjoy." Notice the last word—"enjoy." Not simply "possess," "have," or "get"; ENJOY. It's more than Whom we get to be with that brings greater joy in heaven; it's a physical force that they radiate.
The power of the Atonement is delivered to our hearts and minds by the Spirit; we receive a portion of the Spirit proportional to our humility. We are changed by the Atonement, but into what? We are not just having sin removed, or any desires instilled; we are receiving the nature of Christ, bit by bit. The fruits of the Spirit are peace, love, joy, and power; it is a foretaste of heaven. And losing it is a diluted taste of hell. That is what Jesus experienced on our behalf, so that we would not have to, if we would just repent, believe, and receive all He has.
