*Given immortality
*Can obtain forgiveness*Can have eternal life
From his perspective as one who has served as an apostle for 10 years and a General Authority for 16 years, Elder James E. Faust gave his personal witness "concerning Jesus of Nazareth and His mission."
Speaking Saturday morning, Elder Faust of the Council of the Twelve said through the Atonement and the singular events surrounding it, the sins of mankind were individually and collectively taken upon the Lord's shoulders.
"The marvelous result of this great suffering was that He was able to redeem from physical death the believers and the obedient as well as the unbelieving and disobedient," Elder Faust said. "Every person ever born or yet to be born is the beneficiary of both the mediation and the Atonement of the Savior."
The apostle defined the act of the Atonement, in its simplest terms, as a reconciliation of man with God. Atonement means at one. It is literally "at-one-ment," he said. Man's separation from the presence of God occurred with the spiritual death of Adam and Eve. As a result of the fall, Adam and Eve also were given agency and the power of procreation.
But the posterity of Adam and Eve were innocent of the original sin, and it was unfair for all humanity to suffer eternally for their firsst parents' transgression, Elder Faust said. Thus, the atoning sacrifice of Jesus made it possible for every soul to be resurrected, obtain forgiveness and return to God's presence "on condition of repentance and personal righteousness."
Elder Faust explained that a distsinction exists, however, between immortality, which is eternal existence, and eternal life, which is to have a place in the presence of God.
In the words of the Lord to Moses, Elder Faust said, pointing with one finger in emphasis, "For behold, this is my work and my glory - to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man." (Moses 1:39)
"The conjunction clearly separates the two thoughts," Elder Faust explained, quoting President Joseph Fielding Smith: "It explains that the Lord is giving to the vast majority of men, those who eill not be obedient, the blessing of immortality; and to those who will serve Him, the blessing of eternal life."
Elder Faust said mankind still does not know haw the Savior was able to take upon Himself and bear the transgressions of humanity. "It was indefinable and unfathomable. It was almost unbearable." But through the mediation and atonement, he declared, "we will be resurrected ourselves without going through any part of the atoning agony that the Son of god went through."
After His resurrection, the Lord spent 40 days with the apostles and others. This ministry changed the apostles and others. This misistry changed the apostles from a weak, divided group of men, who doubted the Lord's resurection until they had seen Him, into powerful witnesses of the Savior.
"Like the apostles of old," emphasized Elder Faust, "this knowledge and belief should transform all of us to be confident, settled, unafraid and at peace in our lives as followers of the divine Christ. It should help us carry all burdens, bear any sorrows, and also fully savor all joys and happiness that can be found in this life."
In a world with much suffering, the resurrection gives great hope for all, he said. "It is not necessary for anyone to depend continually upon the testimony of another regarding the mediation, atonement, and resurrection of Christ as our Redeemer and Savior," he concluded.