The Savior Suffered For YOU - 11 August 2022

 

“He suffereth the pains of all men, yea, the pains of EVERY living creature, both men, women, and children, who belong to the family of Adam” (2 Nephi 9:21).

We often think of the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ as one great sacrifice–one singular event in history. While that is certainly true, I wonder whether the Savior regarded and experienced it as one great sacrifice he had to perform–or whether He focused on an infinite series of individual sacrifices, one by one. We know that He ”[took] upon him [our] infirmities… that he may know according to the flesh how to succor” each one of us individually (Alma 7:12). Just as Christ allowed the Nephite people to feel His wounds and know of His sacrifice one by one, I suspect that Christ suffered our pains and infirmities one by one so that He could perfectly understand each one of us.

While the trials we experience in life can be generalized, the exact circumstances, feelings, and situations of our individual lives are unique. Whatever fraction of His great and last sacrifice that it made up, I am grateful for the moments in which Jesus Christ personally sacrificed for me. I am grateful that Jesus Christ loved ME enough to visit every odd corner of MY life–every dark spot of whatever hue or tone. I am grateful that He loved me enough to personally experience and then overcome everything I will ever have to experience in life. Because Christ has looked into MY every thought, I know that I, too, can "look unto [Christ] in every thought" (D&C 6:36)