He Delighteth in Mercy

I was thinking about the woman taken in adultery from John 8. Jesus was teaching at the temple early one morning when a woman was dragged in before Him. I imagine she was upset and crying having been caught in the “very act” of adultery. I suppose feelings of fear, shame, and guilt were bearing down on her knowing, not only that she could not hide her crimes, but that she would shortly be stoned to death for them.

Of course, the scribes and Pharisees weren’t interested in justice. They didn’t care as much about the law as they did trapping the Savior in what they thought would be a compromising situation. Christ may have even been considered a witness of her offense and would therefore be among the first participants in her execution.

He eventually rebuked them by saying, “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” As everyone in attendance recognized their own guilt, they filed out one by one until only the woman and the Savior remained. “Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee?”, he says to her. While a sense of relief may have started to develop upon seeing how her life might be spared, she was now left alone with the Son of God. “No man, Lord’, she hesitantly replies, undoubtedly avoiding the Lord’s gaze.

Perhaps waiting for the moment she would muster enough courage to look Him in the eyes, he tenderly replies, “Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.”

“Neither do I condemn thee.” Have sweeter words ever been spoken? We are not condemned for our weaknesses and misdeeds. John 3:17 confirms that “God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.” The Savior came to save. The Redeemer redeems. The Lamb of God was the ultimate sacrifice, standing in place for each one of us.

An ancient American missionary named Amulek taught about Jesus Christ 74 years before His birth in Bethlehem. Addressing a group of people known as Zoramites, Amulek refers to Christ as “the great and last sacrifice.”

For it is expedient that there should be a great and last sacrifice; yea, not a sacrifice of man, neither of beast, neither of any manner of fowl; for it shall not be a human sacrifice; but it must be an infinite and eternal sacrifice.

Amulek, and his missionary companion Alma, testified that Jesus Christ would Himself be this great and last sacrifice, taking upon Himself the consequences and condemnation of our sins. He goes on to teach about the true purpose of the Law of Moses which was to lead the people to Jesus Christ.

And behold, this is the whole meaning of the law, every whit pointing to that great and last sacrifice; and that great and last sacrifice will be the Son of God, yea, infinite and eternal.

What exactly does it mean that Jesus’s sacrifice was infinite and eternal? It is eternal in the sense that His life and His blood will forever save us from the punishment we so rightfully deserve.

How was His Atonement infinite? Borrowing from The Infinite Atonement by Tad Callister, Jesus’s suffering in the Garden of Eden, His brutal scourging, and His agony and death on the cross are infinite in several ways:

• First, it is infinite in the divineness of the one sacrificed. This was the only begotten Son of Almighty God, the Word who was with God, and was God.
• Second, it is infinite in power. He who made all that was made “descended below them all“.
• Third, the Atonement is infinite in time. It applies retroactively and prospectively through time immemorial.
• Fourth, it is infinite in coverage. It applies to all God’s creations and all forms of life thereon. 
• Fifth, it is infinite in depth. It is infinite not only in who it covers, but in what it covers.
• Sixth, it is infinite in the degree of suffering endured by the Redeemer. It was that suffering that caused ‘even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore’ (Luke 22:44, D&C 19:18).
• Seventh, it is infinite in love. God is love, in fact.
• Eighth, it is infinite in the blessings it bestows. Paul taught that we are joint heirs with Christ if we suffer with Him.

Back to Amulek again:

And thus he shall bring salvation to all those who shall believe on his name; this being the intent of this last sacrifice, to bring about the bowels of mercy, which overpowereth justice, and bringeth about means unto men that they may have faith unto repentance.

And thus mercy can satisfy the demands of justice, and encircles them in the arms of safety, while he that exercises no faith unto repentance is exposed to the whole law of the demands of justice; therefore only unto him that has faith unto repentance is brought about the great and eternal plan of redemption.

Jesus Christ made it possible for us to be forgiven. God can show us mercy because Jesus satisfied the demands of justice. And while mercy cannot rob justice, because of Jesus Christ, it can overpower it.

Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy.

Michah 7:18