As Brother Applehans said I am Elder Patterson and I was asked to give a talk today on the role of the Savior in my life. First getting this topic I was slightly caught off guard with the vast number of ways this talk could go, so after some prayerful consideration I felt as though I should base my remarks today on the miraculous gift we have in the atonement of Jesus Christ and how that blesses us in our day to day lives. So as a common thread I went and looked up what it means for one to atone, because I don’t know about one of the rest of you but I know that I don’t use that term on even a monthly basis, so reading in the Bible dictionary we learn that to atone is to bring man into reconciliation to God, or pay a penalty that we cannot pay to allow us to return home. Jesus Christ, a perfect person is the only one who was able to pay for our sins and allow us to return to our fathers presence. In his role as Mediator for us with the father he shows us great love that we cannot fully understand. I love the way that President Boyd K Packer explains this role in a parable that he gave in a conference talk many years ago, he says “There once was a man who wanted something very much. It seemed more important than anything else in his life. In order for him to have his desire, he incurred a great debt.
He had been warned about going into that much debt, and particularly about his creditor. But it seemed so important for him to do what he wanted to do and to have what he wanted right now. He was sure he could pay for it later.
So he signed a contract. He would pay it off some time along the way. He didn’t worry too much about it, for the due date seemed such a long time away. He had what he wanted now, and that was what seemed important.
The creditor was always somewhere in the back of his mind, and he made token payments now and again, thinking somehow that the day of reckoning really would never come.
But as it always does, the day came, and the contract fell due. The debt had not been fully paid. His creditor appeared and demanded payment in full.
Only then did he realize that his creditor not only had the power to repossess all that he owned, but the power to cast him into prison as well.
“I cannot pay you, for I have not the power to do so,” he confessed.
“Then,” said the creditor, “we will exercise the contract, take your possessions, and you shall go to prison. You agreed to that. It was your choice. You signed the contract, and now it must be enforced.”
“Can you not extend the time or forgive the debt?” the debtor begged. “Arrange some way for me to keep what I have and not go to prison. Surely you believe in mercy? Will you not show mercy?”
The creditor replied, “Mercy is always so one-sided. It would serve only you. If I show mercy to you, it will leave me unpaid. It is justice I demand. Do you believe in justice?”
“I believed in justice when I signed the contract,” the debtor said. “It was on my side then, for I thought it would protect me. I did not need mercy then, nor think I should need it ever. Justice, I thought, would serve both of us equally as well.”
“It is justice that demands that you pay the contract or suffer the penalty,” the creditor replied. “That is the law. You have agreed to it and that is the way it must be. Mercy cannot rob justice.”
There they were: One meting out justice, the other pleading for mercy. Neither could prevail except at the expense of the other.
“If you do not forgive the debt there will be no mercy,” the debtor pleaded.
“If I do, there will be no justice,” was the reply.
Both laws, it seemed, could not be served. They are two eternal ideals that appear to contradict one another. Is there no way for justice to be fully served, and mercy also?
There is a way! The law of justice can be fully satisfied and mercy can be fully extended--but it takes someone else. And so it happened this time.
The debtor had a friend. He came to help. He knew the debtor well. He knew him to be shortsighted. He thought him foolish to have gotten himself into such a predicament. Nevertheless, he wanted to help because he loved him. He stepped between them, faced the creditor, and made this offer.
“I will pay the debt if you will free the debtor from his contract so that he may keep his possessions and not go to prison.”
As the creditor was pondering the offer, the mediator added, “You demanded justice. Though he cannot pay you, I will do so. You will have been justly dealt with and can ask no more. It would not be just.”
And so the creditor agreed.
The mediator turned then to the debtor. “If I pay your debt, will you accept me as your creditor?”
“Oh yes, yes,” cried the debtor. “You save me from prison and show mercy to me.”
“Then,” said the benefactor, “you will pay the debt to me and I will set the terms. It will not be easy, but it will be possible. I will provide a way. You need not go to prison.”
I love this parable as it really shows to us how we all have so much that we have to be grateful to Christ for. With it now being New Years Eve with the new year just hours away, we are all called to find ways to become better in the next 12 months as a sort of new beginning, I would invite all of us to try in this next year to utilise the Atonement of Jesus Christ more in our lives and also to show more gratitude for this matchless gift of love from our Father and from our Saviour. I know that the atonement is the only way for us to return to our father in heaven. I know that Jesus Christ lived and died for all of us. I know that this church is true and I leave these things with you in the name of Jesus Christ Amen
