Testimony of Christ

This is a combined version of Elder Maxwell's testimony of Jesus Christ and his Atonement as given in several devotionals:

We begin to see in the scriptures the weight
of the Atonement burdening him shortly before
Gethsemane and Calvary:
Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say?
Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause
came I unto this hour. [John 12:27]
He became “very heavy,” which, in the Greek
means, “depressed and dejected, in anguish.”
Just as the Psalmist had
foreseen, the Savior was “full of heaviness”
(Psalms 69:20). The heavy weight of the sins
of all mankind was falling upon him.
He had been intellectually and otherwise
prepared from ages past for this task. He is
the creator of this and other worlds. He knew
the plan of salvation. He knew this is what it
would come to. But when it happened, it was
so much worse than even he had imagined!
Hence he was “sore amazed” or, in the Greek,
“astonished,” “awestruck” (Mark 14:33).
Now, brothers and sisters, this was not
theater; it was the real thing. “And he went
forward a little, and fell on the ground, and
prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might
pass from him” (Mark 14:35).
“And he said, Abba, Father, all things
are possible unto thee; take away this cup from
me” (Mark 14:36). And when Jesus used the word
“Abba,” it was a most personal and intimate
familiar reference—the cry of a child in deepest
distress for his father to help him in the midst
of this agony.
Did Jesus hope there might be, as with
Abraham, a ram in the thicket? We do not know,
but the agony and the extremity were great.
The sins and the grossness of all mankind were
falling upon someone who was perfectly sinless,
perfectly sensitive.
But said he: “Nevertheless not what I will, but
what thou wilt” (Mark 14:36).
Through that marvelous Prophet Joseph,
in the book of Alma, we learned that Jesus not
only suffered for our sins, but, in order to
perfect his capacity of mercy and empathy, he
also bore our sicknesses and infirmities that
he might know “according to the flesh” (see
Alma 7:11–12) what we pass through and thus
become the perfect shepherd, which he is.
All the cumulative weight of our sins—the
whole human family—fell upon him. He, and
he alone, bore them! Thus he is able to say,
“I have overcome and have trodden the winepress
alone, even the wine-press of the fierceness
of the wrath of Almighty God” (D&C
76:107; 88:106). This would include all the penalties
that a God who cannot look upon sin with
the least degree of allowance would require (see
D&C 1:31). Could there be any wrath more fierce
than divine wrath? Especially as Jesus encountered
cumulative, mortal grossness including
the vilest of all human sins? Jesus bore them.
Indeed, Christ was alone, for “there was
none with me” (Isaiah 63:3; D&C 133:50). His
astonishing, personal triumph was complete.
Yet he who premortally had promised he
would give glory to our Father kept that
promise, saying after accomplishing the
Atonement, “Nevertheless, glory be to the
Father” (D&C 19:19; Moses 4:2).
…
Jesus bore all mortal sins, mankind’s cumulative
total. Thus Jesus, of his suffering, truly
could later say that “he descended below all
things” (D&C 88:6).
…
On the cross, there came from Christ the
soul-rending cry, “My God, my God, why hast
thou forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46; see also
Psalms 22:1). What awful aloneness! What deprivation,
Especially after the special and extended closeness of
Father and Son! Is it possible
that Jesus needed to suffer and experience
aloneness not only so his personal triumph
would be total, but also so that he might
“know according to the flesh” how it is for us
to feel forsaken? (See Alma 7:11–12).
…
All this emptying agony preceded the
empty tomb, which signified the glorious
resurrection. In his comments after the awful
atonement, he uses words like “sore” and
“exquisite.” Jesus tells us that he suffered “both
body and spirit” (D&C 19:18–19). He does not
even mention having been spat upon, struck,
receiving vinegar and gall, being scourged, etc.
Neal A. Maxwell 7
He does say that he trembled because of pain
and would that he might not drink of the bitter cup and
shrink- (see D&C 19:18). But he partook of the bitter cup
and did so without becoming bitter! Mercifully
for all of us, he did not shrink!
And behold, I am the light and the life of the
world; and I have drunk out of that bitter cup which
the Father hath given me, and have glorified the
Father in taking upon me the sins of the world, in
the which I have suffered the will of the Father in all
things from the beginning. [3 Nephi 11:11]
I have overcome and have trodden the winepress
alone, even the wine-press of the fierceness of the
wrath of Almighty God. [D&C 76:107]
Thus he became our fully comprehending and
fully atoning Savior. No wonder we sing of him,
“How great thou art!” (Hymns, 1985, no. 86).
Why did he do it?
And the world, because of their iniquity, shall
judge him to be a thing of naught; wherefore they
scourge him, and he suffereth it; and they smite
him, and he suffereth it. Yea, they spit upon him,
and he suffereth it, WHY? Because of his loving kindness and his long-suffering towards the children
of men.