Making Us Better, Lifting Us Higher

The Atonement is such an important part of the gospel--the most important part since without it, nothing else matters. I have been reading a book called The Continuous Atonement by Brad Wilcox that I have really enjoyed reading so far. When I was teaching the atonement to the teenagers in my Sunday school class, I used an illustration I had seen before that you may be familiar with. It is of a road with a deep hole in it. When we sin, we fall in the hole and we cannot get out alone, but the atonement is the ladder that allows us to climb up out of the hole and go along our way. While reading this book however, I realized how wrong that analogy is. Brad Wilcox talks about how Christ doesn’t just put us back to where we were, but lifts us higher and strengthens us so we are better. Isn’t that even more beautiful? “Christ’s redemption doesn’t just restore the status quo by putting us back where we were. It makes us better.”
Brad Wilcox, The Continuous Atonement, page 68

“The Atonement was designed to do more than restore us to the ‘starting line’---more than just wipe the slate clean. [Its] crowning purpose [is] to endow us with power so that we might overcome each of our weaknesses and acquire the divine traits that would make us like God.” Elder Tad R. Callister, “How Can I Lead a More Saintly Life?”, page 89

“The Savior does more than cleanse us from sin. He also gives us new strength…To be admitted to His presence, we must be more than clean. We must also be changed.”

Elder Dallin H. Oaks, “With Full Purpose of Heart, p. 126-127
“We accept Christ not because it will save us some pain and suffering down the road, but because it is the only way we can become new creatures. We don’t walk into the celestial kingdom simply because a debt is paid…The Atonement is not just about paying debts but about transforming debtors.”
Brad Wilcox, The Continuous Atonement, p. 73

“Christian friends ask me if I have been saved by grace. I always answer, 'Yes—absolutely.' Then I occasionally ask them if they have been changed by grace. We must never be so content to be saved by grace that we overlook the fact the fact that we must also be redeemed by grace.”

Brad Wilcox, The Continuous Atonement, p. 74