What are the meanings and implications of the words we use to describe the most basic element of our faith? It appears that how we describe what Christ did for us is largely given in terms that are symbolic or metaphorical. I get some of this from an old book containing a transcription of the lectures that Hugh Nibley gave as instructor of an honors Book of Mormon class at BYU during the late 1980s. He suggests that the Christian world has struggled with the meanings of these words, and hasn’t always gotten it right.
Here are some of the words and interpretations that exist.
1) Commercial Transaction and Human Bondage inferences (including the trading in slaves). Christ releases from us from debt or bondage. He redeems us. He liberates us or pays the price of our freedom (redeems, liberates, sets free, buys back, recovers, restores, makes payment, remits, releases from debt, ransoms).
2) The concept of Penal Substitution. Christ absolves us from punishment or guilt (pardons, exonerates, clears, absolves, set frees, liberates, appeases, makes amends).
3) The Damnation or Death metaphor (including spiritual death). Christ rescues or saves us (removes from danger, extricates, frees, liberates, ransoms, defends, protects).
These metaphors have elements of correct doctrine. For example, the teachings of Alma (42:13-15) about the laws of justice and mercy are consistent with #1 and #2, where justice must be served but mercy allows Christ to appease its demands for those who will repent, through his own vicarious suffering. However they do not provide a complete picture of the entire plan of redemption and exaltation. When the price or ransom is paid or the rescue completed, what then?
Also, there may be false implications in the way these words are sometimes used. We are not held responsible for Adam’s transgression as says the Article of Faith 2. Therefore, paying the price for Adam’s choice, or for the resultant extreme level of human depravity depicted by some churches is not relevant. Neither is Christ needed to assuage the Father’s anger or serve as an advocate or mediator for us with God.
4) Medical need metaphor (heals, fixes, repairs, regenerates, cures, remedies, makes clean, revives, rehabilitates, works a cure, salves, ameliorates). Fiona and Terryl Givens express a preference for language that speaks to our problems of being wounded and weary rather than being depraved or guilty by nature. “The term most frequently rendered in the King James Bible as save is the Greek word sodzo... He who saves is the soter, based on the same word. But when Luke uses the identical term sodzo, it was to describe Jesus’ act of curing the blind man of his affliction (Luke 18). Mark also used sodzo when Jesus made the girl whole from the plague (Mark 5). And Matthew employed the term sodzo when the hemorrhaging woman, touching the Lord’s hem, was restored to health (Matthew 9). In all these and numerous other cases, the word often translated as save is more aptly rendered heal... In other words, rather than render the Messiah’s title of soter as Savior, we could with equal linguistic justification call him Jesus Christ, Son of God, Healer of the World. One virtue of such a substitution is that healing signals the beginning of a glorious journey now unfolding, while saving signals its end.” (The Christ Who Heals, p. 64)
Elder Dale Renlund provides a touching use of this description: “As the Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ views disease in His sheep as a condition that needs treatment, care, and compassion. This shepherd, our Good Shepherd, finds joy in seeing His diseased sheep progress toward healing. The Savior foretold that He would “feed his flock like a shepherd... bind up that which [is] broken, and ... strengthen that which [is] sick.” Though apostate Israel was depicted as being consumed with sinful “wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores,” the Savior encouraged, exhorted, and promised healing.” (Cited in Heals, p. 66)
5) Reconciliation metaphor (bring into harmony, assuage, propitiate, mediate, bring together, reunite, make peace, placate, win over, win the goodwill of, create favorable response). These words seem to imply something more that those above (#1-3) , to be brought together, to be changed back to a prior status, or restored a condition of harmony. This word seems to be a favorite of recent Biblical translators. The question Brother Nibley asks of the other churches is “What is the person going back to?”, since they reject the concept of a pre-mortal existence. The concept of reconciliation, however, for members of our Church, moves in the right direction.
6) Atonement. This word is used only once in the King James Bible (Romans 5:11) but about 40 times in the Book of Mormon. Modern Bible translators tend to render this as “reconciliation.” The word has Old English origins and literally means at-one-ment. This word is the preference of Brother Nibley, and according to him the original Hebrew word means “changing back again to where you were.” There are related words or phrases from the same root, which seem to mean to cover (as cover over you sins), to arch over, to bend over, to wipe over, to grasp by the hand, to cleanse, to encircle, to embrace, to hug around, to encircle, similar to 2 Nephi 1:15 or Alma 5:33. At a basic level the work of at-one-ment can mean to bring together, to bring into harmony, to bind tightly, to unite. It could also mean to reunite, or be made one with the Father again.
A further meaning of at-one-ment might be to become one or the same as Christ, having the same attributes and characteristics. This is the notion that in reaching a state of exaltation, we shall be fully like Christ and His Father (Moroni 7:48). Therefore, the word atonement contains implications of our eternal destiny unmatched by any other word attempting to describe the blessings that Christ’s sacrifice provides.
God designed our life on earth to be a school. We are not static and acted upon, but we are in the process of learning to value virtue and avoid evil.
The application of all of these differences in terminology might be better understood when the broad reach of the atonement is considered. Here are concepts of this provided by Tad Callister (April 2019 conference address) and Bruce and Marie Hafen (The Contrite Spirit, 2015):
They list the blessings from the Savior’s atonement:
1) Overcame physical death/resurrection
2) Redeems us/atones for our personal sins
3) Strengthens us in our afflictions/life’s challenges
4) Perfecting blessings/overcoming our imperfections/sanctification/exaltation
Fitting the different concepts and metaphors into this framework suggests to me that the first three metaphors/items find their application in the second blessing, Christ paying the price for our personal sins or granting forgiveness/remission of sins. This blessing comes initially when we follow the steps to be baptized, and then thereafter as we continue to repent of further mistakes and sins. It results in our being in a state of forgiveness and eligible for the continuing companionship of the Spirit. Brother Callister states: “Even though we may believe in Christ’s cleansing powers, the question often arises: “How do I know if I have been forgiven of my sins?” If we feel the Spirit, then that is our witness that we have been forgiven, or that the cleansing process is taking place. President Henry B. Eyring taught, “If you have felt the influence of the Holy Ghost … , you may take it as evidence that the Atonement is working in your life.”
The medical need metaphor (#4) seems largely to require the third, the atonement’s strengthening blessings, to resolve the problems we face that are largely due to adversity, others’ ill treatment, and the very nature of this world. Or if not to resolve these problems, to give us strength to endure and persevere.
Finally, the full scope of the blessings of the atonement are ours as we overcome our weaknesses and imperfections, are supported and sanctified by the Spirit, and ultimately acquire the full, divine nature of Christ. This is suggested by the concept of reconciliation and especially by the implications contained in the word atonement.
It is instructive the some of the most important and most glorious doctrines of the restored gospel come to us largely through figures of speech or metaphors. For example, consider the Savior’s use of parables or the temple ceremonies, which are rich in symbolic language. Is it possible that English and other languages are simply not capable of expressing spiritual matters very well?
Joseph Smith once lamented the difficulty of expressing spiritual things in what he called “the little narrow prison almost as it were total darkness of paper pen and ink and a crooked broken scattered and imperfect language.” (Joseph Smith to William W. Phelps, 27 November 1832, Joseph Smith Collection, Church History Library, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah.) Because of these challenges in finding ways for expressing spiritual concepts, symbolic language becomes our best or perhaps only option, which is to describe the unfamiliar in terms of things that are familiar.
Here is a beautiful explanation of the use of symbolic language in gospel instruction: “Symbols are the language of feeling, and as such it is not expected that everyone will perceive them the same way. Like a beautiful cut diamond, they catch the light and then reflect its splendor in a variety of ways. As viewed at different times and from different positions, what is reflected will differ, yet the diamond and the light remain the same. Thus symbols, like words, gain richness in their variety of meanings and purposes, which range from revealing to concealing great gospel truths.” (Joseph Fielding McConkie, Gospel Symbolism, (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1985, ix)
So, there are perhaps two great positives from using symbolic language to illuminate important spiritual concepts. First, the variety of symbols, metaphor, analogies, that can be used provide for a range of meanings that may at least nearly encompass our understanding of the spiritual concept; and two, the Spirit can direct our understanding to those things that God want us individually to know and emphasize about the matter, specific things which He knows that we as individuals need.
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