The Atonement And Agency

[halconero]

In the past couple of weeks I have had two separate experiences which have affirmed and strengthened my love of the Father, Christ and the Atonement. They have also changed my perspective on the Fall, Agency and the role of Christ's sacrifice.

 

The first occurred while studying 2 Nephi 2, specifically these versus:

 

 25 Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy.

 26 And the Messiah cometh in the fulness of time, that he may redeem the children of men from the fall. And because that they are redeemed from the fall they have become free forever, knowing good from evil; to act for themselves and not to be acted upon, save it be by the punishment of the law at the great and last day, according to the commandments which God hath given.

 27 Wherefore, men are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient unto man. And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil; for he seeketh that all men might bemiserable like unto himself.

The second experience I had was during my participation in a Q&A session with Elder Bednar in the YSA group here in Toronto. In response to a question concerning the importance of the Atonement and the Book of Mormon, he said "Moral Agency is a result of the Atonement of Christ."

 

My belief until very recently has been that moral agency resulted from the Fall of Adam & Eve. Without invalidating the necessity of the Fall, or its granting unto men the knowledge of good and evil, I want to propose that saving agency (or moral agency) ultimate stems from the Atonement of Christ. Had the Fall occurred, but no Atonement been performed our ability to choose, and our knowledge of "good from evil" would be useless. We could be acted upon "by the punishment of the law," but not "choose liberty and eternal life." The Atonement was necessary for mankind to have real freedom of choice between eternal life and damnation. Grace empowers us, saves us, but also grants us agency. In the metaphysical sense, agency is endemic to matter, intelligences, and spirit, but it is also a gift from God through the sacrifice of his Son.

 

I want to address further ideas on "knowledge," "application," & "intelligence" in this thread, but for now I want to leave it with a few questions:

 

How does the Atonement inform, empower and enable agency? Do you believe that we focus too much on the Fall's role in agency to the detriment of the Atonement? How should we focus on it?

 

[CV75]

How does the Atonement inform, empower and enable agency? Do you believe that we focus too much on the Fall's role in agency to the detriment of the Atonement? How should we focus on it?

My understanding is that:

Everything hinges on the Atonement; rather, the condition of at-one-ment (2 Nephi 2:10-13). Otherwise, everything was “created for a thing of naught; wherefore there would have been no purpose in the end of its creation. Wherefore, this thing [a thing without purpose] must needs destroy the wisdom of God and his eternal purposes, and also the power, and the mercy, and the justice of God. …And if these things are not there is no God. And if there is no God we are not, neither the earth; for there could have been no creation of things, neither to act nor to be acted upon; wherefore, all things must have vanished away.” The Lord's Atonement simply establishes the condition of at-one-ment, which by definition involves things to act and to be acted upon

The Fall’s role in agency is to make possible a mortal probationary state in which to exercise agency. I think it is proper to focus on that.

Also regarding agency and the Atonement, i think that Heavenly Father is who He is by virtue of His proper exercise of agency to manage opposition in all things. He is the God of agency, so He will not use His agency to overrun the agency of His children, who are co-eternal intelligences; nor will He change the consequences of their agency. He is also the God of Exaltation, and so will not descend into mortality again to retrieve us.

For this reason, He required an Intermediary to come into our world to experience and vicariously, of His own volition, establish the perfected or corrected version of our mortal choices so as to undo all the spiritual and temporal death we bring upon ourselves. Jesus, who had not yet experienced immortality Himself, was the only one qualified to perform this service as a mortal. He was able to do this without interfering in or with our agency, because He faced and overcame all our tests, trials and temptations by virtue of His own agency, and did so directly and alongside our choices, not in lieu of them.

 

ETA: The Atonement frees us from sin, death and all otehr sorts of impediments to making chocies.

Edited April 1, 2014 by CV75

[teddyaware]

In the past couple of weeks I have had two separate experiences which have affirmed and strengthened my love of the Father, Christ and the Atonement. They have also changed my perspective on the Fall, Agency and the role of Christ's sacrifice.

 

The first occurred while studying 2 Nephi 2, specifically these versus:

 

 25 Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy.

 26 And the Messiah cometh in the fulness of time, that he may redeem the children of men from the fall. And because that they are redeemed from the fall they have become free forever, knowing good from evil; to act for themselves and not to be acted upon, save it be by the punishment of the law at the great and last day, according to the commandments which God hath given.

 27 Wherefore, men are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient unto man. And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil; for he seeketh that all men might bemiserable like unto himself.

The second experience I had was during my participation in a Q&A session with Elder Bednar in the YSA group here in Toronto. In response to a question concerning the importance of the Atonement and the Book of Mormon, he said "Moral Agency is a result of the Atonement of Christ."

 

My belief until very recently has been that moral agency resulted from the Fall of Adam & Eve. Without invalidating the necessity of the Fall, or its granting unto men the knowledge of good and evil, I want to propose that saving agency (or moral agency) ultimate stems from the Atonement of Christ. Had the Fall occurred, but no Atonement been performed our ability to choose, and our knowledge of "good from evil" would be useless. We could be acted upon "by the punishment of the law," but not "choose liberty and eternal life." The Atonement was necessary for mankind to have real freedom of choice between eternal life and damnation. Grace empowers us, saves us, but also grants us agency. In the metaphysical sense, agency is endemic to matter, intelligences, and spirit, but it is also a gift from God through the sacrifice of his Son.

 

I want to address further ideas on "knowledge," "application," & "intelligence" in this thread, but for now I want to leave it with a few questions:

 

How does the Atonement inform, empower and enable agency? Do you believe that we focus too much on the Fall's role in agency to the detriment of the Atonement? How should we focus on it?

 

If there had been no atonement after the fall, the only spirit that could act upon us is the spirit of evil that comes from the devil. There would be no choices to be made because the Spirit of goodness that comes from God would be unable to influence us for good, so we would all unavoidably descend into hell and become devils. In the starkest of terms, Jacob makes all this perfectly clear in the Book of Mormon:

7 Wherefore, it must needs be an infinite atonement—save it should be an infinite atonement this corruption could not put on incorruption. Wherefore, the first judgment which came upon man must needs have remained to an endless duration. And if so, this flesh must have laid down to rot and to crumble to its mother earth, to rise no more.

8 O the wisdom of God, his mercy and grace! For behold, if the flesh should rise no more our spirits must become subject to that angel who fell from before the presence of the Eternal God, and became the devil, to rise no more.

9 And our spirits must have become alike unto him, and we become devils, angels to a devil, to be shut out from the presence of our God, and to remain with the father of lies, in misery, like unto himself; yea, to that being who beguiled our first parents, who transformeth himself nigh unto an angel of light, and stirreth up the children of men unto secret combinations of murder and all manner of secret worksof darkness.

10 O how great the agoodness of our God, who prepareth a way for our bescape from the grasp of this awful monster; yea, that monster, cdeath and dhell, which I call the death of the body, and also the death of the spirit. (2 Nephi 9)

[Rob Osborn]

And thus we see how Satan destroys our agency. Get everyone under penalty of sin then provide no means to redeem them and place them in a state to act for themselves again.

[pogi]

My belief until very recently has been that moral agency resulted from the Fall of Adam & Eve. Without invalidating the necessity of the Fall, or its granting unto men the knowledge of good and evil, I want to propose that saving agency (or moral agency) ultimate stems from the Atonement of Christ. Had the Fall occurred, but no Atonement been performed our ability to choose, and our knowledge of "good from evil" would be useless.

 

Do you believe that we focus too much on the Fall's role in agency to the detriment of the Atonement?

 

Both the fall and the atonement are essential for moral agency.  To use an analogy used elsewhere, they are like two wings of a jet, where the jet is moral agency.  We could not know good and evil without the fall, and we could not choose between them without the atonement.  The atonement made probation possible for us to choose.