The law and the Atonement

King Benjamin taught something so applicable and important to his people.  What he was teaching over 2000 years ago, applies to us today and is vital to understand if we expect to be fully converted to the Lord.

In Mosiah 3:15, he teaches something the Pharisees never grasped, "Many signs, and wonders, and types, and shadows showed he unto them, concerning his coming; also the holy prophets spake unto them concerning his coming; and yet they hardened their hearts, and understood not that the law of Moses availeth nothing except it were through the atonement of his blood."

A few years later, Abinadi asked the Priests of Noah a pertinent question, "Does salvation come by the law of Moses?" (Mosiah 12:31)  

Abinadi went on to answer his own question saying, "There was a law given them, yea, a law of performances and of ordinances, a law which they were to observe strictly from day to day, to keep them in remembrance of our God and their duty towards him. They did not all understand the law; for they understood not that there could be no man saved except it were through the redemption of God." (Mosiah 13:30-32).

Both King Benjamin and Abinadi taught that although they kept the law to be obedient to the commandments of the Lord, it was the atonement of the Lord that brings redemption.

I pose a couple of introspective questions: 

1. Do the current commandments and ordinances we live and obey have the power to save (sacrament, temple ordinances, etc.)?

2. Do we obey the law simply to obey the law?

These are great questions that I ask myself personally. I would suggest that part of the answer is that we as a people tend to hearden our hearts and rely on the ordinances and commandments as the answer. Sometimes I (we) fail to remember that those laws and ordinances are there to point our hearts to Christ.

What he really wants is my (our) heart!  Rather than following a checklist of what I'm doing and not doing, he simply wants a loving, charitable, and willing heart from me as an individual.

If I (we) am fully converted to him, then living each of these commandments becomes a simple byproduct of my fidelity, love and obedience to him. 

This is what King Benjamin was teaching his people. Salvation comes through the atonement and it is through the atonement we are saved. We keep the laws because we're obedient, but it's a constant search of how we can give our heart to the Lord and be filled with his love - his love roots out all evil and has the power to save!