The Merciful Plan of the Great Creator

2 Nephi 9 is one of the greatest chapters on the “merciful plan of the great Creator”—the plan of salvation—in scripture and it contains a powerful witness from Jacob about great events of our eternal journey (v6).  There is a brief allusion to the premortal existence when Jacob taught that “because man became fallen they were cut off from the presence of the Lord,” suggesting, then, that before the Fall we existed in the presence of the Lord (2 Nephi 9:6).  But most of the chapter covers events that will happen after this life.  Here are some of the truths about the plan that I think we come to understand better because of Jacob’s teachings:

·        When we die we “return to God, and behold his face” (v38).  I believe this verse is talking about the same time period as Alma 40:11 where we will have some encounter with the divine after death and as we go into the spirit world.  Jacob taught that this encounter, though, won’t take away our sins if we have not already taken care of those through the Savior.   

·        Hell, the place after death where liars and those who commit whoredoms go (v34, 36), is a temporary state: “This death of which I have spoken, which is the spiritual death, shall deliver up its dead; which spiritual death is hell; wherefore, death and hell must deliver up their dead, and hell must deliver up its captive spirits” (v12).  The punishments for their sins that some who reject Christ must endure is not a final state of the wicked but a temporary punishment. 

·        The punishment for those who do not repent and believe in Christ is that “they must be damned” (v24).  In other words, it’s not that they suffer forever but that they stop progressing. 

·        The place where a certain class of wicked are punished forever is not the same place as hell but is the final dwelling place of the devil and his angels.  They will go into “everlasting fire” that is like a “lake of fire and brimstone whose flame ascendeth up forever and ever and has no end” (v16).  That is not the fate, though, for the vast majority of wicked on the earth who suffer through hell. 

·        All men and women will be raised from the dead: “Because of the way of deliverance of our God, the Holy One of Israel, this death, of which I have spoken, which is the temporal, shall deliver up its dead; which death is the grave” (v11).

·        The final judgment takes place after the resurrection: “When all men shall have passed from this first death unto life, insomuch as they have become immortal, they must appear before the judgment-seat of the Holy One of Israel” (v15).

·        The whole plan is possible because of the “infinite atonement” and “the wisdom of God, his mercy and grace!”  For “save it should be an infinite atonement this corruption could not put on incorruption” (v7).

Perhaps the most important message of the chapter is the power of the Savior’s suffering for us that paves the way for our salvation.  Jacob made this incredible statement: “And he cometh into the world that he may save all men if they will hearken unto his voice; for behold, he suffereth the pains of all men, yea, the pains of every living creature, both men, women, and children, who belong to the family of Adam” (v21).  ALL pain—not just sin—has been suffered for by the Savior.  All living beings whether a child or adult, a man or a woman, have had their pains felt by the Savior.  And because of that, “the resurrection might pass upon all men” (v22).  As Jacob witnessed, “O the greatness of the mercy of our God, the Holy One of Israel!” (v19)