Hope Through the Atonement of Christ

As Moroni finished the record, wandering alone after the destruction of his people, he recorded these words of his father: “And what is it that ye shall hope for? Behold I say unto you that ye shall have hope through the atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection, to be raised unto life eternal, and this because of your faith in him according to the promise” (Moroni 7:41). As he spent decades without friend or family, Moroni must have found great hope for himself in the atonement and grace of Jesus Christ. Indeed, many of the words that he wrote down for us on the plates during those final years testify of the Savior’s sacrifice and grace and power to cleanse us. He urged us, “O then ye unbelieving, turn ye unto the Lord; cry mightily unto the Father in the name of Jesus, that perhaps ye may be found spotless, pure, fair, and white, having been cleansed by the blood of the Lamb, at that great and last day.” Despite the depravity around him, Moroni knew that he could be cleansed through the blood of the Lamb of God. He must have found great hope in the promise of resurrection through Christ as he wrote, “And because of the fall of man came Jesus Christ, even the Father and the Son; and because of Jesus Christ came the redemption of man. And because of the redemption of man, which came by Jesus Christ, they are brought back into the presence of the Lord; yea, this is wherein all men are redeemed, because the death of Christ bringeth to pass the resurrection, which bringeth to pass a redemption from an endless sleep, from which sleep all men shall be awakened by the power of God when the trump shall sound” (Mormon 9:6, 12-13). In recording the story of the brother of Jared he was clearly moved by what he read (Moroni spoke of “the overpowering of man to read them”) and surely that was related to the witness of Jesus Christ he found therein (Ether 12:24). That included these words of the Savior: “Behold, I am he who was prepared from the foundation of the world to redeem my people. Behold, I am Jesus Christ. I am the Father and the Son. In me shall all mankind have life, and that eternally, even they who shall believe on my name; and they shall become my sons and my daughters” (Ether 3:14). Eternal life comes to us because of the redemption of Jesus Christ which was prepared from before the foundation of the world.

            As Moroni sought himself to grapple with his weakness and come unto the Savior for grace, he wrote: “And again, I remember that thou hast said that thou hast loved the world, even unto the laying down of thy life for the world, that thou mightest take it again to prepare a place for the children of men.” He came to know for himself that Christ had laid down his life for the world and he left this powerful witness and invitation: “And then shall ye know that I have seen Jesus, and that he hath talked with me face to face, and that he told me in plain humility, even as a man telleth another in mine own language, concerning these things;… And now, I would commend you to seek this Jesus of whom the prophets and apostles have written, that the grace of God the Father, and also the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost, which beareth record of them, may be and abide in you forever” (Ether 12:33, 39, 41). Moroni came to feel of the power of the grace of Jesus Christ in his own life, which come because the Savior laid down his life for us. He also wrote of the cleansing power of Jesus in these words: “And then also cometh the Jerusalem of old; and the inhabitants thereof, blessed are they, for they have been washed in the blood of the Lamb; and they are they who were scattered and gathered in from the four quarters of the earth, and from the north countries, and are partakers of the fulfilling of the covenant which God made with their father, Abraham” (Ether 13:11). Moroni invited us to seek out the Savior and be cleansed through His blood, just as the prayer on the sacrament says: “That they may do it in remembrance of the blood of thy Son, which was shed for them” (Moroni 5:2). Moroni wanted us to know that the Savior’s blood was shed for us, and he closed the book with this powerful invitation: “Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness;… And again, if ye by the grace of God are perfect in Christ, and deny not his power, then are ye sanctified in Christ by the grace of God, through the shedding of the blood of Christ, which is in the covenant of the Father unto the remission of your sins, that ye become holy, without spot” (Moroni 10:32-33). Through the shedding of the blood of Christ we can each become holy and be perfected in Him.

Moroni’s hope was in Jesus Christ, and that hope gave him the strength to endure the loneliness and suffering of those final decades of his life. Surely his father’s words stuck with him long after Mormon was killed: “My son, be faithful in Christ; and may not the things which I have written grieve thee, to weigh thee down unto death; but may Christ lift thee up, and may his sufferings and death, and the showing his body unto our fathers, and his mercy and long-suffering, and the hope of his glory and of eternal life, rest in your mind forever” (Moroni 9:25). No matter what our own sufferings and trials are, we can each be lifted up through Christ and find hope through His sufferings, death, and resurrection.