The Power of His Redemption

Of the forty uses of the word Redeemer in the Book of Mormon, exactly half are found in the first two books of Nephi. This is not surprising given the affinity of Nephi for the words of Isaiah. Isaiah used the word Redeemer more than any other Old Testament prophet, and some of those were quoted by Nephi. In fact, Nephi prefaced his longest quotation of Isaiah with these words: “And now I, Nephi, write more of the words of Isaiah, for my soul delighteth in his words. For I will liken his words unto my people, and I will send them forth unto all my children, for he verily saw my Redeemer, even as I have seen him” (2 Nephi 11:2). One of the reasons that Nephi quoted Isaiah was because he saw the Redeemer and wrote of Him, such as in this passage: “And thus saith the Lord, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; I have sent him, the Lord thy God who teacheth thee to profit, who leadeth thee by the way thou shouldst go, hath done it” (1 Nephi 20:17, see also Isaiah 48:17). Surely this was an important scripture to Nephi because of the way that the Lord, the Redeemer, had led him and his family through the wilderness to the promised land. He had indeed taught them to profit and led them by the way they should go. Elder Christofferson taught, “Among the most significant of Jesus Christ’s descriptive titles is Redeemer…. The word redeem means to pay off an obligation or a debt. Redeem can also mean to rescue or set free as by paying a ransom. If someone commits a mistake and then corrects it or makes amends, we say he has redeemed himself. Each of these meanings suggests different facets of the great Redemption accomplished by Jesus Christ through His Atonement, which includes, in the words of the dictionary, ‘to deliver from sin and its penalties, as by a sacrifice made for the sinner.’” Perhaps the most significant of those meanings for Nephi was that of being rescued, for Nephi was rescued multiple times: the Redeemer saved him from his siblings and from starvation and from the storms of the sea. This prophecy Nephi gave about the last days surely had application to himself: “Wherefore, he will bring them again out of captivity, and they shall be gathered together to the lands of their inheritance; and they shall be brought out of obscurity and out of darkness; and they shall know that the Lord is their Savior and their Redeemer, the Mighty One of Israel” (1 Nephi 22:12). Nephi came to know his Redeemer and the power of His great atoning sacrifice as the Lord rescued him from captivity and brought him to his land of inheritance.

                Perhaps then as we think about the word Redeemer we would do well to remember that this means He is our Rescuer. And this implies that we too should try to be a rescuer to others as much as we can. Elder Christofferson, in the same address, told this story about how his mother helped rescue another. He recounted, “Many years ago when her children were young, my mother underwent a serious operation that nearly took her life and left her bedridden much of the time for nearly a year. During this time, family and ward members helped Mother and our family. For additional help, the ward Relief Society president, Sister Abraham, recommended that my parents hire a woman in the ward who desperately needed work.” His mother recounted what happened, “There I lay in bed, and Sister Abraham brought Sara to the bedroom door. My heart sank. There stood the least attractive person I had ever met—so thin; scraggly, unkempt hair; round-shouldered; head bowed looking at the floor. She wore an old housedress four sizes too big. She wouldn’t look up and spoke so softly I couldn’t hear her. Hiding behind her was a little girl about three years old. What in the world was I to do with this creature?” But Sara started working in her home and eventually Elder Christofferson’s mom learned her story: “Because she was hard of hearing, she didn’t do well in school and eventually dropped out. She married young to a dissolute man. Annie was born and became the joy of Sara’s life. One winter night her husband came home drunk, forced Sara and Annie into the car in their bedclothes, and then dropped them off by the side of the highway. They never saw him again. Barefoot and freezing, Sara and Annie walked several miles to her mother’s home.” As she worked in the home of Elder Christofferson, they helped Sara to put her life back together: “We took Sara to an ear doctor, and she got a hearing aid. … We got her to take adult schooling, and she got her high school diploma. She went to night school and later graduated from college and taught special education. She bought a little home. Annie was married in the temple and had two children. Sara eventually had some operations on her ears and was finally able to hear well. Years later she retired and served a mission.” They had helped rescue her and helped redeem her, just as the Redeemer can rescue us as we turn to Him for His grace. Elder Christofferson testified and invited us in these words: “As disciples of Jesus Christ, we ought to do all we can to redeem others from suffering and burdens. Even so, our greatest redemptive service will be to lead them to Christ. Without His Redemption from death and from sin, we have only a gospel of social justice. That may provide some help and reconciliation in the present, but it has no power to draw down from heaven perfect justice and infinite mercy. Ultimate redemption is in Jesus Christ and in Him alone.” As we seek to help others come unto Christ, we will find for them and us "the power of His redemption” that can rescue us from all the difficulties of mortality (Omni 1:26).