The Only One Capable

In the Guide to the Scriptures it says this about the Savior’s ability to redeem us: “Jesus Christ was the only one capable of making a perfect atonement for all mankind. He was able to do so because of His selection and foreordination in the Grand Council before the world was formed (Ether 3:14; Moses 4:1–2; Abr. 3:27), His divine Sonship, and His sinless life.” Typically, as we talk about why the Savior could atone for our sins, we highlight that last reason, that He was sinless. Jesus alluded to His sinlessness in these words during mortality: “And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him” (John 8:29). Paul taught clearly, “For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” And the Savior also highlighted that He had not sinned in a revelation to the Prophet Joseph: “Listen to him who is the advocate with the Father, who is pleading your cause before him—Saying: Father, behold the sufferings and death of him who did no sin, in whom thou wast well pleased; behold the blood of thy Son which was shed, the blood of him whom thou gavest that thyself might be glorified” (Doctrine and Covenants 45:3-4). Because He had committed no sin, because He was without blemish like all those sacrifices of perfect lambs under the law of Moses, He could plead with the Father on our behalf and His sufferings could pay the price of our sins.

But this summary in the scripture guide highlights that being sinless was not the only requirement for Him to become our Savior and perform the atonement. If some other mortal had been able to live a sinless life (which of course no one else has), he still could not have been the one to perform the infinite atonement. It seems to me that the most important qualification that Jesus had for accomplishing this was that He was chosen by the Father to fulfill the mission before the world began. No one else could do it because no one else was called by the Father and given the authority to do so. I imagine in the great council of heaven the Father laying His hands on the spirit body of the Savior and ordaining Him to this very purpose. The scriptures allude to this selection of the Savior in the Pearl of Great Price: “And the Lord said: Whom shall I send? And one answered like unto the Son of Man: Here am I, send me. And another answered and said: Here am I, send me. And the Lord said: I will send the first” (Abraham 3:27). The premortal Jehovah underscored his preordination in these words to the brother of Jared: “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” (Ether 3:14). King Benjamin taught that the atonement “was prepared from the foundation of the world for all mankind,” suggesting that it was all planned out and Jesus was chosen before the first man came on the earth (Mosiah 4:7). It was, as Alma put it, “a preparatory redemption” and Jesus was surely “called and prepared from the foundation of the world according to the foreknowledge of God” (Alma 13:3). He was given power to fulfill His most important mission from the Father in the premortal world, and no one else could do it. Coming to the world as the Only Begotten Son of God was a testament to the fact that He alone was chosen for such a mission and given power to pay the price for all our sins. As He declared in our dispensation, “I am the true light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world; And that I am in the Father, and the Father in me, and the Father and I are one—The Father because he gave me of his fulness, and the Son because I was in the world and made flesh my tabernacle, and dwelt among the sons of men” (Doctrine and Covenants 93:2-4). The Father gave His power to the Savior so He could come to earth in the flesh as the Son and accomplish the great atoning sacrifice for all mankind.