This verse further clarifies that, by “intercession,” Lehi means Christ’s atonement rather than pleading before God. Because of the atonement/intercession, “all men come unto God” who will judge us. The criteria of judgment was “the truth and holiness which is in him,” not the Messiah’s pleading. The atonement brings us before God, and his judgment there is on our own merits.
Lehi gives an abbreviated explanation of the relationship between the atonement and justice. Once the Redeemer admits us to the judgment bar, it is possible to administer justice fairly; therefore the “ends of the law” are answered. His point is that applying judgment according to the law while we were on earth was impossible, for the law only condemns us (v. 5) without the Savior’s redemptive sacrifice.
Lehi’s next phrase provides a deft transition to his next important concept: the concept of reward/punishment that constitutes part of the judgment. He is less interested in rewards or punishments, however, than in the conceptual distance between the two opposing principles of “punishment” and “happiness.” Thus, Lehi uses the judgment as a transition from the concept of the atonement to Lehi’s doctrine of opposition.