Elder Jeffrey R. Holland observed: “For each accountable person, transgression against eternal law has been committed, and the subsequent judgment has been passed. We, like our parents before us, have ‘sinned, and come short of the glory of God’ (Romans 3:23). But we have a merciful judge and a compassionate, sacrificing Mediator. They have given us time to repent and thereby alter our sentence. Our judge and our advocate are doing everything possible, within the allowable limits of justice, to give us a way out of our plight. If we truly wish to sidestep the spiritual death penalty, we may” (Christ and the New Covenant, 210).