Focusing on the Atonement of Jesus Christ

John W. Welch

In this third section of his speech, Benjamin explains that the Lord shall suffer temptations and pain of body, hunger, thirst and fatigue, even more than a man can suffer. There are limits to our physical suffering—the body will check out at a certain extreme point. But perhaps there are not such limits to spiritual suffering, for Jesus would suffer more than a mortal could suffer. The angel says that Jesus would suffer so intensely that blood cometh from every pore (3:7). Symbolically, his blood is sprinkled from his body on all the world as he is performing that Atonement, much like the high priest did on the Day of Atonement as he sprinkled the sacrificial blood on the altar and on the people.

Jesus voluntarily offered to do this in the pre-mortal realm, and he carried through with it. The most amazing part of all of this—on top of all the pain and suffering—is that at any time, even after he said "Not my will but thine be done," he could have checked out or called down the powers of heaven to intervene on his behalf.

Further Reading

Book of Mormon Central, "Did Jesus Bleed from Every Pore? (Mosiah 3:7)," KnoWhy 520 (June 13, 2019).

John W. Welch Notes

References