The purposeful transgression of Adam and Eve helped all of us become as God, learning by our own experience the difference between good and evil. So here we are, in a fallen condition and on probation. We are cut off physically and spiritually from God’s presence (though we can enjoy his presence here as we spiritually obey). It was not a good idea to merely rescue us from physical death—“that would destroy the great plan of happiness.” We need to experience physical death, too. But in our helpless condition we did need to be reclaimed or redeemed from the spiritual death. God himself would provide the needed redemption. Were it not for that redemption we would have remained in the grasp of justice, cut off from our eternal home, and we would be miserable forever.
Justice is a law of consequences. For every act of obedience there is a blessing; for every violation of divine law a punishment. Mercy is a law of redemption and restoration. Through the Atonement, individuals are redeemed or rescued from the demands of broken laws and restored to the path leading to perfection. Individuals are first declared not guilty and then they begin to be cleansed internally. Every broken law is still paid for: it is not dismissed but paid for by Christ’s suffering. Without Christ’s redemption, all of humankind would have been “lost forever” (Alma 42:6). Each of us would have become subject to the devil forever (2 Nephi 9:7), which is the same fate the sons of perdition suffer.45 Thus, all of us would have become like sons of perdition.
Justice cannot be robbed, but it can be appeased. The eternal plan provided for payment of the demands of justice by the Atonement, or sacrifice, of God himself. The Savior redeems us by his suffering in place of our suffering! Laws and punishments are fixed, all infractions must be paid for, but repentance is provided, and mercy claims the penitent.
The Atonement provides resurrection, and therefore all are brought back into the presence of God (see commentary and “Two Inseparable Parts of the Plan” at 2 Nephi 2:8–10), thus undoing all the consequences of the Fall: all of humankind being physically and spiritually separated from his presence. Thus—and here is the key to the whole plan—“justice exerciseth all his demands, and also mercy claimeth all which is her own”; in other words, justice and mercy are both satisfied, and “none but the truly penitent are saved.” All sin has been paid for, and all suffering has been accomplished—if we will only repent. That is our indispensable part.