Alma 34:14-16 -- On Law and Mercy

"And behold, this is the whole meaning of the law, every whit pointing to that great and last sacrifice; and that great and last sacrifice will be the Son of God, yea, infinite and eternal.
And thus he shall bring salvation to all those who shall believe on his name; this being the intent of this last sacrifice, to bring about the bowels of mercy, which overpowereth justice, and bringeth about means unto men that they may have faith unto repentance.
And thus mercy can satisfy the demands of justice, and encircles them in the arms of safety, while he that exercises no faith unto repentance is exposed to the whole law of the demands of justice; therefore only unto him that has faith unto repentance is brought about the great and eternal plan of redemption."
Alma 34:14-16


This struck me today because I was thinking about what the idea of an infinite sacrifice really meant. It couldn't just be putting off justice for a while, but needed to be a permanent solution. There's an old Greek story of Damon and Pythias where Damon agrees to accept death in Pythias' place should he not return, but while that might be an ideal in terms of friendship, as Alma 34 explains, justice just doesn't work that way (Alma 34:11). If Pythias is indeed a traitor, Damon dying in his place doesn't stop the rebellion, and doesn't blot his misdeeds from existence or prevent it from happening again the way that killing Pythias would. Damon could die and Pythias would be exactly the same, still a traitor, and still deserving of death according to the law. That essentially would be robbing justice, leaving it unfulfilled.

So, how could you possibly overcome that hurdle and make it so that Pythias can actually go home and say goodbye to his family and still pay for his misdeeds? Damon's offer just isn't enough. You'd have to have access to some future tech maybe and put a little bomb in his head so that after the time it took for him to get home, he automatically died. You'd be risking him passing on the order to rebel still, and maybe just turning around to assassinate the king anyway. Maybe, if you wanted to save his life at the cost of his mental freedom, some scary future tech could probably also wipe the rebellion and the desire to rebel out of Pythias' brain. That would satisfy justice perhaps, because Pythias couldn't continue the rebellion or break the law anymore, but likely it would also destroy your society as all of your citizens slowly became less than human, being programmed and controlled by the government. That seems like Satan's plan.

Christ's plan was more immense. Damon could never have done it, but Christ could take the place of his friends and have it actually satisfy the law because it was mind-bogglingly, astronomically more ambitious. He could look at all of time and space and guarantee that the eternal justice system as a whole would balance out, not guaranteeing Pythias' temporary obedience, but going to the heart of the law that he violated, and every other law, breaking down the essential reasons behind all law, and guaranteeing that justice would be paid. He took on the consequences of every sin and mistake and law violation for every person to ever live, forever... but not just the consequences, but the guarantee on the other end that lives would be changed and the violations would stop. He took responsibility for all of that on himself, and though it would have been too large a burden for anyone else, he endured it, and stands in for us all so that we, like Pythias, have time to say our goodbyes and get our lives in order before we face justice.

Christ guarantees eventual perfect justice, and thus fulfils the law, overpowering justice without robbing it, and leaving room for mercy through repentance and change. We still have to change in order to live. ... On some level we kind of have to go back in time and undo what we were... like if Pythias could go back and change his treason. If we take the life that Christ offers us, we can essentially undo our sins by becoming people who wouldn't have done them in the first place. Christ gives us repentance for that reason, so that our scarlet sins can be white again, and we can choose to be different.

Today, let's remember what extraordinary measures Christ had to go to in order to save us, and let's work on becoming better people and changing the scary, stupid, evil things we do into something better.