Question
Gramps,
Why did Heavenly Father need a human sacrifice in His plan for us to be resurrected?
Elizabeth
Answer
Elizabeth,
The sacrifice Jesus wrought for us was essential in providing a way back to Heavenly Father.
I would like to use an example that President Boyd K. Packer used in explaining the Atonement. He used the example of a man who owed money to a creditor. The man had to pay back the creditor, yet he did not possess the money to do so.
While President Packer used this in explanation of the spiritual need for Jesus’ sacrifice, it also applies to the physical need, and here is where the atonement steps far beyond human participation.
We are unable to pay the spiritual debt we owe due to our sins, but we also are unable to pay the physical debt we owe due to our mortality.
In order for the atonement to be effectual, the sacrifice had to be given by one who owed nothing to either sin or death. We already understand that Jesus was free of sin. What we often overlook is that He was, through Heavenly Father, also able to remain free of death.
Had any human, even if we assume they were spiritually perfect, attempted the atonement in Jesus’ place, they would have failed because they would have died long before the physical suffering was complete.
However, Jesus could place himself beyond the reach of death as long as needed. The sacrifice had to be a willing one, not one mandated by physical nature. Man, by his nature cannot escape death.
Jesus, by his nature, and because Heavenly Father was actually the father of his physical body, had the power within himself to choose to die. Jesus explained this in John 10:17-18
17 Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again.
18 No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.
Thus the sacrifice Jesus wrought was done by His active will or agency. He did not die until he knew his work had been completed. Because of this, the atonement was no human sacrifice, but indeed the sacrifice of the God of Israel as prophecied in the Old Testament.
In this we see the love of God in that Christ was willing to endure what was needed. It was the only way it could be done, and he did so without hesitation. What a marvelous work and a wonder indeed.
Gramps