Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Did It "Please" Father in Heaven to "Bruise" His Son?

Isaiah 53:10. Did It "Please" Father in Heaven to "Bruise" His Son?

Obviously God was not pleased with the way men treated Jesus, but he was pleased with His son's "offering for sin" (Isaiah 53:10). The Atonement met the strictest demands of God's innate justice and made forgiveness and mercy possible on certain terms.
Elder Melvin J. Ballard explained why it pleased God not to interfere: "In that hour I think I can see our dear Father behind the veil looking upon these dying struggles until even he could not endure it any longer; and like the mother who bids farewell to her dying child, has to be taken out of the room, so as not to look upon the last struggles, so He bowed his head, and hid in some part of His universe, his great heart almost breaking for the love that he had for his Son, Oh, in that moment when he might have saved his Son, I thank him and praise him that he did not fail us, for he had not only the love of his Son in mind, but he also had love for us. I rejoice that he did not interfere, and that his love for us made it possible for him to endure to look upon the sufferings of His Son and give him finally to us, our Savior and our Redeemer. Without him, without his sacrifice, we would have remained, and we would never have come glorified into His presence. And so this is what it cost, in part, for our Father In Heaven to give the gift of his Son unto men."
(Bryant S. Hinckley, Sermons and Missionary Services, Melvin Joseph Ballard, pp. 154-55.)

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