It is strange that there should be so much confusion about the nature and purpose of Jesus's atoning sacrifice. It is well known that through the sin of Adam, death came into the world. That death was not only physical but spiritual; for man was driven out from the presence of God. Adam broke a divine law. Necessarily, punishment, came to him. Now, in accordance with the law of justice, Adam and his children could be redeemed from death, and restored to the presence of God, only by satisfying in some way the broken law. How could that be done? We have learned, you remember, that there was a council in heaven before the earth was formed. There the whole plan of salvation was revealed. Jesus was appointed to become the Christ. His mission was to teach men to know God, that they might be prepared to return to Him, and through His own death to satisfy the demands of justice and thus to break the bands of physical death. This may, perhaps, be a little difficult to understand, but it is certainly what Jesus taught; for the learned Paul wrote, "If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the first fruits; afterward they that are Christ's at His coming." This, too, is the testimony of John the Baptizer, who exclaimed when he saw Jesus approaching from the distance, "Behold {276} the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world;" and also of John the Beloved, who wrote in his Book of Revelation, "All that dwell upon the earth shall worship Him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." [Sidenote: The Nephite explanation.] To the Nephites, the nature and purpose of the atoning sacrifice was made particularly plain. We read thus: "Now, behold, if Adam had not transgressed, he would not have fallen; but he would have remained in the garden of Eden. And all things which were created, must have remained in the same state which they were after they were created; and they must have remained forever and had no end. And they would have had no children; wherefore, they would have remained in a state of innocence; having no joy, for they knew no misery; doing no good, for they knew no sin. But behold, all things have been done in the wisdom of Him who knoweth all things. Adam fell that men might be; and men are that they might have joy.