Jesus’ Atonement Fulfills Covenants with His People Israel
Jesus’ atonement for this world’s transgressions didn’t happen in isolation but in fulfillment of God’s covenants with his people Israel. Although foreordained from before the foundation of the earth, it was executed within the context of God’s covenant relationship with the house of Israel.
The Abrahamic Covenant made with Israel’s ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the Sinai Covenant with Israel as a nation, the Levitical Covenant with Israel’s priests, and the Davidic Covenant with King David and his heirs—all foreshadowed Jesus’ great atonement for sin.
The Sinai Covenant—God’s collective agreement with the house of Israel—obligated God to deliver them from evil if they kept his commandments or the terms of his covenant. In the act of saving them spiritually himself and temporally by his angels, mercy overpowered strict justice.
Isaiah 63:7–9
I will recount in praise of Jehovah
Jehovah’s loving favors,
according to all that Jehovah has done for us,
according to the great kindness
he has mercifully and most graciously
rendered the house of Israel.
For he thought, Surely they are my people,
sons who will not play false;
and so he became their Savior:
with all their troubles he troubled himself,
the angel of his presence delivering them.
In his love and compassion
he himself redeemed them;
he lifted them up and carried them
all the days of old.
Only when all of God’s covenants with the house of Israel were in place did Jehovah/Jesus come down and implement his atonement for sin. Even then, all waited until Israel had been exiled and scattered among the nations so that an entire humanity could participate in Israel’s blessings.
Isaiah 45:22–24
Turn to me and save yourselves,
all you ends of the earth;
I am God, there is none other.
By myself I swear it—
righteousness has issued from my mouth,
by a decree that cannot be revoked:
To me every knee shall bow
and every tongue swear [allegiance].
It shall be said of me,
By Jehovah alone come vindication and might.
In Jehovah/Jesus meld together in a single act of love (1) proxy atonement as prefigured by animal sacrifice under the Law of Moses, and (2) proxy salvation as performed by a righteous king who answers for his people’s disloyalties to God under the terms of the Davidic Covenant.
Isaiah 53:7–8
Like a lamb led to slaughter,
like a sheep, dumb before its shearers,
he opened not his mouth.
By arrest and trial he was taken away.
Who can apprise his generation
that he was cut off from the land of the living
for the crime of my people
to whom the blow was due?
Jehovah himself—he who alone begets “peace” and “healing” (Isaiah 19:22; 26:12; 30:26; 45:7; 57:18–19)—paid the price of his people’s peace and healing. Only one who was pure and holy— Israel’s divine King, a sacrifice without blemish—could obtain his people’s spiritual salvation.
Isaiah 53:4–6
He bore our sufferings, endured our griefs,
though we thought him stricken,
smitten of God, and humbled.
But he was pierced for our transgressions,
crushed because of our iniquities;
the price of our peace he incurred,
and with his wounds we are healed.
We all like sheep had gone astray,
each of us headed his own way;
Jehovah brought together upon himself
the iniquity of us all.
Mosiah 15:1
And now Abinadi said unto them: I would that ye should understand that God himself shall come down among the children of men, and shall redeem his people.
Jehovah himself—he who alone begets “peace” and “healing” (Isaiah 19:22; 26:12; 30:26; 45:7; 57:18–19)—paid the price of his people’s peace and healing. Only one who was pure and holy— Israel’s divine King, a sacrifice without blemish—could obtain his people’s spiritual salvation.
Blessings of God’s covenants with his people Israel and their ancestors include deliverance from death—the ultimate mortal threat—spiritual and temporal. By dying in the flesh and rising again, Jehovah/Jesus assured the resurrection of all who acknowledged him as their proxy Savior.
Isaiah 26:19
So shall your dead live when their bodies arise.
[You will say to them,]
Awake, and sing for joy,
you who abide in the dust:
your dew is the dew of sunrise!
For the earth shall cast up its dead.
Mosiah 15:8–9
Thus God breaketh the bands of death, having gained the victory over death; giving the Son power to make intercession for the children of men. Having ascended into heaven, having the bowels of mercy; being filled with compassion towards the children of men; standing betwixt them and justice; having broken the bands of death, taken upon himself their iniquity and their transgressions, having redeemed them, and satisfied the demands of justice.
From Jehovah/Jesus’ atonement for this world’s transgressions and his power over death derive all salvation, spiritual and temporal, past, present, and future. Even his blessing of humanity from the beginning and his promise of resurrection occurred in lieu of his great Atonement.
Mosiah 15:19–20
Were it not for the redemption which he hath made for his people, which was prepared from the foundation of the world, I say unto you, were it not for this, all mankind must have perished. But behold, the bands of death shall be broken, and the Son reigneth, and hath power over the dead; therefore, he bringeth to pass the resurrection of the dead.
Israel’s end-time redemption, in which Babylon descends into the dust and Zion rises from the dust, is made possible through the salvation that flows from Jehovah/Jesus’ atonement for sin. All temporal salvation—physical deliverance from enemies—is made possible because of it.
Isaiah 47:1–3
Get down and sit in the dust,
O Virgin Daughter of Babylon;
squat on the ground, dethroned,
O Daughter of the Chaldeans.
You shall no more be spoken of
as delicate and refined.
Take two grindstones and grind flour;
unveil, disrobe, bare your legs,
wade through streams:
your nakedness shall be exposed
and your shame uncovered.
Just as his people Israel sang songs of salvation when God delivered them out of bondage in Egypt and made them victorious over pharaoh’s army (Exodus 15), so do God’s end-time elect. The oppression of bondage in Babylon and subjection to the Assyrian alliance will cease forever.
Isaiah 25:9
In that day you will say, This is our God,
whom we expected would save us.
This is Jehovah for whom we have waited;
let us joyfully celebrate his salvation!
Isaiah 25:1
I will extol you by praising your name.
For with perfect faithfulness
you have performed wonders,
things planned of old.
Read More Key Book of Mormon Areas of Interest
Recommended Reading
& Listening
Avraham Gileadi, Endtime Prophecy: A Judeo-Mormon Analysis. A masterwork of scriptural
enlightenment that disabuses reader’s minds of precepts of men that have crept into LDS and Judeo-Christian religion and that reveals what the scriptures actually say about our day. Hebraeus Press, 2018: 458 pages. Softcover $27.95; E-Book $13.95; MP3 $13.95.
Book of Mormon Isaiah Areas of Interest
