I always love being taught the true gospel.

I never knew you have this page or site.

I’ll be more active now.

Long answer: My reference refers to our personal lack of capacity to pay for our own sins. If we were able to truly pay for our own sins, that is, to eternally satisfy the demands of God’s justice, whatever those demands are, then we would not need a Savior, would we? As I see it, if we were able to pay for our own sins we could each come to earth, mess up all we liked then pay with whatever suffering the eternal laws required, but in the end we would be completely forgiven for our sins and able to return to God, whole and complete. But we can’t. We don’t have the capacity to do it. Only Christ does.

Even for those who completely reject his atoning sacrifice and have to go through the process of suffering in hell, in the end, it is his payment on our behalf that releases us from hell to receive whatever degree of glory we will get in the hereafter. Yes, we will have to suffer like he did. It will be excruciating. But in the end we will still be released from that suffering. Why? Because of Christ. He, and only he could do for us what we could not do for ourselves. His atoning sacrifice will be responsible for every ounce of glory any child of God receives in the eternities. We all owe him a great debt of gratitude for his willingness to suffer for us in a way we were not capable of doing for ourselves.

Our problem is that we need to be changed so that when we pay for our sins we no longer have a desire to repeat them. If we can’t guarantee we will never repeat the sin then how can we be eternally forgiven. Christ paid for our sins in such a way that as we repent of our sins and seek to become like him, the Spirit changes our nature so we lose our desire to sin. This is what I understand by the meaning of “casting off the natural man.” Because of how he paid for our sins, when we repent we become more like him, no longer desiring to live after the desires of the flesh, more holy and pure, like him. In this way we become people who no longer commit the sins that got us into such trouble in the first place.

It is this ability for us to try, and try, and try again, that makes the atoning sacrifice of Christ so unique. It is this ability that gives his payment such power. As long as we are willing to repent and try again, we can be forgiven, something we could not do without him.

This is my understanding of how the atoning sacrifice works. I hope this answers your question.

It sounds like you are saying that if we don’t take advantage of Christ’s atonement, we will be punished but will be unable to bear it. If that’s what you are saying, this is the first time I’ve ever heard that taught.

Thanks,
B.Emery