Scripture Sunday: "who He meant to save"

I highly recommend the song Behold The Wounds in Jesus' Hands. {Click the title for sheet music.} These are the lyrics, by John V. Pearson:

Behold the wounds in Jesus' hands

The marks upon His side

Then ponder who He meant to save

When on the cross He died

We cannot see the love of God

Which saves us from the fall

Yet know that Christ from wood and nails

Built mansions for us all

Behold the outstretched hands of Christ

Our God, who came to save

Whose love and grace redeem our souls

And lifts us from the grave

Though bruised and battered as we stray

His guiding hands caress

He washes and anoints with oil

Then in His arms we rest

Behold the wounds in Jesus' hands

Look to your Lord and live

He yearns to bless you with his love

And all your sins forgive

Oh empty is the heart of man

When it is filled with sin

Come, open wide your broken heart

And let your Savior in

Behold His wounded hands and feet

Come touch and see and feel

The wounds and marks that you may know

His love for you is real

Then as you fall to worship Him

And wash His feet in tears

Your Savior takes you in His arms

And quiets all your fears

Who did the Savior mean to save? I love the way I feel when I think about his Atonement. I believe He atoned for me and for everyone. I believe that in the garden of Gethsemane, and again on the cross, He felt all of our heartaches, and that therefore He understands them. He, the only sinless one, did for us what we could not do for ourselves. I believe that because of His resurrection, every person who has lived, everyone who lives now, and everyone who will live will be resurrected, too. He wants to save us all, because He loves us.

"Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners" (1 Timothy 1:15).

"And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world" (1 John 4:14).

"We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel" (Articles of Faith 1:3).

"And he commandeth all men that they must repent, and be baptized in his name, having perfect faith in the Holy One of Israel, or they cannot be saved in the kingdom of God" (2 Nephi 9:23).

"he inviteth them all to come unto him and partake of his goodness; and he denieth none that come unto him, black and white, bond and free, male and female" (2 Nephi 26:33).

Christ himself said, "For behold, I, God, have suffered ^athese things for all, that they might not suffer ^bif they would repent; but if they would not repent they must suffer even as I; which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit — and would that I might not drink the bitter cup, and shrink — nevertheless, glory be to the Father, and I partook and finished ^amy preparations unto the children of men" (Doctrine and Covenants 19:16-19).

I want to echo Nephi, who wrote, "And I pray the Father in the name of Christ that many of us, if not all, may be saved in his kingdom at that great and last day" (2 Nephi 33:12).