Redemption - Romans 3:19-20

Romans is really hard for me, really, really hard. Between my avoidance, work, and the holiday, I’ve definitely been slacking. But I feel like even though I know and understand these principles, here I am learning how to capably teach them to others. Some of the concepts covered in Romans 3:19-31 are:

1. Only those who are given the law are expected to live by it. This is an interesting concept because we know that a loving God will not hold people accountable for doing things they didn’t know were wrong. But we also know that ignorance is not an excuse for disobedience in the eyes of justice. If you kill someone, even if you don’t know that it’s wrong, pain has been created, a life has been altered, and payment must be made for that.
Then how can a merciful God hold us accountable for broken laws that we didn’t even know about? The atonement allows us to spiritually grow at our own pace. Without the atonement, we would be liable for every misstep on the whole journey of our lives, making our existence, agency, and the plan of salvation meaningless. But because Jesus paid the price for our mistakes, we are not responsible for our wrongs.
That doesn’t mean, however, that we can do whatever we want, just because we aren’t beholden to the rules of the universe, doesn’t mean we aren’t beholden to anything. We are required to do our best to keep the commandments as we learn them. The beauty of the Spirit is that we are taught at a pace that allows us to grow without being overwhelmed or discouraged with our progress, pushed just enough to maintain forward movement, but not enough to derail us. Therefore, we are only responsible to live by the laws we’ve been given, either through learning the gospel, or through our own personal light of Christ.
2. Salvation doesn’t come through keeping the commandments (or the Law) but through the atonement of Jesus Christ. The only way to not need the atonement is to never make a mistake, but no one except Jesus Christ has ever been that way. I always think “it’s not fair that Jesus got to be half God and perfect. If I had been born half God, then I could have been perfect too.” But I just realized that I don’t think that that’s true. If I had been born half God, then I think I still would have used my powers for evil, like I already have done in this life.
Jesus had the capacity to sin, he just chose not to do it. We do the same thing, we have the power to choose to refrain from sin, we have that ability and like anything else, it grows stronger with practice. Jesus wasn’t perfect because he was half God, he didn’t use his Godhood for any other capacity other than the atonement. Jesus was perfect because that’s who he is, spiritually, as a person, not physically, as a God. Likewise, my ability to make righteous choices over wicked ones, has nothing to do with my physical body, but everything to do with my spirit. I am who I am on the inside, my body is a tool used by my spirit. Jesus was sinless because his spirit was perfect, it didn’t have anything to do with his body.
If salvation comes through Jesus’ atonement and forgiveness, then why does it matter if we keep the commandments? Our obedience to the commandments doesn’t redeem us; we can’t pay our debt to justice with any behavior or action. It helps me to think of it in terms of currency. What Jesus used to pay our debt to justice is completely different than anything we ourselves can produce. Therefore, justice is paid by Jesus, and we don’t “repay” him, we “obey” him. Brad Wilcox, in his talk, “His Grace is Sufficient” compared our salvation to taking piano lessons, and he asks “does the student’s piano practice pay the piano teacher?” The answer, of course, is no, the teacher gets paid in money, and practice is not money, they are two completely different currencies.
Because Jesus redeemed us from justice, he is the one who can dictate the terms of progression. But Jesus is a merciful Master, he allows us to choose, and he allows for mistakes to be made, and he forgives them.
Linearly, on this earth we make mistakes that break the commandments of God, whether purposefully or ignorantly. Because we have all broken the law at some point, in some capacity, we can not return to God again because we are guilty and owe a debt to justice. This leaves us to be under Satan’s rule after we die, which will be horrific. Jesus pays our portion of the debt to justice using currency that we can not handle, redeeming us.
The IM says, “The Greek word translated as redemption means liberation through payment of a ransom. It was a term widely used in the ancient Greco-Roman world to refer to the process of paying for slaves in order to set them free… Through the Atonement, Jesus Christ suffered and gave His life to purchase our freedom from the ‘slavery’ of death and sin.”
Because Jesus paid our debt, he grants us freedom, and we are liberated to live our lives in whatever way we choose. He has told us that if we want to live with him again in paradise, we can do our best to follow his commandments, and he will help us to eventually be made perfect. But he won’t make us do that, if we don’t want to live with Him again in paradise, then we are able to choose to not keep his commandments. There are consequences of each of these choices, if we choose obedience, we will be happy and fulfilled and live forever in that state. If we choose disobedience, we will be unhappy and grief stricken and live forever in that state. We can choose whether to obey or not, but we can’t choose the consequences. I feel like there should be some sort of infographic explaining this concept in a visual way. Maybe I’ll work on that.
I feel like this was pretty scattered but hopefully it made a little bit of sense.