Section 21: The Atonement — What LDS Believes

LDS theology affirms the atonement of Jesus Christ and considers it central to the plan of salvation. However, the content of what the atonement accomplishes, and the mechanism by which it benefits individuals, differs from the apostolic gospel at several significant points.

The atonement in LDS theology is often located primarily in Gethsemane rather than the cross. Christ's suffering in the garden, which LDS teaching describes as him taking upon himself the sins, pains, sicknesses, and infirmities of all humanity, is frequently emphasized above the crucifixion itself. This is not universal in LDS teaching, and many Latter-day Saints affirm the cross as well, but the Gethsemane emphasis reflects a distinctive LDS theological instinct.

More significantly: in LDS soteriology, the atonement makes exaltation "possible." It removes the barrier of sin so that a person can enter the pathway of exaltation. But the exaltation itself requires faithful compliance with the laws and ordinances of the gospel. Christ's atonement provides the condition; the individual's obedience to the institution's requirements provides the substance. Grace enables effort. Effort earns exaltation.

"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God — not by works, so that no one can boast."

— Ephesians 2:8–9

ERROR IDENTIFIED: 2 Nephi 25:23 — a Book of Mormon verse — states: "it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do." The three-word addition — "after all we can do" — inverts the Pauline gospel. In the Pauline gospel, grace precedes and enables human response. In the LDS gospel as derived from this verse, grace follows and ratifies human effort. The result is a system where salvation is provisionally made available through Christ's atonement and then fully realized through institutional compliance. This is the Galatians 1:8 gospel Paul warned against, wearing the vocabulary of grace while functioning as a system of merit.