Lessons on the Plan of Salvation
Lesson No. Thirty-Eight

Jesus was Both the Son of God and the Son of David

An infinite atonement could only be made by the Son of David and the Son of God – Jesus said:  “Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again.  No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself.  I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.  This commandment have I received of my Father” (John 10:17-18).  

As with all of us, Jesus inherited physical death when He was born to a mortal woman.  Mary was a direct descendant of King David, and therefore, He could be called the Son of David, a title he readily accepted.  (See Matthew 23:9)  In the pre-earth life Jesus was chosen to be born into mortality as the Only Begotten Son of God.  (See Abraham 3:27)   As the Son of God, He inherited power over death from His Father.

Because of his parentage He was both man and God, human and divine, mortal and immortal.  (See Mosiah 15:1-4)  Because of this, He could choose to lay down His life; no one could take it from him.  To live or to die was His choice, and one that could only be made by a God.  “He gave His life to atone for the sins of all mankind.  His was a great vicarious gift in behalf of all who would ever live upon the earth” (The Living Christ – The Testimony of the Apostles).  

This is the doctrine of Divine Sonship, and it is essential to understanding His atonement.

Our Savior voluntarily let His humanity, as the Son of David, take precedence over His divinity, as the Son of God – Elder Tad R. Callister had great insight when he wrote:  

“For those few moments in the eternal spectrum called mortality the Savior yielded to the mortal plight; he submitted to the inhumanity of man; his body longed for sleep; he hungered; he felt the pains of sickness.  He was in all respects subjected to every mortal failing experienced by the human family.  Not once did he raise the shield of Godhood in order to soften the blows.  Not once did he don the bulletproof vest of divinity.  That he had Godly power did not make his suffering any less excruciating, any less poignant, or any less real.  To the contrary, it is for this very reason that his suffering was more, not less, than his mortal counterparts could experience.  He took upon him infinite suffering, but chose to defend with only mortal faculties, with but one exception – his Godhood was summoned to hold off unconsciousness and death (i.e., the twin relief mechanisms of man) that would otherwise overpower a mere mortal when he reaches this threshold of pain.  For the Savior, however, there would be no such relief.  His divinity would be called upon, not to immunize him from pain, but to enlarge the receptacle that would hold it.  He simply brought a larger cup to hold the bitter drink” (The Infinite Atonement, p. 119).

Members of the family of Christ are to testify of His Divine Sonship – Exaltation is a family affair. We are sealed as eternal families in the temple.  There is another eternal family that we can be part of.  The Book of Mormon prophet Abinadi asks a profound question:  “Who shall declare his generation?”   He then answers:  It will be those “whose sins he has borne; these are they for whom he has died, to redeem them from their transgressions.  And now, are they not his seed?” (Mosiah 15:10-11).  His seed, the family of Christ, are those who “are spiritually begotten” and “are born of him having become his sons and his daughters” (Mosiah 5:7). 

It is the family of Christ, those who have been born again, who have the responsibility to “declare his generation.”  The family of Christ is to teach and testify of His Divine Sonship that He is both the Son of God and the Son of David.