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

The Atonement of Christ Makes the Blessings of the Holy Resurrection Possible

The resurrection of all mankind is made possible by the power of the atonement of Christ – Jesus rose from the grave to “become the firstfruits of them that slept” (1 Corinthians 15:20), and through the power of His atonement all people who have ever lived on the earth will be resurrected.  (See 3 Nephi 27:14-15)  

From latter day revelation we know that after His death and prior to His resurrection Jesus ministered in the spirit world and introduced the work of the redemption of the dead.  The righteous dead, beginning at that time, are given power to come forth, after his resurrection from the dead, to enter into his Father’s kingdom, there to be crowned with immortality and eternal life” (D&C 138:51, emphasis mine). 

The Lord said that “in the ordinances [of the priesthood] the power of godliness is manifest” (D&C 84:20).  I believe that by the power of the atonement of Christ, made available through an ordinance of the priesthood, the righteous dead are given power to come forth in a celestial resurrection, with an exalted body, crowned with immortality and eternal life.       

Celestial couples are resurrected together – Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob and Rachel, and many other righteous couples who were waiting in the spirit world had their marriages sealed for time and eternity while on the earth.  Because of the atonement of Christ now these righteous couples could be resurrected together and with their families be crowned with immortality and eternal life” (D&C 138:51).

The Prophet Joseph Smith compared coming forth “in the morning of the resurrection” with when we lie down at night with our eternal companion and best friend “locked in the arms of love, to sleep and wake in each other embrace and renew their conversation” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p.304-05).

The culminating blessings of the temple and the highest blessing in this life is to be sealed to a companion and to have an eternal family.  This blessing includes the assurance that we can come forth together in “the morning of the resurrection” – a phrase often used by the Prophet. 

Families are resurrected together – The Prophet said: “would you think it strange if I relate what I have seen in vision in relation to this interesting theme?  Those who have died in Jesus Christ may expect to enter into all that fruition of joy when they come forth that they possessed or anticipated here.

“So plain was the vision, that I actually saw men, before they had ascended from the tomb, as though they were getting up slowly.  They took each other by the hand and said to each other, ‘My father, my son, my mother, my daughter, my brother, my sister.’  And when the voice calls for the dead to arise, suppose I am laid by the side of my father, what would be the first joy of my heart?  To meet my father, my mother, my brother, my sister; and when they are by my side, I embrace them and they me” (Ibid).

The atonement of Christ makes all good things possible – A glorious resurrection and all else that we hope for in this life and the next is made possible “through the merits, and mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah, who layeth down his life according to the flesh, and taketh it again by the power of the Spirit, that he may bring to pass the resurrection of the dead, being the first that should rise.  Wherefore, he is the firstfruits unto God, inasmuch as he shall make intercession for all the children of men; and they that believe in him shall be saved” (2 Nephi 2:8-9).