2 Nephi 2: There is a Law

Here’s a simple but unique approach to understanding the atonement and law and justice that I believe is at root the same point that Lehi is making in 2 Nephi 2.

Be warned: our friends have not been very excited about this insight in the past, probably because its a bit horrifying.

There is a comforting idea that eventually God will fix all mistakes,  heal all wounds, restore every loss and lost opportunity.  It is extremely comforting and fits with His nature and His promises.  But if you think about it long enough, it starts to bother you too.  Because if so, does anything I do actually matter?

Are we stones that leave no ripple?

We wants to be agents and God wants us to be agents.  In fact, we are agents.  One of the basic human experiences is that we make meaningful choices, choices that matter.  Anyone who denies that is not an empiricist because it is something that every person experiences from the sinide.

A meaningful choice requires consequences, and the consequences have to matter.  What this means is that having a meaningful choice means you live in a world of  law (law means consequences–if you do X, then Y) and a world of right and wrong, good and bad (right and wrong, good and bad, means the consequences matter).   This sounds like abstract theory but it is actually  just bringing to light the basics of how the world works as you experience it.

(As an aside, let me point out that when I’m talking about law here I’m not talking necessarily about divine commandments with divinely attached punishments and rewards.  Call that formal law.  I’m just talking about what you might call natural law–you live in a world where actions have effects, and choices have consequences.  Formal law is actually a way of disciplining and cabining the more open-ended and less predictable consequences of  natural law in a complex world with millions of interacting agents.)

But if the consequences are just wiped away one day by divine fiat, you do not live in a world of law and therefore your choice was not meaningful and the fundamentals of your current existence are a lie.

The solution is the atonement.  The consequences are not wiped away.  They are of the most severe.  They just aren’t necessarily born by you.

Here is a poetic fable version of this insight.

The Lion and the Robin

And here is another attempt at explaining it.

You Want Justice, You Need Justice

At some level, justice is as sweet as mercy.