The atonement of Jesus Christ is perhaps the central doctrine of the Church of Jesus Christ

or Latter-day Saints. Although Christ's offering is central, it's also infinite, or in other words,

it's immeasurable, which what that means is sometimes it's hard for us to wrap our minds around it.

To help us better grasp this infinite yet core concept of our faith, sometimes leaders and

teachers come up with mortal analogies and metaphors.

We have things like parables of the bicycle and the piano lesson, gaps that need some sort of a bridge or holes that we're trapped in that we can't get out of,

or trying to clean ourselves with dirty rags compared to clean ones and walls that divide.

The late elder Boyd K. Packer of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles gave a really well-known example about somebody

who fails to pay a debt and is saved by a mediator in a well-known church video.

There once was a man who wanted something very much.

It seemed more important than anything else in his life.

In order for him to have his desire, he incurred a great place. than anything else in his life.

In order for him to have his desire, he incurred a great death.

These types of metaphors and stories and analogies, they each have their benefits.

I'm the first to say that.

And they give really valuable contributions.

However, one thing I've learned in my life as a religious educator is that every metaphor falls apart at a certain point, and every analogy can have its drawbacks.

In Alma, Chapter 42 in the Book of Mormon, Alma the Younger expounds on Christ's atonement to try

to help his wayward son, his name's Cori Antonin. Alma is going to use a justice and mercy model to help rectify some of Corianton's

misunderstandings about the atonement.

BYU religion professor Mark Ellison has recently written a really insightful article

called, quote, Beyond Justice, reading Alma 42 in the context of atonement theories,

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