Moroni 8:15

For awful is the wickedness to suppose that God saveth one child because of baptism, and the other must perish because he hath no baptism.

The principle of agency is behind this doctrine that teaches against infant baptism. Those who cannot choose, either because of maturity, capacity, or duress, cannot be held accountable. The whole plan of salvation is based on agency. Where agency does not exist, accountability cannot exist, nor guilt. Therefore, little children must be innocent. How merciful is God's plan, for how many little children never get to choose and are therefore saved immediately in the Father's kingdom!

Ether 3:14

Behold, I am he who was prepared from the foundation of the world to redeem my people. Behold, I am Jesus Christ. I am the Father and the Son. In me shall all mankind have life, and that eternally, even they who shall believe on my name; and they shall become my sons and my daughters.

What a magnificent statement of the purpose of Jesus Christ! From the very beginning, before the world was created, he was selected to be the centerpiece of the plan of salvation for the entire human family. He is both the Creator (the Father) and the Redeemer (the Son). His promise is to all mankind to redeem them if we will believe in him and become his sons and daughters.

Mormon 9:11

But behold, I will show unto you a God of miracles, even the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; and it is that same God who created the heavens and the earth, and all things that in them are.

The greatest miracle of God is Christ's Atonement and the plan of salvation. God must be a God of miracles to pull off our salvation. If we don't think God does miracles, then we don't think he can save us. And if that were the case, what good is he, and what good is life itself?

Helaman 3:35

Nevertheless they did fast and pray oft, and did wax stronger and stronger in their humility, and firmer and firmer in the faith of Christ, unto the filling their souls with joy and consolation, yea, even to the purifying and the sanctification of their hearts, which sanctification cometh because of their yielding their hearts unto God.

As these people's humility grew, so did their faith in Christ. It became firm, then solid, then un-bendable, then unbreakable. Humility and faith go hand in hand. The more humble we are, the more we see the need to depend on God. The more we depend on him, the more he can help us. The more he helps us, the better we come to know him. And the better we know him, the more we trust him. Trust us another word for faith. By faith, we act with growing confidence on our beliefs.

The more thoroughly we trust God, and the more evidence we acquire of his love for, and interest, in us, the more joy we experience. How can we not feel exquisite joy when we know that the Supreme Being in the universe knows us and cares about us?  How can we not rejoice in knowing this earth, life itself, and the grand plan of salvation were created to lift us to exaltation with God?

One additional note: we do not purify and sanctify our own hearts. We can only yield them to God. It is by his power through the Savior's Atonement that our hearts are changed.

Alma 46:39

And it came to pass that there were many who died, firmly believing that their souls were redeemed by the Lord Jesus Christ; thus they went out of the world rejoicing.

The whole point of life is to die rejoicing. We are going to die one way or the other. We can be fearful about it, or miserable, or full of dread; or we can look forward to it as a welcome rest and a step in our progression. If we believe, as these people did, that Christ has redeemed us through his atonement and we have received a remission of sins and have felt to sing the song of redeeming love, death does not have to be a terror. If we accept Christ's resurrection as proof not only of his divinity but as surety for his promise that we shall all live through him, we can have peace now until the end. We may even find ourselves longing for that transition, even as we might look forward to going home after a long and arduous trip through unfamiliar territory. Although the natural man within us will war with our spirit and try to convince us that this mortal life is all there is, our spirit knows better. We know the power of God is overcoming the natural man in us when the desperate need to cling to the mortal body diminishes, and what lies ahead is exciting and joyful. We were never meant to remain in mortality in corruptible bodies for ever. When the semester is over and the final exam is done, it is time to go home. We may be sad to leave our school chums, but how marvelous it will be to once again be in the presence of our Father, Mother, and Brother. Should such a reunion not cause us to rejoice?

Alma 42:30

O my son, I desire that ye should deny the justice of God no more. Do not endeavor to excuse yourself in the least point because of your sins, by denying the justice of God; but do you let the justice of God, and his mercy, and his long-suffering have full sway in your heart; and let it bring you down to the dust in humility.

Alma invites his son to let the principles of the gospel work upon his thoughts and feelings. "Don't deny justice to make yourself feel better about sin," he pleads, "but don't deny the mercy of the atonement, either, and cripple yourself with guilt. Let them work together." Justice demands that we do our best. Mercy acknowledges that our best is never good enough, and so it makes provisions for mistakes and shortcomings so we are not eternally condemned while we learn. Taken together, it is a glorious plan for happiness.

Alma 37:36

Yea, and cry unto God for all thy support; yea, let all thy doings be unto the Lord, and whithersoever thou goest let it be in the Lord; yea, let all thy thoughts be directed unto the Lord; yea, let the affections of thy heart be placed upon the Lord forever.

God should be first in our lives. He is not an afterthought, he is our first thought. All that we do should be with an eye single to God. It may seem extreme and impractical to direct every habitual, mundane act towards God. But if we are doing things without understanding how they either serve God directly or enable us to serve him, we have good cause to challenge why we are doing them at all. We spend so much of our lives engaged in distractions!

This attitude is based on the following premises:

1. God is real.
2. God knows us.
3. God cares about what we do and is willing to be involved in the details of our lives.
4. God wants not only to save us but to exalt us.

If any element of this hypothesis is false, then eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die. But if these four assertions are true, we have far more in store for us in this life and the next than we can even imagine.

Alma 34:31

Yea, I would that ye would come forth and harden not your hearts any longer; for behold, now is the time and the day of your salvation; and therefore, if ye will repent and harden not your hearts, immediately shall the great plan of redemption be brought about unto you.

Repentance can immediately put the plan of salvation to work in our lives. God does not let us dangle helplessly over the pit of hell, hanging desperately by our fingernails for eons before he finally forgives us. He is a merciful, loving God who welcomes us back instantly when we genuinely humble ourselves and approach him with a broken heart and contrite spirit.

That does not mean, however, that we avoid all temporal consequences of our sins. Addiction still produces withdrawals. Damages still have to be repaid. Restitution is still required. Destroyed relationships may not be easily repaired. Trust may not be easily re-won. But eternal consequences have already been settled, and God's love is quick and sure. He never turns his back when we want to come to him. He never locks the door when we want to come home.

Alma 22:14

And since man had fallen he could not merit anything of himself; but the sufferings and death of Christ atone for their sins, through faith and repentance, and so forth; and that he breaketh the bands of death, that the grave shall have no victory, and that the sting of death should be swallowed up in the hopes of glory; and Aaron did expound all these things unto the king.

The crowning glory and achievement of God's plan is the atonement of Christ. Without the redeeming power of the atonement, we would forever remain fallen and guilty. We cannot un-break a broken law, and we all break God's law sooner or later. We make ourselves unclean and unfit to be in his holy presence. We would be forever under the weight of justice. But Christ changed the outcome of mortal life. Because he could and did keep the law perfectly and without sin, he received the power to pay for all of our sins and free us from them. He satisfied justice, which enables him to extend to us mercy. Because of him, and only because of him, we can enter the presence of God as clean and worthy sons and daughters. If you think it will take a miracle to get you into heaven, you are right. The good news (i.e.,  the gospel) is that the miracle has already been done.

Alma 18:39

But this is not all; for he expounded unto them the plan of redemption, which was prepared from the foundation of the world; and he also made known unto them concerning the coming of Christ, and all the works of the Lord did he make known unto them.

The scriptures repeat many times that the plan of redemption was laid out right from the very beginning. Our understanding of this principle is important. God knew his children would fall and commit sin as part of the mortal experience. Sin is an eternal, inevitable fact, because law is eternal. God knew from the very first intelligence whom he organized into a spirit that all his children but that First One would fall short of the demands of justice and would therefore be cut off from him forever. And so he put the plan of redemption into motion from the very beginning. Just as it was a foregone conclusion that we would sin, it was also a foregone conclusion that the Father's First Born would be the Savior. God knew exactly how life would be on this world, and so he ordained the solution before the rest of us even knew what the problem was. And then he reminds us over and over again that he's got it all worked out. We don't need to worry or fret. God's got the plan and Christ has our backs.

Alma 14:11

But Alma said unto him: The Spirit constraineth me that I must not stretch forth mine hand; for behold the Lord receiveth them up unto himself, in glory; and he doth suffer that they may do this thing, or that the people may do this thing unto them, according to the hardness of their hearts, that the judgments which he shall exercise upon them in his wrath may be just; and the blood of the innocent shall stand as a witness against them, yea, and cry mightily against them at the last day.

While we are constrained in our understanding of life by the limitations of our mortality, God sees life and death differently. Death is not the ultimate evil many think it is. Physical death is not the end of life from God's perspective. It is just a transfer. He will not save everyone from death. What to our finite minds is a tragedy, is not tragic to God. It is simply his plan. How long we live and the circumstances of our death are entirely under his control. If we are being faithful, we need not fear that our death is untimely or unfair. God is never surprised when we show up on the other side of the veil. God does not have to save us in mortality because Christ has already saved us in eternity. The end of life here is merely a step towards the resurrection and immortality to come. Losing a loved one is not easy, but it is not the end.

Alma 8:15

Blessed art thou, Alma; therefore, lift up thy head and rejoice, for thou hast great cause to rejoice; for thou hast been faithful in keeping the commandments of God from the time which thou receivedst thy first message from him. Behold, I am he that delivered it unto you.

When we look at our troubles through mortal eyes, it is easy to get discouraged. But if we can see things with God's eyes, we get a whole different perspective on our trials. We can rejoice and find peace even in the midst of our trials, because we know we are on God's plan for happiness. We don't need to be discouraged because God never abandons us. His plan is to exalt us, and he won't be satisfied with anything less. Whatever road we are on, however rough it may be, it's the road to God. In that we can always rejoice.

Mosiah 24:29-30

Therefore I say unto you, Go; and whosoever transgresseth against me, him shall ye judge according to the sins which he has committed; and if he confess his sins before thee and me, and repenteth in the sincerity of his heart, him shall ye forgive, and I will forgive him also. Yea, and as often as my people repent will I forgive them their trespasses against me.

We are not condemned for sin but only for refusing to repent. The atonement has made it possible for us to learn from our mistakes without being condemned by them. The plan of salvation is genius, but it works only because Christ became our Savior.

Mosiah 23:21

Nevertheless the Lord seeth fit to chasten his people; yea, he trieth their patience and their faith.

Why do we have trials, challenges, predicaments, afflictions, problems, heartaches, pain, sorrow, disappointments, disasters, calamities, and troubles? Because we have to learn patience and faith. Without resistance, we do not develop. Without mountains we do not rise. Without pressure we do not expand. Without the furnace of affliction, we are not purified. Does God like to see us suffer? No, but he hates even more to see us whither, atrophy, and waste our probation. He wants us to come home fit for his kingdom.

Mosiah 15:8-9

And thus God breaketh the bands of death, having gained the victory over death; giving the Son power to make intercession for the children of men—Having ascended into heaven, having the bowels of mercy; being filled with compassion towards the children of men; standing betwixt them and justice; having broken the bands of death, taken upon himself their iniquity and their transgressions, having redeemed them, and satisfied the demands of justice.

Sometimes I simply stand in awe of God's plan of salvation. He sent his perfect Son to work out the perfect Atonement. The Book of Mormon testifies of Christ again and again in poignant eloquence that exceeds my poor understanding. Tonight I choose to "stand all amazed."

Mosiah 12:1

And it came to pass that after the space of two years that Abinadi came among them in disguise, that they knew him not, and began to prophesy among them, saying: Thus has the Lord commanded me, saying—Abinadi, go and prophesy unto this my people, for they have hardened their hearts against my words; they have repented not of their evil doings; therefore, I will visit them in my anger, yea, in my fierce anger will I visit them in their iniquities and abominations.

The prophet Abinadi prophesies severe trials ahead for the people of King Noah. Is God going to punish these people out of spite? No, he is going to get their attention with a disaster because they refuse to listen to the call of a prophet to repent. If preaching will not induce repentance, perhaps captivity and destruction will humble them. Many will die, it is true. That only moves the stage of their repentance from mortality to spirit prison. They are still in the second estate until the resurrection. Hopefully what they refused to believe in life they may more readily open their hearts to in the spirit world. Many of the survivors will be humbled and turn to the Lord. God's purpose is to save his children.  On which side of the veil they are is of little consequence. What we perceive as angry punishment is just a form of tough love.

Second Nephi 11:5

And also my soul delighteth in the covenants of the Lord which he hath made to our fathers; yea, my soul delighteth in his grace, and in his justice, and power, and mercy in the great and eternal plan of deliverance from death.

The atonement of Christ is the central, enabling act of the plan of salvation. It embodies Christ's grace, justice, power and mercy. Because he atoned for us, Christ can deliver us from physical and spiritual death. Because of Christ, we have hope.