Week 39: I Stand All Amazed

Hymn #193

I stand all amazed at the love Jesus offers me
Confused at the grace that so fully he proffers me
I tremble to know that for me he was crucified
That for me, a sinner, he suffered, he bled and died

Chorus:
Oh, it is wonderful that he should care for me enough to die for me
Oh, it is wonderful
Wonderful to me

I marvel that he would descend from his throne divine
To rescue a soul so rebellious and proud as mine
That he should extend his great love unto such as I
Sufficient to own, to redeem and to justify

(Repeat chorus)

I think of his hands, pierced and bleeding to pay my debt
Such mercy, such love and devotion can I forget?
No, no, I will praise and adore at the mercy seat
Until at the glorified throne I kneel at his feet

(Repeat chorus)

I stand all amazed at the love Jesus offers me
Secure in the promise of life in his victory
Thus ransomed from death I will live to my Savior's praise
And sing of his goodness and mercy through endless days

I Stand All Amazed

BY JEFFREY R. HOLLAND

http://lds.org/liahona/1987/04/i-stand-all-amazed?lang=eng&query=stand+all+amazed

As we think about Christ’s life, we are amazed in every way. We are amazed at his premortal role as the great Jehovah, agent of his Father, creator of the earth, guardian of the entire family of man. We are amazed at his coming to earth and the circumstances surrounding his advent. We are amazed at the miracle of his conception and the poverty of his birth.

We are amazed that at only twelve years of age he was already about his Father’s business. We are amazed at the formal beginning of his ministry, his baptism and spiritual gifts.

We are amazed that everywhere he went the forces of evil went before him and that they knew him from the beginning. We stand all amazed to know Jesus cast out and defeated these forces of evil even as he made the lame to walk, the blind to see, the deaf to hear, the infirm to stand. Indeed we are all amazed at every movement and moment—as every generation from Adam to the end of the world must be. When I consider the Savior’s ministry, I wonder, “How did he do it?”

But I am most amazed at the moment when Jesus, staggering under his load to the crest of Calvary, said, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34.)

If ever there is a moment when I indeed stand all amazed, it is this one. When I consider him bearing the weight of all our sins and forgiving those who would nail him to the cross, I ask not “How did he do it” but “Why did he do it?” As I examine my life against the mercifulness of His, I find how I fail to do as much as I should in following the Master.

For me, this is a higher order of amazement. I am startled enough by his ability to heal the sick and raise the dead, but I have had some experience with healing in a limited way. We are all lesser vessels, but we have seen the miracles of the Lord repeated in our own lives and in our own homes and with our own portion of the priesthood. But mercy? Forgiveness? Atonement? Reconciliation? Too often, that is a different matter.

How could he forgive his tormenters at that moment? With all that pain, with blood having fallen from every pore, still he was thinking of others. This is yet one more amazing evidence that he really was perfect and intends us to be also. In the Sermon on the Mount, before he stated that perfection is our goal, he gave something of a last requirement. He said all must “love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.” (Matt. 5:44.)

This is the most difficult thing of all to do. I would rather be asked to raise the dead or to restore sight or to steady a palsied hand. I’d rather do anything than to love my enemies and forgive those who hurt me or my children or my children’s children, and especially those who laugh and delight in the brutality of hurting others.

Jesus Christ was the purest and only perfect person who ever lived. He is the one person in all the world from Adam to this present hour who deserved adoration and respect and admiration and love, and yet he was persecuted, abandoned, and put to death. Through it all, he would not condemn those who persecuted him.

When our first parents, Adam and Eve, had been cast out of the Garden of Eden, the Lord commanded them to “worship the Lord their God, and … offer the firstlings of their flocks, for an offering unto the Lord.” (Moses 5:5.) The angel told Adam, “This thing is a similitude of the sacrifice of the Only Begotten of the Father, which is full of grace and truth.” (Moses 5:7.)

This sacrifice served as a constant reminder of the humiliation and suffering the Son would pay to ransom us. It was a constant reminder that he would open not his mouth, that he would be brought as a lamb to the slaughter. (See Mosiah 14:7.) It was a constant reminder of the meekness and mercy and gentleness—yes, the forgiveness—that was to mark every Christian life. For all these reasons and more, those firstborn lambs, clean and unblemished, perfect in every way, were offered on those stone altars year after year and generation after generation, pointing us toward the great Lamb of God, his Only Begotten Son, his Firstborn, perfect and without blemish.

The symbols of the Lord’s sacrifice, in Adam’s day or our own, are to help us remember to live peacefully and obediently and mercifully. These ordinances are to help us remember to demonstrate the gospel of Jesus Christ in our long-suffering and human kindness one for another, as he demonstrated it for us on that cross.

 ...Is there someone in your life who perhaps needs forgiveness? Is there someone in your home, someone in your family, someone in your neighborhood who has done an unjust or an unkind or an unchristian thing? All of us are guilty of such transgressions, so there surely must be someone who yet needs your forgiveness.

And please don’t ask if it is fair that the injured should have to bear the burden of forgiveness for the offender. Don’t ask if “justice” doesn’t demand that it be the other way around. No, whatever you do, don’t ask for justice. You and I know that what we plead for is mercy—and that is what we must be willing to give.

Can we see the tragic irony of not granting to others what we need so badly ourselves? Perhaps the highest and holiest and purest act would be to say in the face of unkindness and injustice that you do yet more truly “love your enemies and bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you, and persecute you.” That is the demanding pathway of perfection.

_________________________

The Sacrifice of our Savior is one of the greatest gifts we have. It is also the one we understand the least. The atonement in its application can heal us. But we do not always apply it and tap into it most miraculous powers. 

On that day when I am to face my final judgement, I know then I will understand it. As I will need it more then then ever to enter into his kingdom. I also, believe as I was to have a full view of my life as I lived it there will be times when I will REALLY see those moments when I relied on the Savior's Atonement and I was carried.  I can even see those moments now, but perhaps I will understand it more.

I need to remember HIM daily. His suffering was for me. I need to let it heal me and help my in my daily struggles. It also needs to motivate me to do better. To bring others to this Knowledge, It needs to be in my heart always. 

I am thankful for the power of the Sacrament, the ability to be forgiven and cleansed. To move on, to let go of hurt, And to forgive others. I look forward to  the day when I can personally put my arms around him and THANK HIM face to face. I pray that I may accept his sacrifice and honor it here on this earth here and now.