• Day 59
    • Principle: Christ perfectly finished His work on earth.  
    • Read: 2 Nephi 21:1 - 22:6
      •  Doctrine and Covenants 113 is a helpful section in understanding of these chapters.  As you study the judgement, how does the atonement of Jesus lead to righteous judgment?
    • Frederic W. Farrar shared an understanding of crucifixion:
      • “Death by crucifixion seems to include all that pain and death can have of horrible and ghastly—dizziness, cramp, thirst, starvation, sleeplessness, traumatic fever, tetanus, publicity of shame, long continuance of torment, horror of anticipation, mortification of untended wounds—all intensified just up to the point at which they can be endured at all, but all stopping just short of the point which would give to the sufferer the relief of unconsciousness. The unnatural position made every movement painful; the lacerated veins and crushed tendons throbbed with incessant anguish; the wounds, inflamed by exposure, gradually gangrened; the arteries—especially of the head and stomach—became swollen and oppressed with surcharged blood; and while each variety of misery went on gradually increasing, there was added to them the intolerable pang of a burning and raging thirst; and all these physical complications caused an internal excitement and anxiety, which made the prospect of death itself—of death, the awful unknown enemy, at whose approach man usually shudders most—bear the aspect of a delicious and exquisite release.

        “Such was the death to which Christ was doomed” (Frederic W. Farrar, The Life of Christ [1964], 641).

    • While on the cross Jesus said seven statements.  Read the following scriptures and write down the seven statements.
    • Jeffrey R. Holland said:
      • “When the uttermost farthing had then been paid, when Christ’s determination to be faithful was as obvious as it was utterly invincible, finally and mercifully, it was ‘finished’ [see John 19:30]. Against all odds and with none to help or uphold Him, Jesus of Nazareth, the living Son of the living God, restored physical life where death had held sway and brought joyful, spiritual redemption out of sin, hellish darkness, and despair. With faith in the God He knew was there, He could say in triumph, ‘Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit’ [Luke 23:46]” (“None Were with Him,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2009, 88).
    • Robert D. Hales taught:
      • “Jesus chose not to be released from this world until He had endured to the end and completed the mission He had been sent to accomplish for mankind. Upon the cross of Calvary, Jesus commended His spirit to His Father with a simple statement, ‘It is finished’ (John 19:30). Having endured to the end, He was released from mortality.

        “We too must endure to the end” (“The Covenant of Baptism: To Be in the Kingdom and of the Kingdom,”Ensign, Nov. 2000, 6).

      • What does the phrase "It is finished" mean to you?
      • What do you learn from Christ's example on the cross?
      • How can you strengthen your appreciation for what Christ has done for you?
    • Additional Study