What is the Plan of Salvation
The Plan of Salvation is the divine blueprint outlining the purpose of life, our eternal progression, and the means by which we can return to the presence of God. Central to this plan is Jesus Christ and His Atonement, which allows us to overcome both physical death and the effects of sin. As explained in Moses 1:39, the ultimate purpose of this plan is to “bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.” To fully understand Christ’s Atonement and its importance, we must understand the nature of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, examining how sin and righteousness influence us.
Eternal Life and Immortality
Eternal life refers to living forever in the presence of God and becoming like Him. It includes receiving the full blessings of exaltation, the highest degree of glory in the celestial kingdom. Eternal life is not just about existing forever; it is a quality of life in which individuals inherit divine blessings through Christ’s grace, including eternal family relationships. Achieving eternal life requires faith in Christ, repentance, receiving baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring faithfully (see Doctrine and Covenants 14:7).
Immortality, on the other hand, is the gift of living forever as a resurrected being. Christ’s Atonement and Resurrection ensure that all people will be resurrected — meaning their spirits and bodies will reunite, never again to be subject to death (see Alma 11:42–43). Immortality is a free gift to all, regardless of righteousness. However, while immortality is universal, eternal life — living in God’s presence — is granted only to those who avail themselves of the atonement through obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel in this life or in the world to come.
God’s Purpose and Plan
God’s purpose, as declared in Moses 1:39, is rooted in His profound love for His children. He desires that they achieve their full divine potential. As the loving Father of our spirits (see Hebrews 12:9), God provided His children with the opportunity to progress and become like Him. The Plan of Salvation reflects this divine desire, giving each person the chance to receive a physical body, grow through the use of their agency (see 2 Nephi 2:27), and overcome the consequences of sin and death through the Atonement of Jesus Christ.
By following this plan, individuals can navigate mortality’s challenges and trials, ultimately gaining the opportunity to inherit eternal life. This plan highlights God’s love, justice, and mercy, providing every individual with a pathway to eternal joy and progression.
The Metaphysics of Sin and Atonement
LDS doctrine teaches that God the Father, Jesus Christ, and all mankind are eternal beings. They existed before this life and will continue to exist throughout all eternity (see Abraham 3 and Doctrine and Covenants 93:21–39). God’s plan provides His children with the opportunity to gain physical bodies, exercise agency, and progress. However, with the gift of agency comes the possibility of sin, which is defined as rejecting light and truth and choosing one’s own will over God’s. This rejection alters an individual’s spiritual and physical nature, hindering their progression and separating them from God.
Sin impacts both the spirit and the body. When individuals sin, they grieve the Holy Spirit, feel guilt, and spiritually distance themselves from God (see Doctrine and Covenants 1:31; 2 Nephi 2:27). This state of spiritual bondage limits their capacity to receive and act upon divine truth, stunting their growth. According to Doctrine and Covenants 93:2, the Light of Christ — a divine influence that permeates all existence — helps individuals discern between good and evil. However, sin dulls one’s ability to respond to this light. John 1:9 and Doctrine and Covenants 88:26 describe Christ as the source of light that enlightens every soul. Thus all mankind know and understand good and evil and their choices are on them for if they are good, or if they are evil. They cannot claim they didn’t know, for it was given unto them to know, and they are judged by what they do know, and the thoughts and intents of their heart.
Embodiment and Eternal Progression
Eternal beings progress through the process of embodiment — first receiving spirit bodies and eventually physical bodies, and then eventually resurrected immortal glorious bodies. This progression is essential for eternal development, as bodies are more organized forms of energy, providing greater capacity for action, learning, and spiritual growth. In the pre-mortal life, God’s children rejoiced at the prospect of receiving physical bodies, knowing that embodiment would enhance their ability to gain light, knowledge, and power (see Job 38:7).
How the Atonement of Christ Works
To understand the Atonement of Jesus Christ, it is crucial to realize that Christ, unlike the rest of humanity, was free from the effects of sin. He was perfectly aligned with God’s will and was divinely empowered to atone for the sins of the world. Because of His sinlessness, Christ was uniquely qualified to bear the consequences of humanity’s sins and overcome their effects. As Alma 7:11–13 describes, Christ suffered for all the pains, afflictions, and sins of mankind, allowing Him to understand the human condition fully and provide a way for redemption.
Christ’s ability to atone for the sins of the world is grounded in His sinless nature and His divine mission. Being perfectly aligned with God, Christ did not experience the spiritual consequences of sin, making Him the only one who could take upon Himself the consequences of sins of others without being affected by them eternally. He experienced the consequences of sin, i.e. separation from God, suffering pain and anguish of spirit because of guilt, and even unto death — and yet he was not bound by those conditions. Thus the demands of Justice were met, the suffering of an individual for a sin was paid by one who merited no suffering.
All individuals will be eventually redeemed through the atonement of Jesus Christ either in this life, or through obedience to the ordinances of the House of God. (D&C 138:54, 58)
The dead who repent will be redeemed, through obedience to the ordinances of the house of God, and after they have paid the penalty of their transgressions, and are washed clean, shall receive a reward according to their works, for they are heirs of salvation.
For they will pay the penalty of their transgressions in vain, and will be redeemed eventually through obedience to the ordinances of the house of God. For they are Heirs of Salvation through the ONE AND ONLY means by which salvation can be gained — the atonement of Jesus Christ, and faith, repentance, baptism and the receipt of the gift of the Holy Ghost.
Yet eventually, everyone will accept the temple work done for them and be redeemed either to the Telestial, Terrestrial, or Celestial kingdom of God. For Hell will be emptied and Suffering ends as an individual enters into a kingdom of Glory. For every knee shall bow and tongue confess that Jesus is the Christ and his judgments are just and it is through HIM and him alone that an individual can receive a remission of sins.
The phrase in D&C 138:56 about “paying the penalty of their transgressions” should not be understood as suggesting that individuals can “earn” forgiveness or cleanse themselves independently of Christ’s Atonement. That is not how it works!
And moreover, I say unto you, that there shall be no other name given nor any other way nor means whereby salvation can come unto the children of men, only in and through the name of Christ, the Lord Omnipotent.
And now, behold, my beloved brethren, this is the way; and there is none other way nor name given under heaven whereby man can be saved in the kingdom of God. And now, behold, this is the doctrine of Christ, and the only and true doctrine of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, which is one God, without end. Amen.
And now, my son, I have told you this that ye may learn wisdom, that ye may learn of me that there is no other way or means whereby man can be saved, only in and through Christ. Behold, he is the life and the light of the world. Behold, he is the word of truth and righteousness.
We do not pay for our own sins—when we pay the penalty of them, in fact we suffer in VAIN. For we do not save ourselves, nor is it our name whereby we redeem ourselves, nor is it through our pain and suffering that we overcome our sins. No—it is not. There is ONLY one way…
Then they will receive a judgment based upon their acts and choices made in their mortal bodies. The results of which will be the assignment to a degree of Glory — be that the Telestial, the Terrestrial, or the Celestial glory. They are in a redeemed and saved state for they are heirs of salvation if not exaltation.
The Great Plan of Happiness
The Plan of Salvation is known by many names — the plan of redemption, the plan of mercy, the plan of restoration — but scripture gives it one name that reveals the very heart of God’s purpose. Speaking to his son Corianton, the prophet Alma called it the great plan of happiness. Every doctrine examined above — the Atonement, agency, embodiment, eternal life — converges on a single divine aim: the lasting joy of God’s children. This is not a plan of mere survival or escape from punishment; it is a deliberate design crafted by a loving Father so that His children might be made happy in a way that endures forever.
Now behold, it was not expedient that man should be reclaimed from this temporal death, for that would destroy the great plan of happiness.
The purpose of this plan reaches back to the very reason for our existence. Lehi taught that the entire created order — the Fall, mortality, and the redemption that answers it — was ordered toward joy. Man was not placed on earth to endure a bleak probation, but to have joy. The goal written into the foundation of the plan is the happiness of God’s children.
Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy.
Yet this joy is not found just anywhere we might seek it. Scripture is emphatic that happiness is inseparable from righteousness. The wicked man who imagines he can find lasting happiness in sin is deceived, for sin runs against the very grain of joy. Alma taught his son with stark clarity that wickedness never was happiness — not because God arbitrarily withholds it, but because the soul that chooses sin places itself in a state that is, by its own nature, contrary to happiness.
Do not suppose, because it has been spoken concerning restoration, that ye shall be restored from sin to happiness. Behold, I say unto you, wickedness never was happiness. And now, my son, all men that are in a state of nature, or I would say, in a carnal state, are in the gall of bitterness and in the bonds of iniquity; they are without God in the world, and they have gone contrary to the nature of God; therefore they are in a state contrary to the nature of happiness.
The positive side of this truth is just as certain. If wickedness can never produce happiness, then it is in keeping the commandments of God — in walking the path He has marked — that genuine and lasting joy is found. King Benjamin pronounced this blessed and happy state upon all who keep God’s commandments, declaring that they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual, and that if they endure faithfully they are received into heaven to dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness.
And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness. O remember, remember that these things are true; for the Lord God hath spoken it.
Taken together, these scriptures unveil the deepest intent of the Plan of Salvation. God’s whole design — the creation, the Fall, the Atonement of Jesus Christ, the commandments, and the promise of exaltation — is aimed at one end: the lasting joy of His children. He fell Adam that men might be, that they might have joy. He named the plan the great plan of happiness. And He has shown, with perfect honesty, that this happiness cannot be wrung from wickedness, but is found only along the covenant path He has marked, in obedience to Him and in union with the Savior. The Plan of Salvation is, at its heart, a Father’s plan to make His children eternally happy.