“He lives to plead for me above” (Samuel Medley, “I Know That My Redeemer Lives”). “Listen to him who is the advocate with the Father, who is pleading your cause before him— Saying: Father, behold the sufferings and death of him who did no sin, in whom thou wast well pleased; behold the blood of thy Son which was shed, the blood of him whom thou gavest that thyself might be glorified; Wherefore, Father, spare these my brethren that believe on my name, that they may come unto me and have everlasting life.” (D&C 45:3-5). This is how Jesus Christ pleads for us up above. This is how he pleaded for God to forgive the Roman soldiers even as they pounded nails into His hands and feet. Jesus Christ does not believe in second chances or three strikes. He believes that everyone should be forgiven seventy times seven times. Jesus would rather focus on helping us to go and sin no more than to condemn us for our sins. As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. has said, “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” But perhaps it is long because Jesus is pleading with the demands of justice to give us a little more time to straighten ourselves out before we must present ourselves before the bar of justice. If we could fully comprehend all of the adverse effects and horrible consequences that our mistakes and bad decisions have wrought, we would demand swift and ruthless retribution and eternal damnation. On the other hand, if we could see the impossible brightness of glory that might surround us if only we could become fully converted to the gospel of Jesus Christ and submit our whole souls to God that we would become perfected instruments in His hand, then we would plead with everything we had to be given the chance to realize such a wondrous destiny. Christ sees that potential in us and this is why He bleeds and pleads for us. I am so grateful that Christ believes in us even when we don't believe in ourselves, and that He has chosen us even when we have a hard time choosing to follow Him.
