Atonement

The Atonement needed to be two-fold—a payment for the fall of Adam and also for our individual sins. It had to be made by someone not dominated by the Fall the way the rest of mankind is, and also by one who had not committed any sins. Therefore, the plan of salvation called for a god to do it—one who had no inherited either of the two deaths through Adam. Only in this way could one person’s suffering apply to forgiveness and payment for another’s sins, and thus become a savior to him.

How could a god come to the earth to suffer and die? Celestial gods neither suffer nor die. This is at least a
major reason why Jesus came into the world as a child, the Only Begotten of the Father in the flesh, born of Mary who conceived him by the direct intervention of God the Father. Jesus inherited life from his Father just as the rest of us inherit death from our fathers. He was able to die because he had a mortal mother, but he was not dominated by death. Jesus voluntarily laid down his life—died both a physical and a spiritual death—for others….  An infinite atonement is an atonement by an infinite being—a god!

Since Jesus had not inherited spiritual death from Adam, and since he committed no sins himself, he was
spiritually alive, experiencing no alienation from God, until he took upon himself our sins. He suffered spiritual agony and spiritual death in the Garden of Gethsemane, and shed his blood, which dropped like sweat, on our behalf. Later he suffered physical death on the cross in our behalf. By suffering these two deaths, he paid the debt legally and completely. He atoned for Adam’s transgressions unconditionally for all men; and he atoned for our sins on conditions of our repentance.

Robert J. Matthews, “The Atonement of Jesus Christ: 2 Nephi 9.” Studies in Scripture, Vol 2, p. 188-189
(Robert J. Matthews was dean of Religious Instruction at Brigham Young University )