Talk Preparation Guide for "Because of Jesus Christ"

This Easter message from Elder Dale G. Renlund centers on the life, mission, and infinite Atonement of Jesus Christ. Using a simple story about a small dog overwhelmed by trying to retrieve two balls at once, Elder Renlund teaches that modern life can leave us feeling similarly burdened and distracted. His counsel is to keep an eternal perspective and focus on what matters most: the Savior. The talk highlights why Jesus Christ is central to Heavenly Father’s plan, how His Atonement overcomes death and sin, how He understands our sorrows and struggles, and how focusing on Him brings clarity, hope, peace, and joy. This talk offers rich material for a sacrament meeting message about Easter, redemption, repentance, healing, and daily discipleship.

Topics

Focus on Jesus Christ above competing concerns

Elder Renlund teaches that life can feel overwhelming when many concerns compete for our attention, but maintaining an eternal perspective helps us prioritize what matters most. The greatest focus of our lives should be Jesus Christ and His infinite Atonement.

Not all matters are of equal value, and maintaining an eternal perspective helps us prioritize the things that are of greatest value.

On this Easter Sunday, let us consider why focusing on Jesus Christ and the “infinite virtue of His great atoning sacrifice” is of greatest value and helps us no matter how many other concerns we must manage.

Focusing on the Savior, His infinite Atonement, and what He has done for us will bring joy and clarity into our lives, no matter how many other concerns we have.

You do not need to crawl back to bed and cower. Instead, keep your eye on the ball. Focus on the Savior.

Whatever questions or problems you have, the answer is always found in the life and teachings of Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ is the way.

Key Points:

Modern life presents many simultaneous concerns that can leave us confused, overwhelmed, and discouraged.
Not every concern has equal importance.
An eternal perspective helps us identify and prioritize what has greatest value.
Jesus Christ and His Atonement are of greatest value.
Focusing on the Savior brings joy and clarity even when life remains busy and complex.
Prophets consistently direct us to Jesus Christ as the answer and the way forward.

Experiences:

When have you felt overwhelmed by too many responsibilities or worries at once?
What has helped you regain peace by refocusing on the Savior?
Can you share a time when prayer, scripture study, or temple worship helped you sort out priorities?
When have prophetic counsel pointed you back to Jesus Christ during a confusing season?
What daily practice helps you keep an eternal perspective?

Rely on Jesus Christ as the center of Heavenly Father’s plan

The talk teaches that Jesus Christ’s life, mission, and Atonement are central to the plan of salvation. There was no alternative to His role, and through completing the Atonement He received all power in heaven and earth.

Jesus lived and died to do His Father’s will.

His infinite Atonement—the series of events He experienced from Gethsemane through His death on the cross and on to His glorious Resurrection—is central to Heavenly Father’s plan for our salvation.

The plan depended on Jesus Christ; there was no alternative.

He completed the Atonement and thereby received “all power … in heaven and in earth.”

Because of the merits, mercy, and grace of Jesus Christ, we can return home to our Heavenly Father and live in His presence.

This is only possible through Jesus Christ.

I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

Key Points:

Jesus Christ perfectly fulfilled the will of the Father.
The Atonement includes Gethsemane, the Crucifixion, and the Resurrection.
The plan of salvation depends entirely on Jesus Christ.
There was no substitute or alternate way to accomplish redemption.
Because He completed the Atonement, Jesus Christ has power to save and exalt.
We return to the Father only through the merits, mercy, and grace of Jesus Christ.

Experiences:

When have you felt a deeper appreciation for the Savior’s central role in the plan of salvation?
How has your understanding of Gethsemane, the Cross, or the Resurrection grown over time?
Can you share a moment when the doctrine that Christ is "the way" became personal to you?
When have you felt gratitude that Heavenly Father’s plan is centered in Jesus Christ?
What experiences have strengthened your testimony that salvation comes only through the Savior?

Rejoice that Jesus Christ conquered death

Elder Renlund teaches that because Jesus Christ rose from the tomb, resurrection is a universal and unconditional gift for every person who comes to earth. Death is not the end.

First, Jesus Christ conquered death; He literally rose from the tomb.

Because of Him, resurrection is a universal and unconditional gift for everyone who comes to earth.

Death is not the end because the spirit and the body will be reunited, never again to be divided.

Jesus Christ is the Resurrection and the Life.

He lives, who once was dead.

Key Points:

The Resurrection of Jesus Christ was literal and real.
Because He conquered death, all people will be resurrected.
Resurrection is universal and unconditional.
The separation of body and spirit caused by death is temporary.
The Resurrection is a central reason Christians celebrate Easter.
The risen Christ gives hope in the face of death and loss.

Experiences:

How has the doctrine of resurrection brought you comfort after the death of a loved one?
Can you share an Easter experience that strengthened your testimony of the risen Christ?
When have you felt peace about life after death because of Jesus Christ?
How has your testimony of the Resurrection changed the way you view mortality?
What family experience has made the promise of reunion especially meaningful to you?

Receive forgiveness through repentance in Jesus Christ

The talk emphasizes that Jesus Christ has both the power and the desire to save us from sin. Through repentance, faith, covenants, and enduring discipleship, we can be declared guiltless because He paid the debt of justice.

Second, Jesus Christ has both the power and the desire to save us from our sins.

Because of Jesus Christ, when we repent and follow Him, “immediately [will] the great plan of redemption be brought about unto [us].”

He can and will declare guiltless all who believe on His name, repent, follow the covenant path, and strive to endure to the end.

“All mankind may be saved” because of Him and His atoning sacrifice.

All means everyone. If everyone, then anyone. If anyone, then even one. And if even one, then even you.

As often as my people repent will I forgive them their trespasses against me.

Because of Jesus Christ, sins for which we have sincerely repented leave no spiritual scar, track, or trace.

When we repent with real intent, the entirety of our sin, not just a part, is figuratively nailed to the cross and we no longer bear its spiritual consequences.

After we have repented, we owe no more to justice because Jesus has paid the debt; He pardons us from deserved punishment.

We are forgiven, our hearts and hands are made clean, and the Lord remembers our sins no more.

Key Points:

Jesus Christ is both willing and able to save us from sin.
Repentance brings the blessings of the plan of redemption into our lives.
Salvation through Christ is available to all mankind.
The invitation to repent and be forgiven is personal: it applies even to one individual soul.
Sincere repentance removes spiritual guilt completely.
The Savior has paid the demands of justice for the repentant.
Through Christ, forgiven people are made spiritually clean.
The Lord does not continue to hold repented sins against us.

Experiences:

When have you felt the peace that comes from sincere repentance?
Can you share a time when you felt the Savior’s mercy more strongly than your guilt?
How has the doctrine that forgiveness leaves "no spiritual scar" blessed your life?
When have you seen someone change through the power of Jesus Christ and repentance?
What scripture or experience has helped you believe that the Savior can forgive even you?

Trust Jesus Christ to understand and heal your struggles

Because the Savior took upon Himself not only sins but also griefs, sicknesses, and frailties, He understands every human challenge perfectly. He can calm anguish, offer peace, and judge with complete understanding.

Third, Jesus Christ understands our challenges, having taken on not only our sins but also our griefs, sicknesses, and frailties.

Because He endured and completed the infinite atoning sacrifice, He empathizes perfectly with us.

He can “calm [our] anguish” and offers “gentle … peace … for [our] beseeching.”

He, and only He, can consider every factor that shapes who we are: our genetics, intellectual abilities, traditions, experiences, mental and emotional conditions, and every other circumstance that affects who we are.

He, and only He, will eventually judge us “according to [our] works, according to the desire of [our] hearts.”

Key Points:

The Savior experienced more than the burden of sin; He also bore mortal pain and weakness.
Jesus Christ understands us perfectly because He has taken upon Himself the full range of human suffering.
He can bring peace in moments of anguish.
His understanding includes all the factors that shape our mortal experience.
His judgment will be perfectly just and merciful because it is based on complete knowledge.
No one else can understand and help us as fully as Jesus Christ can.

Experiences:

When have you felt that the Savior understood your pain in a deeply personal way?
Can you share an experience of receiving peace during grief, illness, anxiety, or weakness?
How has knowing that Christ understands your circumstances changed the way you pray?
When have you felt comfort from the doctrine that the Savior judges with perfect understanding?
What personal trial has helped you come to know Jesus Christ more intimately?

Let Jesus Christ make what is unfair right

Elder Renlund teaches that because of Jesus Christ, every unfairness in life can and will be made right. He can consecrate afflictions for our gain, sanctify distress, sweeten bitterness, and make us whole.

Because of Jesus Christ, all that is unfair in life can and will be made right.

He will consecrate our afflictions for our gain.

He will sanctify to us our deepest distress.

He will fill with sweet a bitter cup.

He will dependably and consistently make us whole.

If we let Him, we will “suffer no manner of afflictions, save it [is] swallowed up in the joy of Christ.”

Key Points:

Mortal life includes unfairness, pain, and bitter experiences.
Jesus Christ has power to ultimately correct every injustice.
He can transform afflictions into spiritual growth.
He can sanctify suffering and distress for our good.
He can replace bitterness with sweetness and healing.
As we yield to Him, joy in Christ can swallow up affliction.

Experiences:

When have you seen the Lord bring good out of a painful or unfair experience?
Can you share a time when an affliction became a source of spiritual growth?
How has the Savior helped you endure something that initially felt bitter or unjust?
When have you felt hope that the Lord will eventually make things right?
What experience has taught you that Christ can make you whole?

Celebrate Easter every day by trusting the Savior

The talk concludes with an invitation to celebrate the message of Easter daily by reflecting on the blessings that come because of Jesus Christ. As we trust Him, seek the gifts of His Atonement, and let Him into our hearts, He gives power, comfort, and hope.

Seek for the “precious gifts His Atonement can impart.”

I will trust in Jesus. I will hear His call.

He will never leave me, even when I fall.

Jesus gives me power, lifts and comforts me,

Helping me to live and grow eternally.

Because Jesus Christ completed the Atonement, He has the power to help you along your earthly journey and to redeem you from death, both physical and spiritual.

Celebrate the joyous message of Easter every day by reflecting every day on the blessings you receive because of Him.

Open wide your broken heart and let your Savior in!

On this Easter morning, I add my witness of “the great and wonderful love made manifest by the Father and the Son in the coming of the Redeemer into the world.”

Key Points:

The blessings of Easter are not meant to be remembered only once a year.
We can celebrate Easter daily by reflecting on what Jesus Christ has done for us.
The Savior gives power, comfort, and help for our earthly journey.
He redeems from both physical and spiritual death.
Trusting Jesus Christ brings confidence and hope.
We are invited to open our hearts fully to the Savior.

Experiences:

What daily habit helps you remember the Savior and His Atonement?
Can you share a recent experience when Jesus Christ gave you strength or comfort?
How do you personally celebrate Easter truths throughout the year?
When have you felt the Savior help you after you fell short?
What does it mean to you to "open wide your broken heart" and let the Savior in?