Mosiah 16: The Crack in the Walnut
I was building a dining table last spring out of walnut, eight feet long. I had the top glued up and clamped, and I walked away for the night feeling good about it. The next morning I came out to the shop and found a crack running through the middle board. Not a small one. You could fit a nickel in it.
I stood there for a minute, looking at the damage and trying to decide what to do. The glue was dry and the clamps were off, and the crack was not going to close itself. I had a choice. I could fill it with epoxy and pretend it was not there, or I could cut the joint apart, clean up the edges, and start over.
I thought about that crack while reading Mosiah 16. Abinadi is standing before the priests of Noah, about to be killed for what he is saying, and he is talking about something similar. A gap between what was offered and what was accepted. The next chapter, Mosiah 17, tells the rest of the story.
Starting with the Bad News
Abinadi starts with the bad news. All mankind were lost. Without the redemption of God, they would have been endlessly lost. That is the baseline. We were not in a position to save ourselves, and there was no backup plan.
Then he gives the good news. God redeemed His people from their lost and fallen state. Christ broke the bands of death. The grave has no victory. The sting of death is swallowed up in Christ.
He is the light and the life of the world; yea, a light that is endless, that can never be darkened; yea, and also a life which is endless, that there can be no more death.
That is the redemption. It is real and complete, and it is offered to everyone.
The Epoxy and the Joint
Here is where it gets uncomfortable. Verse 5 says that anyone who persists in their own carnal nature, who goes on in sin and rebellion against God, remains in their fallen state. And then this: "Therefore he is as though there was no redemption made."
The redemption is real. But it can be refused. Not in the sense of saying the words "I reject the Atonement." More like living in a way that makes the Atonement irrelevant to you. You keep going the same direction, making the same choices, insisting on your own way. And at some point, the door that was open might as well not exist, because you never walked through it.
Abinadi says the devil has all power over such a person. That is a hard thing to read. But he is not saying it to be cruel. He is saying it because he wants his audience to understand the stakes.
I think about that crack in the walnut. The epoxy would have filled the gap and looked fine from a distance. But the board would still be broken. The joint would still be weak. Filling a crack is not the same as fixing it. Repentance is not filling the crack. It is cutting the joint apart and starting over. It hurts and it costs time, but it is the only way to make the piece sound.
You Cannot Sit on a Shadow
The priests of Noah were teaching the Law of Moses, but they were teaching it wrong. They were treating the Law as an end in itself. Abinadi corrects them. He says the Law is a shadow of things to come. The substance is Christ.
A shadow is useful. It tells you something is there and gives you a sense of the shape. But you cannot sit on a shadow or eat one. The shadow is not the thing. It points to the thing.
The Law of Moses pointed to Christ. The sacrifices, the rituals, the feasts. They were all meant to prepare people for the real thing. The priests of Noah had lost sight of that. They were so focused on the shadow that they missed the substance standing in front of them.
I have done the same thing. Spent more time on the sketch than on the piece. Worried about the plan while ignoring the wood. The sketch is not the furniture, and the plan is not the project. The substance is what matters.
Two Outcomes
Everyone is redeemed from the fall. That is universal. Because of Christ, everyone will be resurrected and will stand before God to be judged. But the kind of resurrection you receive depends on your works.
Abinadi says there are two outcomes. If your works are good, you receive the resurrection of endless life and happiness. If they are evil, you receive the resurrection of endless damnation. The same Atonement that saves also condemns, depending on what you do with it.
He describes people who "never called upon the Lord while the arms of mercy were extended towards them." The arms were extended. They were warned and commanded to repent, and they would not.
That is the tragedy of the chapter. Not that redemption was unavailable. But that it was available, and people chose to ignore it.
Cutting the Joint Apart
Abinadi ends with a direct question. "Ought ye not to tremble and repent of your sins, and remember that only in and through Christ ye can be saved?"
He is not asking for fear, though the question is direct. He is asking for attention, the kind you give a piece of wood that is about to split if you do not catch it in time. The same attention you give a relationship that is drifting, or the attention you give your own heart when you know something is wrong.
Repentance is not a one-time event. It is the ongoing work of cutting the joint apart and starting over, every time, as many times as it takes. The arms of mercy are still extended.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does Abinadi say some people are "as though there was no redemption made"?
He teaches that the Atonement is real and available to everyone, but it requires faith and repentance to take effect. People who willfully persist in sin and refuse to change are effectively opting out of the benefits of the Atonement. The redemption exists, but they are living as if it does not.
What did Abinadi mean by calling the Law of Moses a "shadow"?
He meant that the laws and rituals of the Law of Moses were symbols pointing toward the future reality of Jesus Christ. The purpose of the Law was to lead people to the Savior. Focusing on the Law while ignoring Christ is like preferring a shadow over the actual person standing in front of you.
Is the redemption of Christ universal or conditional?
The provision of the Atonement is universal. It is available to every person who has ever lived. But the application of that redemption is conditional. It depends on whether a person is willing to repent and enter into a covenant with God. The door is open, but you have to walk through it.
What does it mean that the arms of mercy were extended?
It means God is not hiding. He is not waiting for us to earn His attention. The invitation to repent is always there. The tragedy is not that God withdraws His mercy. It is that people refuse to take it.
I still have that walnut board. I cut the joint apart, cleaned up the edges, and reglued it. The crack is gone. You cannot tell it was ever there. But I remember the moment I had to decide whether to fix it or fill it.
— D.