The Infinite Atonement

by Tad R. Callister

A number of years ago at a youth conference I called a young man forward and invited him to sit on the piano bench. I took from my wallet a number of crisp twenty dollar bills and offered them to him if he would play any song in the hymn book he desired. As he looked at the crisp twenty dollar bills and then the piano, he became frustrated. "I can't play," he said. "Why not?" I responded. "You have the music, the piano, the fingers, seemingly all the ingredients necessary to play." "But I don't know how!" he answered. He had everything he needed except for one thing—the power to execute, which is an indispensable element of freedom. Power comes by obedience. We gain power to play the piano as we obey the law of practicing. We gain mastery over a language as we learn and follow the rules of linguistics. We gain power over the elements as we obey the laws of God.