“Lesson 32—Doctrine and Covenants 19:1–24, Part 2: ‘I, [Jesus Christ], Have Suffered These Things for All,’” Doctrine and Covenants Seminary Teacher Manual (2025)
“Doctrine and Covenants 19:1–24, Part 2,” Doctrine and Covenants Seminary Teacher Manual
Lesson 32: Doctrine and Covenants 19
Doctrine and Covenants 19:1–24, Part 2
“I, [Jesus Christ], Have Suffered These Things for All”
The Lord taught powerful truths about His Atonement to Martin Harris in Doctrine and Covenants 19. Repentance for our sins is possible through Jesus Christ. Because of Him and His merciful and loving Atonement, we can be made clean through our repentance. This lesson can help students appreciate more deeply the Savior’s gift of repentance, which is made possible through His great atoning sacrifice.
Possible Learning Activities
Truths or myths?
To begin class, help students assess what they know or believe about repentance. One possible way to do this is to invite them to evaluate the following statements. You could print each statement separately and display them on the board. Students could then divide the statements into the categories of Truths or Myths. Another option is to set up an anonymous digital poll and invite students to respond.
Are the following statements truths or myths?
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The main purpose of repentance is to punish sinners.
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Those who don’t repent will be unworthy to return to live with God.
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Even though it can be hard, repentance is worth it.
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Repentance is a gift from God.
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Heavenly Father cannot really love me until I repent.
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Repentance is a painless process.
The following questions could help guide a discussion about students’ responses. For helpful discussion points, see Topics and Questions, “Repentance,” topics.ChurchofJesusChrist.org or “Eight Myths about Repentance,” Liahona, Mar. 2016, 52–55.
Note: Do not spend too much time in discussion; students will compare these statements with the Savior’s teachings later in the lesson.
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What makes these statements truths or myths?
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Why might some people believe one of the myths is true?
Invite students to briefly record in their study journals their own feelings about repentance. You might ask them to include their thoughts about the truths and myths they discussed.
In Doctrine and Covenants 19, the Lord responded to Martin Harris’s concerns about potentially losing his farm to pay for the printing of the Book of Mormon. The Lord taught Martin about repentance and about His great atoning sacrifice. As you study today, you may want to record in your study journal the truths you learn about the Savior and the blessing of repentance He offers us.
His suffering eases our suffering
For the following learning activity, students could study in small groups. Encourage students to be reverent as they study these verses.
Students may be interested to know that Doctrine and Covenants 19:16–19 is the only scriptural account that includes the Savior’s personal description of His suffering.
Read Doctrine and Covenants 19:15–20 and look for what the Savior wants you to learn about Him and about repentance. You may want to pray and invite the Holy Ghost to help you understand what the Lord wants you to know and feel from these verses.
Doctrine and Covenants 19:16–19 is a doctrinal mastery passage. Consider inviting students to mark doctrinal mastery passages in a distinctive way so they can locate them easily.
When students share what they are learning, the Holy Ghost can strengthen their testimonies of those truths. One way to provide this opportunity is to give each group a half sheet of paper. Invite the groups to write on the paper a meaningful truth they learned about repentance or about the Savior from their study. Invite a representative from each group to stand, read their truth aloud, then display it on the board.
Invite the groups to compare what the class learned from the verses with the truths and myths reviewed at the beginning of class. They could discuss questions like the following:
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How can the Savior’s teachings help us more easily identify truths and myths about repentance?
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How could you correctly rewrite these myths to reflect truths about repentance?
Emphasize the following truths: Jesus Christ willingly suffered His Atonement for all people (verses 16, 19). If we choose not to repent, we will suffer the penalty for our sins (verse 17).
To help students feel the importance of these truths, consider discussing questions like the following:
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How do the Savior’s own words about His Atonement influence the way you feel about Him? Why?
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How does the Lord’s commandment to repent demonstrate His love for us?
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In what ways can understanding the Savior’s love for us increase our desire to repent?
The Savior’s gift of repentance
Provide students with an opportunity to consider how they feel about the Savior. What follows are three different ways you could do this. You could share a video, invite students to study statements from Church leaders, or sing a hymn together as a class. You might use one or more of these depending on the needs of your students and the promptings of the Holy Ghost.
Video
You may want to show the video “For God So Loved the World” (4:48), beginning at time code 1:56. This video is available on ChurchofJesusChrist.org and can help students visualize what the Savior was willing to suffer to give us the opportunity to repent. If you choose to show it, consider inviting students to express how they feel about the Savior and the gift of repentance afterward.
Statements from Church Leaders
Consider separating the two statements in the accompanying handout and giving each student one of the statements. Invite them to study it and write on the back why it’s important for a teenager to understand. Then invite them to trade papers with a student who had the other statement and read both the statement and what the other student wrote.
Jesus Christ and Our Repentance
Elder Lynn G. Robbins of the Seventy observed:
No one is more on our side than the Savior. …
… Repentance isn’t His backup plan in the event we might fail. Repentance is His plan, knowing that we will. (Lynn G. Robbins, “Until Seventy Times Seven,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2018, 22)
President Russell M. Nelson testified:
Jesus Christ is our ultimate exemplar, “who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross” [Hebrews 12:2]. Think of that! In order for Him to endure the most excruciating experience ever endured on earth, our Savior focused on joy!
And what was the joy that was set before Him? Surely it included the joy of cleansing, healing, and strengthening us; the joy of paying for the sins of all who would repent; the joy of making it possible for you and me to return home—clean and worthy—to live with our Heavenly Parents and families. (Russell M. Nelson, “Joy and Spiritual Survival,” Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2016, 83)
Hymns about the Savior
If you use this option, you might allow students to share phrases about the Savior from different hymns that teach about His gift of repentance. Depending on the needs and abilities of your students, you may choose to sing a few of the hymns as a class. You might suggest that students link these hymns to Doctrine and Covenants 19:16–19 in their scriptures.
Personal reflection
Give students time to reflect on what they have learned and felt. You might invite them to record their thoughts and impressions in their study journals. You could invite students to consider how they could more fully invite the Savior’s blessing of repentance into their lives.
Be sensitive to the promptings of the Spirit. You may want to invite students to share their testimonies with one another.
Memorize
You may want to help students memorize the doctrinal mastery reference and key scripture phrase during this lesson and review them in future lessons. The key scripture phrase is “I, [Jesus Christ], have suffered these things for all.” Ideas for memorization activities are in the appendix materials under “Doctrinal Mastery Review Activities.”