Bruce Charlton has a wonderful post on the paradox of Christianity–how Christ converts the news that we are sinful failures into good news, because it means we are destined for something better than our current selves.

 

Yet even an elevated consciousness and life after death does not tackle the fundamental problem that we could not live with ourselves as-we-are for eternity, but must become divinised – and if divinised must participate in the divine work.

[You must grasp] the need for Christ ([you  must see] see the implication of Christ being the Son of God . . . ), the need for the Atonement.

It is this understanding of the human condition – the need and the need-fulfilled – which enables Christianity honestly to offer more than any other religion (no other religion even pretends to offer as much as Christianity – as Pascal clearly saw) – and within Christianity no other understanding offers as much to Man as Mormonism does.

I see this as a progressive revelation and growing understanding of the human condition – the more we know, the more wonderful it is.

-thus Bruce Charlton.

Among the burdens the atonement relieves us of is the burden of pretending that we can live with our sins.  It’s tiring living in Plato’s cave and trying to convince yourself that the shadows on the wall are reality, just because you aren’t aware that the cave has an exit.