Our greatest hope comes from the knowledge that the Savior broke

“Our greatest hope comes from the knowledge that the Savior broke the bands of death. His victory came through His excruciating pain, suffering, and agony. He atoned for our sins if we repent.” — thus spoke James E. Faust, a man of faith and wisdom, whose words echo the eternal truth sung by prophets and poets alike: that from sorrow is born salvation, and that through the darkness of suffering, the light of redemption shines brightest. His words are not mere doctrine but a living song of hope, a reminder that even in our deepest despair, the power of divine love can lift us beyond the grasp of death itself.

In these words lies the very heart of the Christian faith — the belief that through the Atonement of Christ, all wounds can be healed, all losses made whole, all sins forgiven. The bands of death — that ancient chain binding humanity to fear and finality — were broken by a single act of infinite courage. But Faust reminds us that this victory was not born in ease or majesty; it was forged in the agonies of Gethsemane, the lash of scourges, the crown of thorns, and the nails of Golgotha. The Savior’s triumph was not the conquest of kings, but the suffering of a servant who bore the pain of the world upon His shoulders — and in doing so, transformed despair into eternal hope.

To the ancients, such a paradox would have been the language of the divine — the mystery that strength is revealed through weakness, and glory through sacrifice. Even the great Stoics spoke of the soul’s need to endure trial, yet none among them could conceive of a god who would choose to suffer for humanity, rather than command humanity to suffer for him. The teaching of Faust therefore reaches beyond religion into the realm of eternal wisdom: that pain, when borne with purpose and love, becomes the seed of victory. The cross, once a symbol of shame, became the emblem of deliverance. Thus the Savior’s suffering is not only the story of His redemption but also the pattern of ours.

Consider the story of Horatio Spafford, who, after losing his children in a shipwreck, penned the immortal hymn It Is Well with My Soul. Out of unfathomable grief came a song of peace that has comforted generations. Spafford, like Faust, understood that faith is not the absence of sorrow, but the transformation of it. He too looked to the Christ who conquered death, and from that belief drew the strength to rise from ruin. His life, like the Savior’s example, teaches that hope is not found in the denial of pain, but in its sanctification. The divine promise is not that we shall not suffer, but that our suffering shall not be in vain.

Faust’s words call us to more than comfort; they summon us to repentance — to the humbling act of turning our hearts toward the light. For the Atonement is not a blanket of forgetfulness, but a covenant of renewal. To repent is to walk out of shadow into sunrise, to release the burden of guilt and allow grace to restore the soul’s true strength. The hope Faust speaks of is not idle optimism, but a living power — a hope that demands faith, humility, and the courage to change.

From the perspective of the ancients, this act of repentance mirrors the cycle of nature itself. The seed must die in the earth before it can be reborn into life. So too must the heart surrender its pride before it can bloom in forgiveness. Thus, the Savior’s journey — from agony to glory — is not merely His story but the divine reflection of our own. Every soul must descend before it can rise; every spirit must endure night before it beholds dawn.

And so, O listener of future generations, learn this sacred truth: Hope is born in the shadow of suffering. Do not flee from your trials, for they are the furnace of faith. Remember that the Savior’s victory was not swift, but slow, not painless, but pure. Let your heart take courage — for He has broken the bands of death, and because He lives, you too shall live. Repent when you falter, love when you are wounded, and trust that even in the deepest sorrow, the hand of redemption is at work. For in that faith, as James E. Faust declared, lies the greatest hope of all — that from pain comes peace, and from death, eternal life.