Bought With a Price

20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.

We are not our own, we are bought with a price, we are the Lord's; our time, our talents, our gold and silver, our wheat and fine flour, our wine and our oil, our cattle, and all there is on this earth that we have in our possession is the Lord's ... (Discourses of Brigham Young, p.176)

I am sorry to say that I have heard of some members of the Church saying that Christ did not buy us with his blood. One of them has said: "That people of the world owed a debt and Jesus paid the debt for all: This thought does violence to justice, for the suffering of the good to pay the debt of the bad is contrary to the law of life." Another says: "That Jesus was a ransom for a captive world: In this case Jesus must have been paid to someone who held the world captive; but in the very nature of his mission or ransom he could not be held captive and God must have deceived the captor."

Well, such thoughts as these might do honor to an infidel, but not to a member of the Church. Those who speak this way need to repent. They should read the scriptures and especially the Book of Mormon. Jesus did come into the world to ransom it. Through his atonement we were bought from death and hell. Death and hell were paid -- paid in full -- and Christ was the only one who could pay that debt. What did Paul mean when he said we were bought with a price?" [1 Cor. 6:20; 7:23.] What does Jesus mean when he calls himself our "Redeemer?" [Isa. 41:14; D. & C. 8:1; Rev. 5:9-10.] If we were not bought, if we were not ransomed by Jesus Christ, then we are still in our sins and still subject to death and hell. These men, ignorant of the plan of salvation, should read intensively the scriptures. (Doctrines of Salvation, 1:125-126)

Our Redeemer has done everything that is essential for our salvation, and he has taught us that if we serve him with all our soul, and all our days, yet we are unprofitable servants and have done only that which it was our duty to do. Paul says we were bought with a price, and we are not our own. Our Redeemer has a perfect right to command us, and all that we do is for our own sakes. He can do without us, but we cannot do without him. We are told that we are unprofitable servants, and so we are, if we think of trying to pay our Savior back for what he has done for us, for that we never can do; and we cannot by any number of acts, or a full life of faithful service, place our Savior in our debt. (Doctrines of Salvation, 1:15)

You cannot with impunity "crucify Christ afresh."[see Heb. 6:6] "Flee fornication," [1 Cor. 6:18] Paul cries, and flee "anything like unto it," [D&C 59:6; emphasis added] the Doctrine and Covenants adds. Why? Well, for one reason because of the incalculable suffering in both body and spirit endured by the Savior of the world so that we could flee. [see especially D&C 19:15-20] We owe Him something for that. Indeed, we owe Him everything for that. "Ye are not your own," Paul says. "Ye [have been] bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's." [1 Cor. 6:19-20; emphasis added; see also 1 Cor. 6:13-18] (From ["Personal Purity," Ensign, Nov. 1998, p. 76)