Lane, Jennifer C.  “Redemption’s Grand Design for Both the Living and the Dead.”  In The Doctrine and Covenants Revelations in Context, edited by Andrew H. Hedges, J. Spencer Fluhman, and Alonzo L. Gaskill, 188-211.  Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2008.  [Mormon/Salvation of the Dead]

Lane defines “redemption” as a particular kind of salvation, i.e., “deliverance from bondage through the payment of a ransom price” which emphasizes both captivity and payment.  This article stresses that the Doctrine and Covenants is a second witness to the ancient concept of redemption found in the Bible and the Book of Mormon.  Christ is the goel, or redeemer-kinsman.  As our spiritual Father, through covenant relationships, he brings about redemption.  The Doctrine and Covenants teaches that redemption is made available to all, including the dead in the spirit world who did not know of or accept Christ in mortality.

In this context, Lane’s calling attention to the “fulness or redemption” is a subtle but potentially valuable insight. She points out that everyone except the Sons of Perdition will receive a measure of redemption, but only those exalted in the Celestial Kingdom will enjoy the “fulness of the redemption that Christ offers….  (p. 202).  This is a companion teaching to the idea of the “fulness of the Atonement,” or the fulness of the blessings of the atonement found in the teachings of a number of modern General Authorities which in my studies has proved to be especially helpful in understanding the purpose of the ordinances essential for salvation and exaltation.  Through these ordinances we receive incremental promises and blessings which in their totality extend to the individual the fulness of the Atonement and its blessings and makes possible the “fulness of redemption” and exaltation spoken of by Lane.