The two functions of the Atonement both deal with a form of death, and the Atonement provides for the return to life after each type of death. The death of the body becomes the resurrection of the body. The spiritual death that separates us from God becomes the ability to return to His presence.
The Book of Mormon prophets preach this Atonement, but they also make it clear that while the Atonement accomplishes both of these reconciliations, it does so in two different ways. For the resurrection of the body, we have no participation. This is the free gift to all. It is probably the aspect of the Atonement that led to the Nehorite heresy that all would be saved. In the sense of being saved from death, it is quite true that all are saved. The Nehorite error was in extending this concept past the resurrection, and into the qualitative, moral, reconciliation. It is in the realm of our relationship with God that the Atonement provides, but does not finish. It is this particular aspect of our participation in the Atonement that Samuel emphasizes here.
Even in this second aspect of the Atonement, the Atonement is yet a free gift. Even though there are conditions placed on receiving the full benefit of the Atonement for spiritual death, there is no way that it is earned. We cannot Atone for ourselves, so even this conditional aspect of Atonement is yet a free gift from God.
What does this Atonement actually do? It pays for sins ‑ in advance as well as retrospect. The easiest way to understand what the Atonement does in this aspect is to examine the nature of an Atonement for future sin. In the case of future sin, how might one possibly repent of something not yet performed? It is impossible if we view the Atonement as only a payment for something that has happened. The Atonement covers all sin, including the future, and therefore does not easily fit the model of “payment.” What the Atonement does is bring about the ability to repent.
It is at this point that Samuel’s statement becomes the most clear exposition of this aspect of the Atonement. Note emphasis in the first phrase, that the Atonement “bringeth to pass the condition of repentance.” It does not bring to pass repentance. We must do that. It does not bring to pass our ability to live the laws of a celestial kingdom (see DC 88:22), but it does bring to pass the condition of repentance. Because of the Atonement, we are able to repent.
Note how important this ability to repent is:
2 Nephi 9:8-9
8 O the wisdom of God, his mercy and grace! For behold, if the flesh should rise no more our spirits must become subject to that angel who fell from before the presence of the Eternal God, and became the devil, to rise no more.
9 And our spirits must have become like unto him, and we become devils, angels to a devil, to be shut out from the presence of our God, and to remain with the father of lies, in misery, like unto himself; yea, to that being who beguiled our first parents, who transformeth himself nigh unto an angel of light, and stirreth up the children of men unto secret combinations of murder and all manner of secret works of darkness.
While verse 8 is most explicit on the Atonement for physical death, verse 9’s indication that the “spirits must have become like unto him” is the logical consequence of a world in which repentance is impossible. The cumulative weight of unrepented, uncleansed sin, would create such a condition.
Theologically, then, the Atonement provides an absolute resurrection, and an absolute condition of repentance. That part of the Atonement is universally available. Whether we do or do not repent, the very fact that it is possible is due to the Atonement.