Alma and the condescension of God.

 When Alma the Younger preaches to the people of Gideon he finds that they have not strayed from the path as much as the people of Zarahemla (Alma 7:6).  He is therefore not as pressed to preach repentance, but is at liberty to teach them more about Christ's condescension. In Alma 7:11-12 we read 

"And he shall go forth, suffering the pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and sicknesses of his people. And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the band of death which bind his people; and hie will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities."

In several of the podcasts I listened to they suggested that Jesus suffered temptations and took upon him the infirmities of his people as part of the Atonement.  I think, however that his passage mostly refers to the incarnation.  By condescending to become a mortal being, he opened himself to temptation, pain, sickness and infirmity.  In other words, by taking on a physical body in the fallen world, he came to understand what it is like to have a physical body in the fallen world. This is one way he learned empathy for his creations.

Of course, he also suffered for sins so that we might repent, "the Son of God suffereth according to the flesh that he might take upon him the sins of his people, that he might blot out their transgressions according to the power of his deliverance." (7:13)  

We learned in 2 Nephi 9:7 that the atonement was infinite.  Jesus suffered all things for us so that we might repent and have hope (1 Peter 3:18). His lessons on compassion and empathy, however, began way before his suffering in Gethsemane and his death in Golgotha. He began learning how to "succor his people" as soon as he was born.  He left his place as the creator God, and took on the form of a helpless infant. I find that I am in almost as much awe of Jesus' condescension as his atonement. Both were extreme voluntary sacrifice. Both were acts of consummate compassion. Both were evidences of his supreme love for all of us.