2.54 Oh How Great the Holiness of Our God

In Matthew 5:13, Jesus calls us the salt of the earth, a bold reminder that our lives are meant to carry his flavor, his truth, and his love to the world. Join me each day to explore one verse of scripture and one thought, striving to stay full of savor and truly live as savory salt. Hello, my friends.

Great to have you with me. Today, let's be anxiously engaged in a good cause and bring to pass much righteousness. Oh, how great the holiness of our God.

Welcome to the final chapter of this week's study as we've gone through Doctrine and Covenants sections 12 through 17 and 2 Nephi chapters 5 through 9. We will finish this week inside of 2 Nephi chapter 9. It is an incredible master class on the Atonement of Jesus Christ.

If you want to understand the Atonement, if you want to understand the role of Jesus Christ in our lives, 2 Nephi chapter 9 is for you. Thank you for watching. What we're going to look at today is actually a verse that I had set last year, and then at the last second I changed.

And so now it gives me an opportunity to dive into it this year instead. Our verse for today comes in 2 Nephi 9:21. And I think, actually, perhaps there was a reason I kind of hesitated on it last year and now step into it this year, a little bit different lens from year to year.

Verse 21 says, "And he cometh into the world," this is speaking of Jesus Christ, "and he cometh into the world, that he may save all men if they will hearken unto his voice. For behold, he suffereth the pains of all men, yea, the pains of every living creature, both men, women, and children, who belong to the family of Adam." The Atonement of Jesus Christ encompasses all pain and suffering. Not just that pain and suffering that comes from making mistakes or sins, but all pain and suffering.

And as I've reflected on this verse and really the verses before it as well—it's a beautiful segment here in 18, 19, 20, 21. It got me reflecting on a new pain that I have felt over the last, say, 18 months. I talked before about the passing of my dad, and then ultimately at the end of last year my mom passed away as well.

And that's still fresh, right? It's only been three or four months since that happened. And yet, I can tell you that while I miss my parents and want to see them and have conversations with them, I stand in a firm belief in a literal Resurrection as explained in 2 Nephi 9.

And that makes the pain of their loss different. It almost makes it, if I could use the word, kind of enveloped in the Atonement of Jesus Christ. And it's caused me to really reflect on my belief of a Resurrection.

I believe that I have the opportunity one day to see my parents again, to hug them, to interact with them. I'm so grateful that I have the opportunity to see them in perfect resurrected form, with their bodies being reunited with their spirits, and to interact with them again as a whole. My loving parents that I've known them up until my life at this point.

I'm so grateful to Jesus Christ for his Atonement, and I'm grateful for prophets like Nephi and Jacob and those Book of Mormon prophets that do so as well and testify of a living Jesus Christ, a fully resurrected Jesus Christ. I'm grateful for the pain that it takes from me and instead almost turns it into a longing and looking forward to the day that I get to see them again. And while I miss them every day, the pain of their loss is swallowed up in the joy of the day that I get to look forward to because Jesus Christ has done what he's done for me and for you.

My friends, may you too find that your pain is swallowed up in the Atonement of Jesus Christ as you turn to him and hearken unto his voice, is my hope and prayer for each one of you listening today. That's all for today, my friends. Lift up your hearts and rejoice. Cleave unto the covenants you have made, and together we will be savory salt.