3.122 Send Your Sins Away

In Matthew 5, Jesus calls us the salt of the earth and the light of the world, reminding us that our lives are meant to preserve, illuminate, and point others to Him. This season on Savory Salt, we'll walk through the Old Testament, one verse and one thought each day. Perhaps these moments will add greater savor and brighter light to our lives as we seek to truly live as savory salt.

Hello, my friends. It's a new day with new opportunities. Choose ye this day whom you will serve.

I have to start this episode with a friendly reminder. I got to do it because otherwise my daughter, slash producer, Hope, will get after me. She keeps saying, Dad, please remind the listeners that we have a website now that is searchable all the way back through seasons one, two, and three.

And one, you can go check out anything from the Book of Mormon study that we've done, from the Doctrine and Covenants study that we've done, as well as what we're currently in with season three here, the Old Testament. So my friends, you can find that at savoriesaltpodcast.com. You also, if it's an easy place for you, can go there to listen to any of the old episodes.

We got a podcast player built inside of there. And if there was an episode where you thought I talked about something in particular or shared a particular story that you liked, we built in a full search feature there as well so that you can check that out. Now that we have that announcement made, let us dive in to our verse for today.

We are inside of this interesting reading time here. Let's dive into Leviticus chapter 16 verse 8. This is not really going to be like a heavily revealing verse.

You're going to need to read the verses around this. But 8 was about the best one I could choose here to start the idea that I have. Leviticus chapter 16 verse 8 says, "And Aaron shall cast lots." We've at least talked about it inside Savory Salt a lot here, but we're pretty familiar with the concept of the Atonement of Jesus Christ and its ability to pay for our sins and our mistakes and our pains and our sorrows and our suffering.

But this second goat has me really thinking. While Christ has paid for our sins through his atonement, how often do we continue to hold onto those sins or that sorrow or that pain? Let's take a moment to reflect on the concept of the scapegoat.

Because here we see an imagery of Jesus Christ in two different ways. One, the blood sacrifice that will atone for our sins. But two, the scapegoat that will also take those sins away.

My friends, I hope that today you have an opportunity as you pray and as you repent and as you seek to do your daily repentance and everything President Nelson has encouraged us for years to do. I hope you give yourself some leeway to send your sins away with the Atonement of Christ as well. Allow that scapegoat in your life.

Welcome to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Many times we seek for forgiveness, but we also tend to hold our own guilt for the mistakes that we've made. I hope that you and I can grasp this idea and this principle of scapegoat a little bit better and realize that the Atonement of Jesus Christ does pay for our sins, but also opens the door to take away those sins from our life.

Become clean and holy as he has directed us to be. That is a comforting thought. That's all for today, my friends.

You and I have come here for such a time as this. Step forward in faith and let's be savory salt. We will be here tomorrow and we hope you are too.