Day 39: A ransom

"He served as a ransom for mankind."

What does that even mean? I've heard that phrase before many times but never really thought about it. But it describes perfectly what Jesus Christ's role was for us.

The plan of salvation was laid out to us in the pre-mortal existence. We were told what the plan was, and then given the choice to follow through with it or leave with Satan and never gain a body. 2/3 of us chose to follow through with the plan. The rest left and decided to take on the role of tempting us while we had mortal bodies. An act of jealousy on their part because they realized they would never progress like we had the opportunity to.

Yet we couldn't just go down to earth and live a perfect life. How would we progress, really learn right from wrong? We had to experience the good and the bad. But justice requires a price to be paid for every wrong committed. But that would doom us. There would be no way we could return to Heavenly Father if there wasn't a way for us to become perfect like him.

Then Jesus Christ stepped in with his role. A "ransom" was put upon him. He would take the sins of the world upon him in order for us to recieve the opportunity to repent and return to our Heavenly Father. We thought we understood how important it would be to come back to him, but Jesus Christ knew as soon as we came to the earth and the veil was put between us and heaven, we would find many ways to forget or choose wrongly.

Therefore, Jesus Christ knew how important this sacrifice would be. He was the only one who could atone for the sins of the world.

I'm trying to do what I can to make that sacrifice worthwhile, to honor and continue to use the atonement. Because I don't want that ransom to have been in vain.