Thought of the Sunday 4

This is from the visiting teaching message from February (a little early, I know).  It is about Jesus Christ and that He was tempted but remained without sin.  Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles said,

"Jesus was...a being of flesh and spirit, but He yielded not to temptation.  We can turn to Him...because He understands. He understands the struggle, and He also understands how to win the struggle....The power of His Atonement can erase the effects of sin to us.  When we repent, His atoning grace justifies and cleanses us.  It is as if we had not succumbed, as if we had not yielded to temptation.  As we endeavor day by day and week by week to follow the path of Christ, our spirit asserts its preeminence, the battle within subsides, and temptations cease to trouble."

Jesus Christ knows exactly what we are going through.  He was tempted just like everyone else is.  He lived on this earth and experienced the emotions that we experience.  The only difference is that He never gave in, even when Satan tempted Him.  His resounding words were, "Get thee hence, Satan."  We can learn from our Savior to have the strength to say the same thing.  We are human and humans sin  no matter what we do, but as we become more like the Savior, I believe that we can overcome our sinful natures, one sin at a time.  And when we do sin, all we need to do to erase the sin is to repent through the Atonement of Jesus Christ.  Then, as Elder Christofferson says, "It is as if we had not succumbed, as if we had not yielded to temptation."   What a beautiful thing the Savior and our Father in Heaven has given us.

From the book of Alma in the Book of Mormon we can read of what He did for us and why (Alma 7:11-12):

And he shall go forth, suffering 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 the sicknesses of his people.

And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he 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.

Our Savior knows exactly how to help us.  We only have to recognize that we have sinned and come to Him in humility to use the Atonement.  It may not be easy for us to admit when we have done wrong, but it is necessary to our becoming more like Christ.