His Merits

My Book of Mormon class discussed a scripture in Helaman 14:13 this week.  It reads, “And if ye believe on his name ye will repent of all your sins, that thereby ye may have a remission of them through his merits.”  Every part of this scripture is extremely important to me.  The first section talks about faith, which is the first principle of the gospel.  Without faith in Christ, you cannot move forward - all the other steps to eventual exaltation depend completely on this initial faith.  The next section talks about repentance, an ordinance that follows after faith.  Once we have developed faith in and a love for our Savior, we will truly desire to repent of all of our sins and be clean in His eyes.  However, as the last part of this scripture addresses, repentance is not something that we can complete by ourselves.  It is not a checklist.  We do not have the power to grant ourselves a remission of our sins – only Christ can do that through His sacred and infinite atonement.  It is entirely through His merits (as the scripture teaches) that we can be cleansed from iniquity.  While we still do have an obligation to do all we can to strive for forgiveness, ultimately we just have to place our burden at the Savior’s feet and humbly beg Him to help us.  I know that if we always remember that it is through Christ alone that we can receive a remission of our sins, we will be humble and penitent and will be able to accept His saving grace.