"And now, my son, I would say somewhat unto you concerning the coming of Christ. Behold, I say unto you, that it is he that surely shall come to take away the sins of the world; yea, he cometh to declare glad tidings of salvation unto his people."
Some years ago, President Henry B. Eyring gave a talk that included his earlier reading of the Book of Mormon where he did it at the pace of about one scripture per day. [I was looking for the conference talk where he referred to this, but I can't find it! I hope I didn't manufacture the memory!]
That sounded like a good idea to me and I have been doing this for several years. As you can see from the scripture reference above, the progress takes a while.
The whole point is to read that scripture and to think about it that day. I am finding that little nuggets of insight are found in such a study where our usual "hot-rod" reading of a page or a chapter of scripture a day will speed over such "gravel"-sized wisdom that might be missed on the fast-paced super-highway of our modern lives.
In this scripture are two important ideas about the mission of Christ:
- "take away the sins of the world" - This is a reference to the atonement, where Christ was resurrected and overcame the effects of Adam's original transgression, which was physical death. Also, the atonement involved Christ's punishment for our individual sins and opened the way for our effective repentance, our purposeful improvement, and our possibility for ultimate exaltation. Adam's sin and its worst consequences was taken away and so to can many effects of our sins be taken away as we follow Christ and repent.
- "to declare glad tidings" - This is the "good news" of the Gospel being taught to everyone. It also mentions "unto his people", which could be a reference to the fact that Christ only comes to "his people", the children of Israel, and that it is up to us to go and "declare" the the fruits of Christ's atonement to the rest of the world (the "gentiles" in a term).
The atonement of Christ is meant to provide us a way to become exalted as Christ is. No matter our circumstances in life, we can take advantage of it!
So, one little scripture stirs up so much (and a lot more that I don't have time to type out).