In Mosiah 2:21, we read the following:
I say unto you that if ye should serve him who has created you from the
beginning, and is preserving you from day to day, by lending you breath, that
ye may live and move and do according to your own will, and even supporting you
from one moment to another-- I say, if ye should serve him with all your whole
souls yet ye would be unprofitable servants.
This should be compared with Eph 2:10:
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works,
which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
In both these passages, the good works
that please God are not works that legally obligate God to pay us a wage (cf.
Rom 4:1-5); instead, they are works empowered by God, and the reward one receives
is that borne out of God’s gracious merit, not strict merit (think of a pay
slip from an employer). This fits nicely with the concept of gracious merit one
finds all throughout the Bible (e.g., Psa
106:30-31 and Phinehas), and also is supported by Heb 6:10:
For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which
ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and
do minister.
