In their review of Douglas Davies' book, The Mormon Culture of Salvation: Force, Grace, and Glory (Ashgate, 2000), Work, Worship, and Grace, David L. Paulsen and Cory G. Walker offered the following about "all we can do" (2 Nephi 25:23):
The idea of God asking that we do something before the fullness of his blessings is conferred is quite common in Christendom, even if it is believed that all he asks is that we accept Christ as our personal Savior. In this case it is usually understood that it is not the confessing itself that saves, but the grace that is given due to the confessing. This is similar to the church’s teaching that we are saved by grace “after all we can do.” Note that it is grace that saves, even if God mandates the mode of our acceptance of the grace. The teaching of a doctrine of grace, like the one Davies found out of place from Millet, is traceable through the history of the church. Elder W. Rolfe Kerr put the concept well when he writes, with reference to his childhood days of living on a farm:
After we plowed, planted, irrigated, and cultivated the fields, we cast our fate in His hands. We worked hard but knew that without the sunshine and rain, the grace and mercy of God, and the benevolence of loving parents, we could accomplish nothing.
Is not this faith in and dependence upon God what King Benjamin taught when he said: “If you should render all the thanks and praise which your whole soul has power to possess, to that God who has created you, . . . if ye should serve him with all your whole souls yet ye would be unprofitable servants. . . . And now I ask, can ye say aught of yourselves? I answer you, Nay. Ye cannot say that ye are even as much as the dust of the earth” (Mosiah 2:20–21, 25).
We are indebted to God for our very lives. When we keep His commandments, which is our duty to do, He immediately blesses us. We are therefore continually indebted and unprofitable to Him. Without grace, our valiance alone cannot save us. (W. Rolfe Kerr, “Parables of Jesus: The Unprofitable Servant,” Ensign, October 2003, 47)
There is no conflict or inconsistency with this teaching from the Book of Mormon, the church’s views throughout its history, and current church explanations regarding the interplay of grace, works, and salvation.
