Tuesday, June 14, 2022

George Reynolds and Janne M. Sjodahl on the Relationship Between Grace, Faith, and Works

  

Latter-day restoration of the Gospel clarified the doctrine of exaltation, thus making it clear that obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel (works) was not lost in the doctrine of grace. Unfortunately, however, this renewed concept of the place of works in the plan of salvation has not alone clarified the relationship of works and grace, but has also had a tendency to elevate works above grace in the minds of many believers. Moreover, some exponents of the latter-day word, after making clear allowance for both grace and works, have oversimplified the matter. They have limited grace to the free gift of resurrection, and have attributed to works alone the power to exalt man in the Celestial Kingdom of Glory. This conclusion is unsupported by written authority. Full recognition is given throughout the scriptures to the fact that man is incapable of fully living the Gospel in any of his stages of progress, without help from God. In His great doctrinal sermon, Jesus made clear that living His Gospel would be much more than the simple application of a clear-cut formula to the problems of life. Man's salvation would be achieved by keeping in touch—by asking and searching.

 

Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. (Matthew 7:7)

 

He promised that the good gifts would be forthcoming to those who righteously searched and requested them.

 

For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him? (Matthew 7:8-11)

 

Thus we see that man's forward movement is aided by one gift after another, or as John has said: "grace for grace" (John 1:16).

 

A careful reading of the teachings of Jacob in the Book of Mormon dispels any notion that works alone have the power to exalt.

 

Wherefore, my beloved brethren, reconcile yourselves to the will of God, and not to the will of the devil and the flesh; and remember, after ye are reconciled unto God, that it is only in and through the grace of God that ye are saved. Wherefore, may God raise you from death by the power of the resurrection, and also from everlasting death by the power of the atonement, and that ye may be received into the eternal kingdom of God, that ye may praise him through grace divine. (II Nephi 10:24-25) (George Reynolds and Janne M. Sjodahl, Commentary on the Book of Mormon, 7 vols. [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1977], 4:13)