The chief error giving rise to the confusion concerning
saving grace, is an incorrect idea of salvation. Those who teach salvation by
self effort alone speak of salvation as something earned. Those who each
salvation by grace alone think of salvation as something given. Both concepts
are incorrect. Salvation is neither earned nor received. Salvation is achieved.
It is in fact the noblest of all achievements.
For this greatest of all achievements man needs
power, tremendous power. If he has the power within himself to reach the soul’s
highest goal, he, of course, needs no divine help. If, on the other hand, he is
unable of his own strength to save himself, then manifestly he stands in need
of divine saving power.
Man does need divine assistance in achieving
salvation. It is the central truth of the Christian philosophy of salvation. On
one occasion Jesus said, “If the Son be lifted up from the earth he will draw
all men unto Him.”
The power by which we are “drawn unto God or
unto his purity and righteousness” or as Paul says “created unto good works,”
or as Moroni says, “enticed to good” is of grace or “inspired of God.” (Moroni
7:13.) But this grace-given power will not avail in our salvation unless we
utilize it in strict obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel; and
righteous living to the end of our lives.
The idea of salvation through the power of Christ’s
sacrifice for sin is absolutely fundamental in the Christian religion. The Prophet
Joseph Smith emphasized this truth in the most positive way. In 1838, he published
answers to a number of questions that were constantly challenging him. One of
these questions was this: “What are the fundamental teachings of your religion?”
In answer to this question Joseph Smith said,
The fundamental principles of our religion are
the testimonies of the apostles and prophets concerning Jesus Christ; that He
died, was buried and rose again from the dead and ascended into heaven, and
other things which pertain to our religion are only appendages to it. (Joseph Smith’s
Teachings p. 121)
When Joseph Smith said that he took a stand
with Paul who said, “I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ
and him crucified (1 Cor. 2:2) Joseph Smith, by that answer, also put himself
in harmony with Paul’s declaration to the Galatians: “God forbid that I should
glory save in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Gal. 6:14)
This text furnished the inspiration of one of
the great Christian hymns:
In the cross of Christ I glory
Towering o’er the wreck of time;
All the light sacred story
Gathers around thy head sublime.
The idea that we are saved basically and
vitally by the grace of Jesus Christ is the great central truth of the
Christian religion. IT is the very essence of the gospel message. This truth is
“the power of God unto salvation.” To deny it is to deny the saving power of
the Son of God. To deny that we are saved basically by grace is to imply that God
is just a mercenary merchant who only sells things to his children, and never
gives them anything.
One typical modern conversion will furnish a
concrete illustration of the saving power of Christ and its relationship to
salvation by works. Some years ago, two of our missionaries called on an
ex-United States army officer, a man of scholarship and culture. They talked
with him about the Book of Mormon. He became interested and purchased a copy.
During the next two weeks he read it from cover to cover. When the missionaries
called again he was overjoyed to meet them. For the Book of Mormon had come to be
to him the darling theme of his heart. So when their conversation turned to
religion, he started to talk about the Book of Mormon. He said, “That book is
true. I have never had such spiritual enlightenment as I have since I read it.
That book has changed my life. Since I read it, I have not been able to drink
intoxicating liquor.”
This simple story is a narrative of a typical
modern conversion. There have been tens of thousands just like it. And yet in
it is found everything Paul speaks of in his troublesome text, “By grace ye are
saved.” Just what happened to that man? His desires and cravings were changed from
evil to good. His life was changed from evil to good. That is what Jesus calls
conversion. And conversion is the beginning and the foundation of salvation.
What converted him? It was not his works of obedience. There had not been any
good works yet. IT was the Book of Mormon that converted him. Why did it
convert him? Because it did for him just what it came to do for all of us. It
convinced him that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world. Or in other words,
it awakened faith in his soul in Jesus Christ; and that faith converted him.
That faith is the only thing that is deep enough and pure enough to convert a
soul.
But how did the Book of Mormon come to him? Did
he produce it? Did he merit its coming to him? Certainly not. It came to him as
an unearned free gift, or by the grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ. So that basically
this man was saved by “grace through faith.” Or, in other words, by the faith
that come to him by grace he was converted or “created unto good works.”
This conversion or being “created unto good
works,” was not of himself. IT was not of his works. Therefore, as Paul says,
he could not boast of it.
What then is grace? Grace is the spiritual
power that “creates us” or converts us unto good works. (Eph. 2:10) It is the power
or spirit by which God “works in us” to enable us to effectively work out our
salvation. (Phil. 2:13) Or in other words grace is spiritual power that comes
through the love-inspired sacrifice of Jesus Christ that converts unto and
sustains us in the performance of good works.
This definition does not imply that salvation
is not in a vital sense by good works. It implies that salvation comes only through
efficient works—Christ-inspired and motivated works. (Nephi Jensen, The
World’s Greatest Need: Salvation from the World’s Ills through the Restoring
Saving Power of Jesus Christ [Salt Lake City: Deseret News Press, 1950], 56-60)
The Judaism of Paul’s time had become a
mechanical, ritualistic formalism. . . . it was this type of lip service,
outward observance and ritualistic technicalities, that provoked Paul to preach
with great emphasis, inner purification and transformation through a
soul-purging faith in Jesus Christ. But his doctrine has not been understood. A
misconception of Paul’s idea has led to some of the most egregious errors and
revolting practices. A Protestant minister recently said, “My righteousness
counts for nothing; I am righteous because Christ’s righteousness is imputed to
me.” (Nephi Jensen, The World’s Greatest Need: Salvation from the World’s
Ills through the Restoring Saving Power of Jesus Christ [Salt Lake City:
Deseret News Press, 1950], 144-45)