First
comes our reconciliation to the Lord wherein, by our very best efforts (works)
we do all that we can to obey while manifesting (and admitting to both God and
ourselves) our need for a power that is higher and stronger than our own. Then,
when Christ judges that we have adequately paid the price by doing “all things
that lie in our power,” his grace will be applied, and the union of our works
with his grace will bear fruit in the successful completion of our task.
(Steven A. Cramer, Great Shall Be Your Joy: Receiving the Power of our
Savior’s Love [Springville, Utah: Cedar Fort, Incorporated, 1983], 9)
This should be compared with Alma
24:11-16:
And
now behold, my brethren, since it has been all that we could do, (as we were
the most lost of all mankind) to repent of all our sins and the many murders
which we have committed, and to get God to take them away from our hearts, for
it was all we could do to repent sufficiently before God that he would take
away our stain--Now, my best beloved brethren, since God hath taken away our
stains, and our swords have become bright, then let us stain our swords no more
with the blood of our brethren. Behold, I say unto you, Nay, let us retain our
swords that they be not stained with the blood of our brethren; for perhaps, if
we should stain our swords again they can no more be washed bright through the
blood of the Son of our great God, which shall be shed for the atonement of our
sins. And the great God has had mercy on us, and made these things known unto
us that we might not perish; yea, and he has made these things known unto us
beforehand, because he loveth our souls as well as he loveth our children; therefore,
in his mercy he doth visit us by his angels, that the plan of salvation might
be made known unto us as well as unto future generations. Oh, how merciful is
our God! And now behold, since it has been as much as we could do to get our
stains taken away from us, and our swords are made bright, let us hide them
away that they may be kept bright, as a testimony to our God at the last day,
or at the day that we shall be brought to stand before him to be judged, that
we have not stained our swords in the blood of our brethren since he imparted
his word unto us and has made us clean thereby. And now, my brethren, if our
brethren seek to destroy us, behold, we will hide away our swords, yea, even we
will bury them deep in the earth, that they may be kept bright, as a testimony
that we have never used them, at the last day; and if our brethren destroy us,
behold, we shall go to our God and shall be saved.
