Our Emphasis on Both
Grace and Works
A second reason why
some people think Latter-day Saints are not Christian is their belief that we
do not accept the doctrine of salvation through the grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Wise are the members of the Church who can visit with those who have
this misunderstanding and in kind and factual ways build bridges of
understanding by teaching that we accept the doctrine of salvation through the
grace of God and His Beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
We believe our Father
in Heaven is a God of love and mercy. He is desirous that all of us have joy
and eternal happiness. Therefore, before our world was created, He provided an
eternal plan for our salvation. The Book of Mormon calls it the “plan of happiness”
(Alma 42:16).
Our Heavenly Father’s
loving grace or goodness is demonstrated in part by the creation of this
beautiful earth with all its bounties. To each of us He has given the precious
gift of agency, through which we choose between pathways that lead to happiness
or ones that lead to misery (see 2 Ne. 2:27). With perfect foreknowledge, our
Heavenly Father knew what His children would experience as a result of the Fall
of Adam. Each of us would be subjected to the conditions of temptation, sin,
bodily infirmities, and physical death.
Heavenly Father loved
us so much that He sent to this earth His Beloved Son, Jesus Christ, as our
Savior and Redeemer (see John 3:16–17). I mention only two of the many things
that Jesus accomplished for us that we could not do for ourselves. First, at the
conclusion of His mortal ministry, He suffered the Atonement, through which He
took upon Himself all our sins and infirmities, suffering “these things for
all, that [we] might not suffer if [we] would repent” (D&C 19:16). And
second, He broke the bands of death and made it possible for all mankind to be
resurrected. This means that after our physical death, we will gain a
resurrected, physical body. And if we exercise faith in Him, repent, and are
faithful to the gospel covenants we make in the ordinances of salvation, our
body will be glorified like the sun (see 1 Cor. 15:40–41). With great emphasis
I want to say that all of this is made possible through the grace of Jesus
Christ. That is why the great Book of Mormon prophet Nephi wrote, “And we talk
of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ,
and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what
source they may look for a remission of their sins” (2 Ne. 25:26).
In the Christian
world, there has been much debate regarding the relationship of grace and
works. To The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints both are core
doctrines. Just as a pair of scissors requires two blades to function, the
Lord’s grace and our works of faith in Christ, personal repentance, and
receiving saving ordinances are required for eternal life in God’s presence.
Our works consist of
placing our full confidence and trust in Jesus Christ and then exercising our
desire and willingness to live by His teachings. We do this by repenting of all
our sins and obeying the laws and ordinances of Christ’s gospel. As we do this
faithfully over our lifetime, we are sanctified by the Holy Ghost and our
nature is changed.
The scriptures inform
us that Jesus grew from “grace to grace” until He received a fulness of the
Father’s grace. What I understand that to mean is that He obeyed His Heavenly
Father’s will and by so doing He received an increase of our Heavenly Father’s
power. Thus He increased in the divine attributes of godliness until He was
perfect in virtue and holiness like His Father. Jesus thereby showed us the
path of holiness and then promised us: “If you keep my commandments you shall
receive of his fulness, and be glorified in me as I am in the Father;
therefore, I say unto you, you shall receive grace for grace” (D&C 93:20).
The doctrine of The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints regarding grace is forthright. We
understand that since we have all become spiritually unclean because of sin
(see 1 Jn. 1:8), and since “there cannot any unclean thing enter into the
kingdom of God” (1 Ne. 15:34), no individual can receive eternal life solely on
the merits of his or her own effort. We believe that only as we rely on the
Savior’s grace and demonstrate our changed nature through obedience to His laws
and ordinances may we receive eternal life. This principle is beautifully
taught by Moroni in the closing chapter of the Book of Mormon. Please note the
harmony and balance between the efforts we must make and the role of God’s
grace in the process of perfecting ourselves.
“Yea, come unto
Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if
ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might,
mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may
be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye
can in nowise deny the power of God.
“And again, if ye by
the grace of God are perfect in Christ, and deny not his power, then are ye
sanctified in Christ by the grace of God, through the shedding of the blood of
Christ, which is in the covenant of the Father unto the remission of your sins,
that ye become holy, without spot” (Moro. 10:32–33).
We believe that this
should be the goal and striving for each of us.
It is only through
the infinite Atonement of Jesus Christ that people can overcome the
consequences of bad choices. Thus Nephi teaches us that it is ultimately by the
grace of Christ that we are saved even after all that we can do (see 2 Ne.
25:23). No matter how hard we work, no matter how much we obey, no matter how
many good things we do in this life, it would not be enough were it not for
Jesus Christ and His loving grace. On our own we cannot earn the kingdom of
God—no matter what we do. Unfortunately, there are some within the Church who
have become so preoccupied with performing good works that they forget that
those works—as good as they may be—are hollow unless they are accompanied by a
complete dependence on Christ. It is this dependence that causes us to want to
sing what Alma eloquently referred to as “the song of redeeming love” (Alma
5:26).
You remember that
quote from the fifth chapter of Alma, in the Book of Mormon, in which he asks a
series of powerful questions that are instructive in this matter. He asked
members of the church at that time:
“Have ye spiritually
been born of God? Have ye received his image in your countenances? Have ye
experienced this mighty change in your hearts?
“Do ye exercise faith
in the redemption of him who created you? Do you look forward with an eye of
faith, and view this mortal body raised in immortality, and this corruption
raised in incorruption, to stand before God to be judged according to the deeds
which have been done in the mortal body? …
“Or do ye imagine to
yourselves that ye can lie unto the Lord in that day, and say—Lord, our works
have been righteous works upon the face of the earth—and that he will save you?
…
“I say unto you, can
ye look up to God at that day with a pure heart and clean hands? I say unto
you, can you look up, having the image of God engraven upon your countenances?
…
“I say unto you, ye
will know at that day that ye cannot be saved; for there can no man be saved
except his garments are washed white; yea, his garments must be purified until
they are cleansed from all stain, through the blood of him of whom it has been
spoken by our fathers, who should come to redeem his people from their sins. …
“And now behold, I
say unto you, my brethren, if ye have experienced a change of heart, and if ye
have felt to sing the song of redeeming love, I would ask, can ye feel so now?
…
“Behold, he sendeth
an invitation unto all men, for the arms of mercy are extended towards them,
and he saith: Repent, and I will receive you” (Alma 5:14–15, 17, 19, 21, 26,
33).
Let us never forget
that it is by and through the grace of Jesus Christ and our coming unto Him
through spiritual rebirth that the happy possibilities of eternal life are
available to all of us.
A great demonstration
of the love, mercy, and grace of our Heavenly Father is His preparing kingdoms
of glory for His children’s eventual eternal residence based on the exercise of
our personal agency relative to the commandments of God. Even the telestial
glory surpasses our understanding. If we obey the laws of the gospel, we will
receive a celestial glory. In other words, the Lord has said that we will be
rewarded on the basis of “that which [we] are willing to receive” (D&C
88:32).
M. Russell Ballard, "Building
Bridges of Understanding," from an address given at the Logan, Utah
Institute of Religion, February 17, 1998, repr., Ensign (June 1998)
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