SAVED BY GRACE AND PERSONAL
EFFORT
Nephi declared: “It is by grace
that we are saved, after all we can do” (2 Nephi 25:23). Grace is a godly gift
of divine enabling power—assistance and strength given through the merciful
atonement of Christ, which enables us to do good works we could not otherwise
maintain on our own strength.
To qualify for saving grace,
Nephi taught we must believe in Christ and be reconciled to God. This requires
at minimum five things: (1) faith in the atoning blood of Jesus Christ; (2)
repentance of all our sins; (3) covenant with God through baptism by immersion
for the remission of sins; (4) receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost—to justify,
sanctify, purify, and endow us with the divine nature so we may be prepared to
dwell in God’s presence; and (5) enduring faithfully and valiantly to the end
of our mortal lives.
Amulek was clear that “the Son of
God cannot save us in our sins” but from our sins, for “no unclean thing can
inherit the kingdom of heaven” (Alma 11:37). Lehi taught that “no flesh can
dwell in the presence of God, save it be through the merits, and mercy and
grace of the Holy Messiah” (2 Nephi 2:8). The Lord revealed to Joseph Smith
that we must “rely upon the merits of Jesus Christ” (D&C 3:20). King
Benjamin testified: “Salvation can come unto the children of men, only in and
through the name of Christ, the Lord Omnipotent” (Mosiah 3:17).
Christ came to perform an
“infinite and eternal sacrifice” (Alma 34:10)—the “great and last sacrifice”
being “the Lord God Omnipotent” himself (Mosiah 3:5). Abinadi testified that
“God himself” would “come down among the children of men and shall redeem his
people” (Mosiah 15:1), and that without this atonement, “they must unavoidably
perish” (Mosiah 13:28). The mercy released by this sacrifice “overpowereth
justice, and bringeth about the means unto men that they may have faith unto
repentance,” so that mercy “encircles them in the arms of safety” (Alma 34:16).
Ultimately, we are saved by
grace—through the atonement of Jesus Christ—after all we can do. We cannot earn
or work our way to celestial salvation. Exalting salvation comes through the
Holy One of Israel, full of grace and truth, after we have met the conditions
our Savior requires. Then we may leave the rest to our Redeemer’s mercy, his
intercession, and the Captain of our Salvation’s deliverance. Moroni counseled:
“Rely alone upon the merits of Christ, who was the author and the finisher of
your faith” (Moroni 6:4). (Keith C. Warner, Infinite Atonement: Jesus
Christ’s Atonement, 3 vols. [Kirk Jotter Publishing, 2026], 1:34-35)
