THE PATH OF GRACE

 

 

The greatest threat to Paul’s Gentile converts who started to embrace false teachings came not from outsiders but from a group of Jewish Christians called Judaizers. These Jewish Christians made it their mission to travel to places Paul had success in establishing the Church, to oppose his teachings and to convince the Gentile converts that they still needed to adhere to the law of Moses as well, most especially circumcision.

Paul spoke a lot about ‘the law’ vs the gospel. He claimed that by the law of Moses no man can be ‘justified’, that ‘justification’, or being brought back into alignment with God, can only come through grace for if righteousness came by the law, then Christ died in vain (Galatians 2:16-21). Very often, we as latter-day saints are focused on obedience more than on the enabling grace of Christ whom we follow. You might say, that we, like the early Jewish Christians, have more faith in the law of the gospel and our obedience than in the author of our salvation.

Because we presently live in the condition of weakness, meaning mortality, perfect obedience to the laws we live under is an impossibility. The whole purpose of this weakened condition of mortality is to bring us to Christ and His grace by which salvation comes (Ether 12:27). If we were capable of perfect obedience, there would have been no necessity for a saviour. Lest we think that we are good enough as we are (the narrative the world teaches) and need no improvement, it is imperative that we understand that grace is an enabling power of Christ which enables us to continue to repent and improve and which saves us after all we can do (2 Nephi 25:23; Moroni 10:32,33).

General Conference is upon us. There is only one reason why we should flock to hear the leaders of the Church and that is to be edified through the teachings of the Saviour of the world and to be brought to the foot of His throne. Salvation does not come by President Nelson or anyone else we listen to, it comes by the way they bring us to Christ. When we come to Christ, obedience springs from motivation which comes by the Holy Ghost and the love of Him who has suffered that we might be saved, now and forever, in the Kingdom of our God.  

- CATHRYNE ALLEN

(Art: I Came to Call the Sinners to Repentance by Greg Collins)