NOT BY WORKS

 

Over the years of my Church membership I have heard some strong Church members say: “I will never make it”. This is not just absence of confidence in self. This says that some of us believe in Christ but we do not believe in what He says He can do for us.

If we are living the Gospel to the best of our ability and say that we will never make it, then we are denying the power of the Atonement and Christ’s suffering in our behalf. We are essentially saying that He died for nothing. This is a sin. This also suggests that some of us do not adequately understand the Atonement, therefore we don’t really believe it and consequently we don’t readily use it.  This proves my point:

“In its September 1, 1980 issue, “Newsweek” magazine carried a story entitled “What Mormons Believe”…....and summarized our understanding of the Atonement in these words: “Unlike orthodox Christians, Mormons believe that men are born free of sin and earn their way to godhood by the proper exercise of free will, rather than through the grace of Jesus Christ. Thus, Jesus’ suffering and death in the Mormon view were brotherly acts of compassion, but they do not atone for the sins of others.” (Bruce C. Hafen, “The Broken Heart”, p 2)

Elder Hafen went on to say that the writer of this magazine article reported that despite his thorough research into Mormon scripture and theology, he based his report on how the Church members that were interviewed understood the doctrine and how they genuinely infused it into their lives. I sure hope that we have come a long way since 1980 in projecting to the world what we believe, know and live by. I hope that we believe that the grace of Christ saves us and not our meagre efforts that constantly leave us short.

I do get Nephi who said we are saved by grace after all we can do (2 Nephi 25:23) but I do think that some of us have focused too much on ‘all that we can do’ and not enough on Christ’s grace which has atoned for all our weaknesses, inadequacies, un-intentional and intentional sins and most of all for the weakness of mortality which none of us can rise above on our own.

Yes, it is important that we expend all our efforts in the exercise of our free will which enables us to develop and earn godly attributes without which we cannot rise to godhood but I do believe that we should more fully focus on another of Nephi’s scriptures in which he states: “….it is only in and through the grace of God that ye are saved” (2 Nephi 10:24).

It is difficult to understand how the Atonement was performed but we can come to understand aspects of it that are applicable to our salvation. The more we study about it, the more the wonder of it will instill itself into our souls and our appreciation of it will grow to the point where we can say: “By the grace of God, I am what I am…..and because of Him I am going to make it” (1 Corinthians 15:10).

 

If you were not,

I would not be,

Silence would have wept at Calvary!

 

If you were not,

I would not be,

As death would claim me eternally.

 

If you were not,

I would not be,

Joyless would be my destiny.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Forgiven by Russ Docken)