BY THE GRACE OF GOD PART 2

".....I will go before your face. 
I will be on your right hand and on your left, 
and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, 
and mine angels round about you, to bear you up." 
(D&C 84:88)

As disciples of Jesus Christ we have been given the mandate to become perfect. This perfection will be reached long after we pass on from this mortal life, nevertheless, whilst we are here we are to strive for excellence which will one day qualify us for godhood. Along this path however, we frequently, if not constantly, lack patience to cope with our sense of personal inadequacy. This impatience makes us prone to discouragement and a belief that because of our inadequacies perfection seems an unattainable goal. The gap between the ideal (perfection), and reality for some of us seems like a painful place to exist. In this gap we tend to encounter extreme guilt which makes many of us believe that we will never 'make it'. Women especially are susceptible to feelings of guilt to the point where some dread family-oriented lessons in Relief Society because emphasizing the ideals of motherhood makes them more aware of their own shortcomings and failure to live up to them. The truth is, all of us are falling short of the ideal for who among us could not relate to this family's scenario of the gap between reality and the ideal: "Then there are the family home evenings and scripture study sessions in our home. Somehow it has not been altogether natural for our children to glide reverently into their places all at once and all on time, prepared to ponder thoughtfully the wonders of eternity. More than likely, especially when they were young, they seemed to come swinging into the family room on the chandeliers like Tarzan on the vines, then would stand on their heads or flip themselves over the back of the couch during most of the lesson. During that stage of our family's history, our bishop lovingly referred to our children as curtain climbers, rug rats, and house apes. There were times in those days  when the gap yawned as wide as the Grand Canyon" (Bruce C. Hafen, The Broken Heart, p. 178). 

We live in a 'feel good' day and age. Modern day psychologists and spiritual gurus advise strongly against any negative feelings that have the potential to harm our self-esteem. One such therapist claims that being seriously religious "is significantly correlated with emotional disturbance" and goes on to say: "People largely disturb themselves by believing strongly in absolutistic shoulds, oughts, and musts, and most people who dogmatically believe in some religion believe in these health-sabotaging absolutes....The less religious people are, the more emotionally healthy they will tend to be" (Albert, Ellis, "Psychotherapy and Atheistic Values", Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology (1980), p 635-7). The world's solution to coping with the gap between the reality and the ideal is to eliminate the ideal and make peace with your reality. By doing this, we are meant to be free from frustration, guilt and unhappiness. This solution is an appealing one to many who are encouraged to accept themselves as they are. Because not having to change is a more comfortable place to be, we convince ourselves that we are not 'celestial material' and fall out of the race. 

Our modern day pre-occupation with self-acceptance limits severely our possibilities for growth and change restricting the power of repentance. Many of us go so far as to believe that we cannot change human nature at all and that we are what we are. Those of us who are of that belief deny the power of the Atonement and are in effect saying to the Saviour, I don't need you, you have no power to do anything for me. When we come to that point we believe the world more than we believe Him. We then lose all faith that we can ever attain godhood because we know our own capabilities cannot get us there. The other choice we have in this matter is to focus on Him who overcame the world, resisted every temptation and avoided every sin. We must understand that the only way perfection is possible at all is through the grace of Him who has paved the way. Through His grace we too can overcome the world, resist every temptation and avoid every sin because His grace enlarges our capacities and turns our weaknesses into strengths but the most important gift of grace "along that path is the gift of hope, which is a source of comfort and strength for those who move courageously forward toward the perfecting ideal of the Saviour" (Bruce C. Hafen, The Broken Heart, p 183)

It astounds me to hear an active member of the Church exclaim "oh, I know I will never make it". This proclamation indicates a lack of understanding of the Atonement and a lack of acceptance of its' power. To me this belief is akin to sin. Contrast that mentality with active members of the Church in Jacob's time: "Wherefore, we search the prophets (scriptures), and we have many revelations and the spirit of prophecy (testimony); and having all these witnesses we obtain a hope, and our faith becometh unshaken, insomuch that we truly can command in the name of Jesus and the very trees obey us, or the mountains, or the waves of the sea. Nevertheless, the Lord God showeth us our weakness that we may know that it is by his grace, and his great condescensions unto the children of men, that we have power to do these things" (Jacob 4:6-7). It is clear from this scripture that those who believe that they will never 'make it' are the ones who put their faith in their capacities alone rather than in the grace of God which is the only way we can ever make it. If we can by the grace of God command the trees, the mountains or the waves of the sea to obey us, surely we can by this same grace also change the human nature. 

The spiritual endowments of hope are perspective, patience, serenity, peace, insight and endurance. When we press forward with steadfastness in Christ (2 Nephi 31:20), we do so with a hope that we can make it for the one who has made it is before us, behind us and by us (D&C 88:84, 49:27). We desperately need these endowments of hope because they help us to see that development toward spiritual maturity and godhood "is a process and not an event....it is a distance race, not a sprint....it is thus no race for the short-winded. To develop toward a Christlike character is a process, not an event. There may one day be some crowning event, in which the final endowment of grace completes a process that may take longer than mortal life. But to qualify for such a conclusion requires patience and persistence more than it requires flawlessness. It is indeed, our own groping and reaching in the struggle for growth that qualifies us for divine help." (Bruce C. Hafen, The Broken Heart, p 184, 186)

In our quest for the ideal, we are like a toddler just learning to walk. The closer we get to the ideal, the more that ideal expands and creates new aspirations and a new gap, until we finally reach godhood: "When our capacities are small, God's expectations are not very demanding.......but just as we master these elementary demands, we discover greater expectations that we didn't quite see before. Gradually our capacity grows, but so does our understanding of what more we must become, 'For of him unto whom much is given much is required' (D&C 82:3). The Lord would have us stretch - but not out of shape.....in the midst of this process, the blessing of hope keeps the gap at a manageable distance. Our perceptions and attitudes really can be shaped and lifted by a gift of divinely given insight that lets us feel, even with some anticipation and optimism, that we can do it.....Hope, a divinely given blessing of atoning grace for those who seek it, after all they can do on their own, establishes in the way our mind sees things just the right distance between where we are and where we strive to be. It also reassures us, somehow, that the ever-receding ideal is not a trick, but part of a growth process that can be not only acceptable but exhilarating" (Bruce C. Hafen, The Broken Heart, p 187,188)

We need only search the scriptures in order to know the God we speak of; to know that to Him man is the underlying and over-riding purpose of all His works, that to Him we are everything (Moses 1:39); that it is for our sakes' He willingly laid Himself on the cross; that beside Him there is no Saviour; that the extent of His doings none can find out; that there are none who can stay His hand; that great is His wisdom and marvelous are His ways; that He is gracious and merciful unto those who fear Him and that He delights to honour those who serve Him in righteousness and in truth unto the end (D&C 76:1-5). This is the God we worship, this is the God we serve and this is the God we should believe.

"Behold, I have graven thee 

upon the palms of my hands;

thy walls are continually before me.......

come unto me thy Saviour"

(Isaiah 49:16, D&C 19:41))

SEEKING THE KINGDOM

"Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven: but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto the, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity." (Matthew 7:21-23)

When Jesus atoned for the sins of the world, he had an amazing insight into each person who will ever grace this earth; into their problems, capabilities, mental and emotional states and into their very heart. Because of this He knows what makes us tick, what makes us do what we do, He knows our desires, our thoughts and our motives. It is correct to say that He knows us better than we know ourselves because even we sometimes don't know things that are hidden in our subconscious that drive us to certain behaviours. When Joseph Smith was translating the Bible he made the most significant correction to the above verse of scripture which now reads "you never knew me" instead of "I never knew you". This gives us a much clearer understanding of our relationship to the Saviour of the world. Because of the Atonement, He knows us and He will always know us but we on the other hand can very easily misunderstand what it means to know Him and to eventually enter His kingdom. Clearly from the above scripture, only doing as Christ did will not get us there.

By telling us what will not get us into the kingdom of heaven, He also told us what will: instead of laying up for ourselves treasures on this earth, He admonished us to lay up treasures in heaven (Matt 6:19-21). What are these treasures we can lay up in heaven whilst we are here in mortality? If it is not what we do, then it must be what we are: "Treasures in heaven are the character, perfections, and attributes which men acquire by obedience to law. Thus, those who gain such attributes of godliness as knowledge, faith, justice, judgment, mercy and truth, will find these same attributes restored to them again in immortality (Alma 41:13-15)" (McConkie, DNTC, 1:239-40, The Life and Teachings of Jesus and His Apostles, Student Manual, p. 58). Jesus confirmed this truth by giving us a further admonition to be 'perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect' (Matt 5:48). It has been our destiny from the beginning of time to become exalted to godhood, in other words, to become perfect and complete even as our Father is. Without this perfection we cannot enter His kingdom. In the words of Joseph Smith: "God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens and men have got to learn how to be Gods.....the same as all Gods have done before...." (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pp 345-46).  No man, however, can achieve this lofty ideal on his own merits. 

Because it is not in our power to attain perfection on our own, God in his mercy has provided a way for us to do so. During the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus invited his disciples to enter in at the 'strait gate' and thereby follow the course to eternal life (Matt 7:13,14). The gate is 'strait' because it is narrow and restricted but the path is both 'strait' and 'straight'. Where 'straitness' has reference to width, 'straightness' has reference to direction, this direction being invariable and always the same for 'there are no crooked paths or tangents leading to the kingdom of God' (McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, p. 769). It is at this gate that perfection has to have its beginning. It is here that it must begin and it is now, whilst in mortality. The supreme standard of the Lord's expectation for us to become perfect as our Father is, is rather daunting considering the reality of our imperfections and our mortal weaknesses. However, as the Saviour used our Father in Heaven who is perfect, complete and finished in his glorified state, as the example of perfection, He has by this suggested a broader perspective of this commandment. Joseph Smith taught that we will work out our salvation and exaltation beyond the grave. This gives us a clear indication that perfection in this life is not attainable. Elder Bruce R. McConkie taught: "We have to become perfect to be saved in the celestial kingdom. But nobody becomes perfect in this life. Only the Lord Jesus attained that state, and He had an advantage that none of us has. He was the Son of God, and He came into this life with a spiritual capacity and a talent and an inheritance that exceeded beyond all comprehension what any of the rest of us was born with.....We enter in at a gate, and the name of the gate is repentance and baptism. We thereby get on a path, and the name of the path is the straight and narrow path. And then if we endure to the end, meaning if we keep the commandments of God after baptism, we go up that straight and narrow path, and at its end is a reward that is named eternal life. All of this is available because of the atoning sacrifice of Christ" (Bruce R. McConkie as quoted in Bruce Satterfield, The Sermon On the Mount: A More Excellent Way, Meridian Magazine).

   

Indeed, because of the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ and by virtue of our faith in Him, we can travel this road that leads to the Kingdom of God. The enabling power that makes this possible is called 'grace'. Once the strait gate is entered and sacred covenants made between God and man, we are then endowed with the saving grace which enables us to reach perfection as the Saviour and our Father did. President Harold B. Lee taught: "The 'saving grace' of the Lord's atoning power is extended to those who would receive the saving ordinances of the gospel". "Through the ordinance of baptism, we receive the divine grace of forgiveness that qualifies us to receive spiritual rebirth through the gift of the Holy Ghost. Now spiritually reborn, we must then grow up to godhood. This will require further enabling power through divine grace or mercy. This grace comes through the higher ordinances of the temple. Each ordinance and covenant made in the temple helps us to receive more grace that enables us to become like God ( (Bruce Satterfield, The Sermon On the Mount: A More Excellent Way, Meridian Magazine).

The steps to perfection come with the enabling power of Christ so none of us can claim that we cannot possibly achieve the lofty ideal of godhood and perfection. The way has been prepared and put in place for those of us who choose to follow the Redeemer of the world. When we make that choice we build our tabernacle of clay on 'the rock' of his teachings. Jesus said that anyone who hears his teachings and does not abide by them is like a foolish man who builds his house on the sand (Matt 7:26,27). He has no hope of surviving the spiritual battle of this life, let alone attaining perfection. And why would we want perfection? Because 'eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which god hath prepared for them that love him' (1 Cor 2:9). One day we will receive this reward because of our faithfulness and His undeniable grace. We will enter into His rest and His kingdom and then and there we will finally come to understand that 'Adam fell that men might be and men are that they might have joy' (2 Nephi 2:25). We will joy in our perfections and in our exalted glory, having overcome the world and having gained eternal life with our posterity and all the riches of eternity. It is our promise, it is our right, it is our sacred destiny.