I am grateful for the many friends and family members who have described this truth in their own words over the past few months that I have been guided to study the topic of grace. All their testimonies have prepared me to finally hear and accept Joseph Fielding McConkies words without hesitation... As all of Adams children are natural heirs to the Fall, so all are rightful heirs to the grace of Christ in overcoming its temporal effects. In the language of scripture, the corruptible will become incorruptible, meaning that death, aging, and pain will end for all. The promise is without limit or qualification. The full blessings of Christs mercy and grace, however, become ours only through the exercise of agency. Salvation must be a matter of choice. It grows out of a covenant relationship. In making covenants, we choose to take upon ourselves the name of Christ and to keep his commandments. Conditioned upon our doing so, we are adopted his sons and daughters and become heirs, as he is an heir, to the fulness of the Father. No one can force salvation upon us, nor can blessings of such matchless worth be given to us without the consecration of our efforts in return. Thus the Lord says: I, the Lord, am merciful and gracious unto those who fear me, and delight to honor those who serve me in righteousness and in truth unto the end (D&C 76:5). The full measure of his mercy and grace become ours as we seek to serve him in righteousness and in truth. Again, we have been commanded to reconcile ourselves to the will of God, and not to the will of the devil and the flesh; and remember, after ye are reconciled unto God, that it is only in and through the grace of God that ye are saved (2 Ne. 10:24). Nephi stated the principle in these words: For we labor diligently to write, to persuade our children, and also our brethren, to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God; for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do (2 Ne. 25:23). In so saying, I am aware that it has been argued that the word after in the preceding text can be interpreted as a preposition of separation rather than one of sequence—that is, that it carries the meaning apart from rather than as a result of. The purpose of such an interpretation is to emphasize that the grace of God is not the crown upon our labors but rather the heart and soul of our hope of salvation. That such is the case is beyond dispute. Yet it is equally true that only those who do all that they can do can receive the fulness of Gods grace. And the fulness of Gods grace comes only to those who are exalted. It was never supposed that Christ atoned for the sins of the world so that we might have the option of finding some measure of happiness in the lower kingdoms. The atonement of Christ was first and foremost to bring us back into the presence of God in a glorified and exalted state. Christ atoned for our sins so that we might become as God is. We become so by advancing from grace to grace, or from one labor to a greater labor, until we have received the fulness of the Father (see D&C 93:6-20). As we comply with the laws and ordinances of the gospel, we obtain the full effects of Christs grace in a sequential manner, for that is the manner in which we receive the ordinances of salvation.
Posted on: Tue, 01 Jul 2014 00:08:53 +0000
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