Saved By Grace

I think sometimes we are hesitant in the Church to make the statement, “We are saved by grace” without adding any qualifiers or further explanation.  Nephi wrote, “For we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do” and sometimes I think we have a tendency to emphasize the second half of the phrase as opposed to the first.  Yes, we are saved by grace!  Nephi wrote just two verses later, “The law hath become dead unto us, and we are made alive in Christ because of our faith; yet we keep the law because of the commandments.  And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophecy of Christ” (2 Nephi 25:23, 25-26).  In other words, “Yes of course we keep the law because we have faith in Christ and that’s what He’s asked us to do, but our rejoicing is in Christ not in our own feeble attempts to keep the commandments!” 

                Many scriptures teach us that we need no qualifiers when declaring that we are indeed saved by the grace of Christ.  Nephi recorded these words of Lehi’s testimony: “There is no flesh that 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).  Without Christ, no amount of works will bring us back to the presence of God.  Lehi told Jacob, “Wherefore, I know that thou art redeemed, because of the righteousness of thy Redeemer” (2 Nephi 2:3).  It wasn’t because of Jacob’s righteousness that Lehi expressed his confidence in Jacob’s salvation; no, it was Lehi’s understanding of Christ’s perfection and righteousness.  Jacob himself similarly testified, “It is only in and through the grace of God that ye are saved” (2 Nephi 10:24).  The words of the angel to King Benjamin expressed the same message: “And moreover, I say unto you, that there shall be no other name given nor any other way nor means whereby salvation can come unto the children of men, only in and through the name of Christ, the Lord Omnipotent” (Mosiah 3:17).  There is simply no hope if not through the name of Christ.  Moroni wrote as he closed the Book of Mormon that it is “by his grace” that we may “be perfect in Christ” (Moroni 10:32).     

                Paul of course also spoke much about grace and testified of our complete dependence upon Jesus Christ.  To the Ephesians he said, “By grace ye are saved” and to the Romans he said, “We shall be saved by his life” (Ephesians 2:5, Romans 5:10).  In another part of his epistle to the Romans he said that we are “justified only by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (JST Romans 3:24).  To the Galatians he said, “Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ” (Galatians 2:16).  As Brad Wilcox said in a talk on grace that I think every Latter-day Saint should read, when asked about being saved by grace he said, “Yes. Absolutely, totally, completely, thankfully—yes!”  We need not hesitate or equivocate or question or qualify when we say with complete conviction, “We are saved by the grace of Jesus Christ.”  That statement in no way diminishes the fact that there is a gospel plan that we are to follow and that Christ has given us commandments and that there are plenty of works to do on the path of discipleship.  But, no matter what we do, after even all we can do, it is by the grace of God that we are saved.