Through the Grace of God that Ye Are Saved

One of the most well-known verses of the Book of Mormon is this one from Nephi: “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 Nephi 25:23). I think we may at times put too much emphasis on the final phrase “after all we can do.” Certainly there are things we have to do to receive the Savior. We must repent and be reconciled to God, striving in our limited way to do all we can to follow Him, but we are unequivocally saved by grace. This is clear in another similar verse that Nephi wrote, quoting his brother Jacob who said: “Wherefore, my beloved brethren, reconcile yourselves 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 Nephi 10:24). Both these verses teach us that we must be reconciled to God and then it is by His grace that we are saved, but this one does not mention doing “all we can do.” The main work that we have to do to obtain salvation indeed is the reconciling of our wills with God, a process of repentance where we seek with His grace to overcome our weaknesses and sins and learn to act as He would have us act. But it is without question by grace that we are saved and it is through grace that we are changed to become like Him.

                At the end of the Book of Mormon we also learn about grace through the teachings of Moroni. As Moroni struggled alone after the destruction of His people, he heard these words from the Lord: “My grace is sufficient for the meek, that they shall take no advantage of your weakness; And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them” (Ether 12:26-27). To obtain the grace of God, the grace to change us and enable us to overcome our weaknesses and difficulties, for Moroni the key requirement was humility. This is perhaps really just another way of saying that we must be reconciled to the will of God; we must recognize our need for Him and that His way is higher than our way. As we humbly choose to seek after His will over our own, making choices in our life to follow Him instead of the world, we are indeed reconciling ourselves to Him. That’s when we will have His grace in abundance to empower us. Moroni wrote again about grace in some of his final words, and he left us this powerful invitation: “Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God.” Of course there are things we have to do in the plan of God—we must come to the Savior, we must love God with all our might, we must humble ourselves before Him, and we must reconcile ourselves to His will as we try to keep His commandments. But it is and always will be by the grace of God that He will raise and redeem us, empower and perfect us. We are “sanctified in Christ by the grace of God, through the shedding of the blood of Christ, which is in the covenant of the Father unto the remission of your sins, that ye become holy, without spot” (Moroni 10:32-33). This invitation from Moroni summarizes well the desire of all of the Book of Mormon prophets for us as we study their words: “And now, I would commend you to seek this Jesus of whom the prophets and apostles have written, that the grace of God the Father, and also the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost, which beareth record of them, may be and abide in you forever” (Ether 12:41). As we seek Him with all our hearts, His grace will save us today and forever.