The Merits of the Holy Messiah

Dr. Casey Griffiths told this story in a recent podcast from his mission: “I'm a missionary in southern Florida. We knock on this guy's door. The guy opens the door and says, guys, I'm a Lutheran minister. I don't think you want to talk to me. And I was, you know, pretty fiery. And I stuck my foot in the door and said, actually, you're exactly the kind of person that we want to talk to. And the guy goes, okay, tell me if you had to stand before God and justify why you deserve to go to the celestial kingdom or whatever you guys believe in, why you're justified to be there. And I was 19 and very young and kind of dumb. And I remember saying, I would say to him, I've done everything that you've asked me to do. I hope that I'm worthy to enter your presence. And the guy looked at me and he said, and that's what's wrong with Mormons. You think you're going to save yourself? And he closed the door. I was pretty devastated because I gave a really poor answer.” As I thought about this question, the words of Lehi to Jacob came to mind: “Wherefore, I know that thou art redeemed, because of the righteousness of thy Redeemer; for thou hast beheld that in the fulness of time he cometh to bring salvation unto men.” Lehi knew that Jacob was redeemed not because of Jacob’s righteousness but because he knew the Savior was perfectly righteous. In the same discussion with his son Lehi similarly declared, “Wherefore, how great the importance to make these things known unto the inhabitants of the earth, that they may know that 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, who layeth down his life according to the flesh, and taketh it again by the power of the Spirit, that he may bring to pass the resurrection of the dead, being the first that should rise” (2 Neph 2:3, 8). We are saved because of the merits and mercy and grace of Jesus Christ. It is not through our own merit or works; we are saved fully by our Redeemer.

                In the same podcast, John Bytheway told how he searched in his triple combination for every reference to the word merits. He said, “Every time I found a verse about meriting salvation, it was never our merits. It was always through the merits and mercy and grace of Christ. And it was such a cool thing to say, there's no gap. I got no chance except for the grace of Christ and his merits.” In the Book of Mormon, there are six other references to merits (in addition to Lehi’s above) as it relates to salvation. Nephi spoke of how we must be “relying wholly upon the merits of him who is mighty to save” (2 Nephi 31:19). We do not rely partially on our merits and partially on His—it is wholly upon the merits of Jesus Christ. Aaron taught this to the king of the Lamanites in these words: “And since man had fallen he could not merit anything of himself; but the sufferings and death of Christ atone for their sins, through faith and repentance, and so forth; and that he breaketh the bands of death, that the grave shall have no victory, and that the sting of death should be swallowed up in the hopes of glory; and Aaron did expound all these things unto the king” (Alma 22:14). What can we merit? Nothing of ourselves. Only through the sufferings and death of Christ can our sins be atoned and the resurrection brought forth. The next Lamanite king also declared that the Father had “taken away the guilt from our hearts, through the merits of his Son” (Alma 24:10). Forgiveness came because of their goodness but because of the merits of the Savior. Samuel the Lamanite declared to the Nephites, “And if ye believe on his name ye will repent of all your sins, that thereby ye may have a remission of them through his merits” (Helaman 14:13). Though repentance is required of us, the remission of sins comes through His merits and not our own. Towards the end of the Book of Mormon, Moroni wrote that the members of the church were to keep each other “continually watchful unto prayer, relying alone upon the merits of Christ, who was the author and the finisher of their faith” (Moroni 6:4). Again, the message is clear: we rely alone upon Christ’s merits, and not some on ourselves and some on Him.

                The Savior doesn’t fill a gap—He fills us completely. And so, we need not hesitate to declare that we are saved wholly by the grace and merits of Jesus Christ. As Jacob put it, “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). While we must choose to reconcile ourselves to Him through repentance, it is only through divine grace that we overcome sin, death, and ultimately can become like Him.