Are you activating Christ’s grace in your life? Or are you leaving blessings on the table?
There are those who believe that members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints do not believe in grace, that we believe we have to be perfect or work our way to heaven. Or that grace only kicks in after you’ve worked your rear end off. This is a false concept. It is not doctrinal… even though there may even be members who believe it. It is not supported by scripture or by those who truly understand and teach correct doctrine. If I may be so bold, I would like to address this misconception and where it may be coming from and how to gain a testimony of the Grace of Our Savior Jesus Christ.
My stepdaughter teaches children with autism. Her motto is, “If they don’t learn the way we teach, then we change the way we teach.” Obviously, many have not learned the gospel of Jesus Christ the way many have taught it. There are those who, like the Pharisees of old, get caught up in the letter of the law, focus on that, and forget to mention or give proper emphasis to WHO it points to.
The scriptures are replete with an accurate doctrine of grace. One who studies them sees it everywhere.
Also, there are ineffective teachers everywhere. We’re all learning. Unfortunately, we all learn on the people we’re teaching. When our students don’t get it, a teacher (who really wants to be a better teacher) changes the way they teach. They keep tweaking until their students understand.
Everything I’ve learned about grace has come through studying the scriptures, from good teachers/books (like Stephen E. Robinsons, “Believing Christ.”) and apostles/prophets like Paul, James, Nephi and Alma.
But most of all, I have learned about grace by EXPERIENCING IT. I’ve experienced it in two ways:
First, by making really stupid mistakes, coming to Christ, and having HIM give me HIS peace and HIS forgiveness and HIM changing me from the inside out. I never muster the courage to “do better.” He changes my desires. He constantly reveals to me my deep unmet needs that are causing me to believe/think/desire/do things that won’t make me happy (or that are hurting others) and then meets those needs so that my thoughts, desires, and behaviors change.
Second, by doing what He asks me to do, following the Spirit’s promptings and having miracles happen that are far beyond anything I did or my capacity to create.
Grace is an ENABLING power and when we don’t understand it, we’re leaving so many blessings on the table. When we come to Christ in faith, His grace is not only sufficient to SAVE us and take us home, it’s sufficient to TRANSFORM us and CREATE MIRACLES.
Understanding Christ’s atoning grace is a journey… a very personal journey that we each must take one-by-one with HIM. Any attempt to adequately teach it is just that … an attempt. Some people are better teachers than others, but in the end the only perfect Teacher of Grace is the Savior Jesus Christ.
“Wherefore, redemption cometh in and through the Holy Messiah; for he is full of grace and truth. Behold, he offereth himself a sacrifice for sin, to answer the ends of the law, unto all those who have a broken heart and a contrite spirit; and unto none else can the ends of the law be answered. 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 Nephi 2:6-8, Book of Mormon)
