Grace: The Power of Faith and Works

In my public preaching outside of Church meetings, one of the most frequently recurring doctrinal topics I've discussed on sidewalks, streets and front porches is that of grace.

In my experience, the discussion has often suffered from a few basic misunderstandings, which if not carefully straightened out, can prevent any real chance at achieving understanding. Much of the time this discussion of grace is defined by a perceived competition between faith and works.

Again and again, a simple question is asked whether one believes in salvation by faith or by works. These topics are usually brought up out of a desire to prematurely dismiss an entire theology without having to examine it honestly. If, however, an answer is quickly given which satisfies the inquirer, assumptions are then made regarding the rest of the message being offered which effects a similar shutting off. "You believe in Christ, I believe in Christ. We're all good. See you later."

I've seen a lack of basic scriptural literacy lead to unnecessarily polarizing believers into two camps: either we are saved by faith alone, without any role for personal works of righteousness, or we earn our way into Heaven, we are saved by our works—righteous deeds and obedience to laws. The ones who impose such a binary view are normally of the self-identified camp that proclaims salvation by faith alone, which they often oversimply label as "grace." They seem to believe that being saved "by grace" leaves no room for self improvement, or striving to be better by overcoming sin. For some, it even goes as far as being an insult to God if we work toward this kind of self-betterment; like throwing the gift of His Son's atonement back in His face.

These ideas are nothing new. In our culture, I trace them back to the Reformers, who vehemently recoiled against such abjectly blasphemous errors as supererogation and the sale of indulgences. I also believe that our current secular societal trend away from bible reading, towards shorter attention spans driven by consumerist advertising and the increasing clamor for attention through social media has infected many of the churches, who feel they must follow this kind of populist push to appease the masses. Sadly, this is done all too often by avoiding real discussion and setting up straw men. Notwithstanding their paltry punitive potency, the relative strength of the epithets hurled still makes quite an impression in weaker minds, who don't even take the time to learn what someone is actually saying before seeking to knock it down, out of fear.

My tendency to give others the benefit of doubt and assume they are capable of rational religious thought and discussion has gotten me into lots of regrettable situations—long sessions referred to by some as bible-bashing. I've learned not to engage in such contentious conflict. I don't like arguing, because I might lose, and the truthfulness of my position could be overshadowed by having "lost" an argument through a lack of expressive ability, or perhaps only by failure to recall.

I encourage you not to argue with anger. You might lose! I want to help you avoid the frustration of being right, and knowing you're right, but suffering the unjust humiliation of being confounded by tactical disadvantage.

The object of teaching the Gospel is not to show others how smart you are, but how smart God is, and how majestic is His simple plan to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.

Discuss with civility and respect, and yes, grace.

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One stark example of the oversimplification I see done in the name of "dumbing-down" for the masses the already simple and beautiful Gospel of Jesus Christ, is the tragic dismissal of the teachings and prophecies of the Old Testament. Some churches, not having prophets and apostles to keep them safe from being blown about by every wind of doctrine, teach that Jesus' ministry eliminated any need for just about anything rooted in the Old Testament, and which a cursory review of a few verses of New Testament scripture might suggest to those with little desire to truly understand: no need for temples because the veil was rent at the crucifixion; no need to look forward to the fulfilling of ancient everlasting covenants, because Jesus fulfilled the law of Moses; no need for individuals to repent and obey the commandments of God because Jesus said "It is finished."

What a "war of words and tumult of opinions," helpless to be settled by an appeal to the Bible!

I love the Apostle Paul. I am saddened by his words being twisted into half-truths and a few outright falsehoods by irresponsible professors of religion which have impure motives. More than most writers of holy scriptures, he is sadly misrepresented, taken out of context, and used to promote "another gospel," (2 Corinthians 11: 4; Galatians 1: 6-12) which he, Jesus, and other Apostles and Prophets never really taught.

My purpose here is not to dwell on the failings of the manmade churches of the world. I'd like instead to focus on just a few Godly truths made plain in the writings of the prophets.

What is grace, really? Is the word even used correctly by the average Christian who is trying to share their conviction that we are totally helpless without Jesus to save us?

A lot of confusion comes from having multiple definitions for the word, and using it with one meaning in mind, as another listens with a different definition guiding their understanding.

It can mean courteous goodwill, expressed by a person. This may lead to merciful forgiveness or pardon. As an attribute, it can mean elegance or refinement. As a power, it can mean an enabling force that vitalizes belief, faith, knowledge, wisdom, and virtue into a zeal for righteousness and an everlasting hatred of sin and iniquity.

See how flippantly using the phrase "the grace of God" can lead to very different concepts?

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Several years ago, I learned something better to say than continuing in fruitless arguments dictated by others who insisted on fleshing out this mythical deathmatch between faith and works. I began answering differently and instead of a labored analysis, got right to the point.

Is it faith or works that saves us? Neither. It is Jesus Christ Who saves us.

We don't believe in some immaterial nothing, not a concept or an idea that saves. It is a person. An intelligent thinker, a compassionate feeler, a powerful doer—the anointed Atoner.

His atoning sacrifice comprises the most important single event ever to transpire. Using His faith, he laboriously worked out a way that allows us to be reconciled to God despite our sins and shortcomings. It took enormous work for Him to accomplish. If we exercise our faith by choosing to follow Christ, we are saved by faith and by works—faith in Him and His works of righteousness.

It is true that God offers us gifts, freely given without our earning them. Saying we can't or don't earn our salvation is not to say there is nothing we can do about our own salvation. Not having done the work to build a bridge across an unconquerable gulf does not mean one can cross it without any effort on their part. Manna, miraculously falling freely from heaven, would have had no saving power whatsoever if Moses' people didn't do the work of picking it up and putting it into their mouths. Did they earn that temporal salvation? No, it was the free gift of God. Could it save them without their applying it to their lives? Not at all.

Further confusion can be avoided by clarifying what it means to be saved. Have I been saved? Yes, and no.

Have I accepted the consuming love of Jesus into my heart, believing in Him alone as my personal Savior, asking God in prayer to forgive my sins, acknowledging my weakness and uncleanness, and opening myself up to the Holy Spirit of God? Yes. Have I followed the example of Jesus Christ by being baptized by one holding the priesthood authority of God? Yes. Have I received the Gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands in the same manner as ancient Apostles administered it? Yes. Have I entered higher covenants with God, including the promise of eternal life to me? Yes.

Am I currently in the celestial presence of God? No. Am I residing in the mansion prepared for me by my savior, Jesus Christ? No. Am I completely absolved of my future sins because I call myself a Christian? No.

I don't premeditate sins or preemptively gain forgiveness. Repentance is necessary for salvation. Repentance is up to the decision of the sinner. Thus, you may say that salvation is up to the sinner. God is voting for me, Satan is voting against me, but it's my vote that really counts. Being forgiven once is not an unconditional assurance that all subsequent sins are already forgiven. God's forgiveness is conditional, and revocable. (Matthew 18: 21-35)

So then, again, is it faith or works that saves? If you agree that it is Jesus Christ Who saves instead, we can actually begin discussing the proper roles of faith and works.

Is it the front wheels or the rear wheels that cause a car to roll down the road? Is it the engine or the transmission that turns those wheels? Is it the right side of the hull or the left side that keeps water out of the ship? Is it the right wing or the left that holds the airplane in the air? Do you see the absurdity of insisting on this line of thinking? You can't separate the parts and keep the same results; you can't ascribe the entirety of salvation to one aspect of the Gospel over another. The eyes can't say to the feet, "I have no need of you." (1 Corinthians 12)

James says faith without works is dead (James 2). Faith is not faith unless vitalized by action. Faith is not belief. Faith is not saying you believe. Faith includes and is inseparably connected with action. Saying you believe in Jesus can be an act of faith, but it is not saving faith unless accompanied by the works defined by the Master Himself as the way to apply His atoning sacrifice to effect salvation in your life. Faith unto salvation always requires sacrifices, changes, repentance, baptism, receiving the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end, for so said Jesus Christ Himself.

The scriptural references are too numerous for me to fully cite here, as the scribes in Jesus' time might do (or a young, bible-bashing Elder Gorrell).

Denying the efficacy of works in applying the Atonement of Christ to an individual is to deny the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Having done the work that atoned, Jesus is the one who sets the terms by which we gain from that work.

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Does this take real faith? Of course! We don't walk around in perfect bliss once we've decided to follow the Son of God back to our heavenly home. We walk a few steps into the dark, and then the light moves on with us. We show by our actions that we really believe in God. It is easy to say we love God. It takes real faith and work to actually love Him. Love is not a feeling; it is a power. It is a decision. It is a commitment that we maintain regardless of our feelings. Saying we fall in and out of love is false. We may be acted upon momentarily by infatuation, or even lust. What we do with that feeling makes the difference between love developing or dying. The initial feeling was not love. Love takes faith and work.

How are belief, faith, works, and grace related? You might try thinking of water behind a dam. As it sits, the water holds enormous potential energy. The force created by the weight of the water acts equally all around the lake. It is channeled in the same direction, towards the dam, only if an outlet is opened, which focuses the energy. When the water falls over or through the dam, its potential is converted into action; it is clearly moving with great power. If electrical generators are situated under the falling water, that motion can be turned into something useful.

Is salvation by faith or by works? Is electricity created by the water or by the dam? I don't understand the wisdom in parsing it out to such a demand for either/or. The whole system would fall apart if one constituent part were removed.

Is the thirsty traveler saved only by his effort to reach the distant oasis? Not at all. There has to be an oasis there for him in the first place. All effort to reach the saving water would be in vain if there was no water to be had. If he gave up and sat down, believing the water was not real, he would surely die as if there was no water, even if there was a huge lake of clean fresh water just out of view.

We are hopelessly lost because of the consequences of the Fall. We have no power to overcome physical death which keeps us from enjoying the embodied glory we see in the resurrected Savior. We cannot pay for our sins. The wages of any sin, no matter how insignificant, is death. Our first sin demands death of us, which puts us in a position of total helplessness, as we are then unable to do anything to satisfy justice. (Romans 6)

We need our Savior more vitally than our bodies need water. He is eternally able to save and exalt us. He is mighty to save.

In the abscence of a full discussion, a few statements may be properly made, which are not mutually exclusive. Being saved by faith does not mean we are not also saved by works. Being saved by works does not mean we are not also saved by grace. We are saved by faith. We are saved by works. We are saved by grace, "after all we can do." (2 Nephi 25: 23) This does not mean a sequence of time, where we first do all we can do, then afterwards Christ makes up the difference. We don't pay one mite of the debt owed to justice. Jesus paid the whole debt. He bought the whole train. The fare we pay to Him by our faith and works has nothing to do with that original debt. He allows us to ride with Him back towards our heavenly home, as far as we want to stay with Him. He is the owner and the conductor.

The English word "after," translated from Nephi's scripture can be confusing, since in our common speech we use it exclusively to indicate time. To me, "after all we can do" means "besides" or "notwithstanding" or "despite" all we can do. We cannot do the saving work of atoning for our sins. All we can do is to have faith in Christ and His atonement, repent, be baptized, receive the Holy Ghost, and endure to the end in faith, always repenting, renewing our baptismal covenant, and striving to be led by the Holy Ghost. This is the Gospel, the good news: we don't have to worry about the awful debt justice demands of us. Jesus has paid it, and has become our merciful Lawgiver and Advocate. He will guard us home if we are faithful to Him.

Having purchased us by His blood, all the elements of the universe obey Him when He says, "I know they were unclean. The debt I paid on their behalf, let it cover and cleanse them as if they had suffered as I. Let them come up to be with Me." By His work of creation, He is the Father of heaven and of earth. By His work in us, He is our covenant Father. We must be spiritually born of Him. He wants to share His eternal life with us.

We don't save ourselves. We can't save ourselves. Jesus saves us, if we allow Him. Though we don't have the power to save, we hold an awesome power—the power to choose. Choose wisely. Choose to follow Him.

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"Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:

Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it."

Matthew 7: 13-14

"Wherefore, do the things which I have told you I have seen that your Lord and your Redeemer should do; for, for this cause have they been shown unto me, that ye might know the gate by which ye should enter. For the gate by which ye should enter is repentance and baptism by water; and then cometh a remission of your sins by fire and by the Holy Ghost.

And then are ye in this strait and narrow path which leads to eternal life; yea, ye have entered in by the gate; ye have done according to the commandments of the Father and the Son; and ye have received the Holy Ghost, which witnesses of the Father and the Son, unto the fulfilling of the promise which he hath made, that if ye entered in by the way ye should receive.

And now, my beloved brethren, after ye have gotten into this strait and narrow path, I would ask if all is done? Behold, I say unto you, Nay; for ye have not come thus far save it were by the word of Christ with unshaken faith in him, relying wholly upon the merits of him who is mighty to save.

Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life.

And now, behold, my beloved brethren, this is the way; and there is none other way nor name given under heaven whereby man can be saved in the kingdom of God."

2 Nephi 31: 17-21

See also:

His Grace Is Sufficient, by Brad Wilcox

The Gift of Grace, by Dieter F. Uchtdorf

The Atonement: All for All, by Bruce C. Hafen

Worthiness Is Not Flawlessness, by Brad Wilcox

Christian Courage: The Price of Discipleship, by Robert D. Hales