We learn in The Book of Mormon that “… it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do.” (2 Ne. 25:23.)
For those who do not understand this statement and feel that I am belittling the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. I offer you the following explanation.
Lets say you are aspiring to be a college student. You have no money, and your job outlook is dim at best. How do you pay for college? I will focus on scholarship. There are people out there who believe in education enough to pay for it. in order to get a scholarship you need to fill out an application. You need to show in your application that you qualify for the scholarship. Good grades, good activity, and a clean record are three qualifications that may appear on a scholarship qualification. Now you receive your scholarship and attend school. You get your degree and you graduate.
This is how the saving grace of Christ works. There are qualifications. There is proof of this throughout the bible. You may have heard of these qualifications. They are better known as commandments. John 14:15 "If ye love me, keep my commandments".
Notice that you did not pay for one bit of your college experience. You did not graduate on your own. You either went to college or you did not. You couldn't attend just one semester and a scholarship pay the rest. You had no money for that.
Without Christ we cannot make it to heaven. We can't even make it an inch closer to heaven than we are now. We either make it to heaven or we do not. We either qualify for Christs saving grace, or we do not. With this being the case. it is 100% by Christs grace that we made it to heaven. The difference between Christ and a scholarship donor is that Christ has an unlimited amount of money available to everyone! all they must to do is qualify for it.
Well what about those who already messed up. What about those who already have a bad record. That person can have a clean record through repentance. This is how it is available to all men, because no matter where in life you are, there is always a path for you to qualify. You cannot completely disqualify yourself unless you never try to improve or choose not to improve. Then its your own fault. Its not a problem with Christs saving grace.
I would like to talk about what this means about how this can impact our faith. I will give us two scenarios. First scenario, A loved one is sick, you want them to get better, you can look into the best medical science we have, or sit and do nothing and hope god will protect. Second scenario, you worry about the protection of your family, life is dangerous and you are trying to figure out if you should worry and do something, or sit and trust god will handle all the dangers in live.
The atonement of Jesus Christ covers practically everything. This includes our physical needs. From what we just learned, the grace through the atonement has requirements. Just because something is physical doesn't mean we can ignore the fact that “… it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do.” (2 Ne. 25:23.). Some people don't trust some medical procedures. That is alright as long as we have thoughtfully and prayerfully considered it and are following their answers from God. He will lead us in "all we can do". But we still need to do something. Search for what can help. Weigh the pro's and con's prayerfully, and thoughtfully, during your decisions process. God has his hand in medical science, we should search for those truths. When we have found what we can do to treat the sickness, then we should discuss it with the lord again, and do it. Some might say, "well what happens when you choose to do something and its not the right choice?" If you went through the process prayerfully it does not matter. We can trust our prayerful consideration and go forth with faith and not with fear.
The same goes for our family. We cannot sit idly by and hope and pray that our family will be protected without doing something to protect our family in the first place. We cannot be sit idly by by and rely on prayer alone, unless prayer is our only option. In these rare cases, prayer is sufficient enough. Our families are important to us and to God. God cannot interfere with the choices of others or he will rid us of our agency. There are bad people who make bad choices that will affect our family. We need to watch for these. God knows these bad choices and he knows how to avoid them. As we prayerfully consider how to protect our family, we will be lead to situations where we can avoid the ill effects of others bad choices.
This can apply to any, absolutely any, problem we have in life. Just remember to prayerfully consider every choice you make. When these principles are applied there is no need for fear. We can all confidently walk forward with 100% faith in God.
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