Mormon Dilemma 708

After All We can Do

General Conference, April 1998; “Some Christians accuse Latter-day Saints who give this answer of denying the grace of God through claiming they can earn their own salvation. We answer this accusation with the words of two Book of Mormon prophets. Nephi taught, “For we labor diligently … to persuade our children … 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”. And what is “all we can do”? It surely includes repentance and baptism, keeping the commandments, and enduring to the end.” – Dallin Oaks

Ephesians 2:8-9; “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.”

I discovered those two verses in Ephesians not long after I received God’s offer of salvation. Until that time I had no idea God had specifically and methodically spelled out to believers that salvation wasn’t a work of man.  Imagine the surprise of so many who’ve discovered the same thing after working so hard for so long to earn favor with God… 

Adding “little things” here and there to what you have to do for salvation is rejecting God. Scores of people have worked themselves into their graves believing this fallacy; my grandparents and maybe yours as well were participants in believing these lies and ignorant of what God says. 

As Melissa pointed out, they believe they’re saved because of belonging to this church, not because of the sacrifice Jesus made for us.