Faith vs. Works
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints teaches that we are saved by grace. But as members of the Church, we sometimes preach or hear something more muddled, around being saved by works, or some mixture of faith and works. James 2 (which teaches that faith without works is dead) is often referenced to justify this. Ephesians 2:8 is often quoted by members of other Christian faiths as their reason to believe that grace alone saves us.
In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I think we feel unduly threatened by this idea of being saved by grace alone, on the basis that we know that certain works are required. After all, Jesus taught in John 3:5 that baptism is essential. In the Church we understand that this and other saving ordinances are so vital that the Savior arranged for these ordinances to be performed by proxy for the dead. But we should not confuse essential works with salvation by works. We are saved by grace.
Like so many sources of contention between sects and even members within a sect, I believe a more complete understanding of the underlying truths can help us reconcile these differences, and grow in our appreciation for the atonement. In this post I’ll quote from many scriptures and modern prophets to help us come to a better understanding.
After All We Can Do: a more complete understanding
An oft-quoted verse from Nephi is often the source of confusion. In 2 Nephi 25:23, he said:
…for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do.
We often mistakenly interpret “after” in this verse as to mean that we must do all we can first, and then Jesus will save us. We further confuse this to mean that somehow these ‘works’ that constitute all we can do somehow played a part in saving us.
In April 2015 General Conference, President Dieter F. Uchtdorf said in his talk The Gift of Grace:
The prophet Nephi made an important contribution to our understanding of God’s grace when he declared, “We labor diligently … to persuade our children, and also our brethren, 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.”
However, I wonder if sometimes we misinterpret the phrase “after all we can do.” We must understand that “after” does not equal “because.”
We are not saved “because” of all that we can do. Have any of us done all that we can do? Does God wait until we’ve expended every effort before He will intervene in our lives with His saving grace?
Many people feel discouraged because they constantly fall short. They know firsthand that “the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” They raise their voices with Nephi in proclaiming, “My soul grieveth because of mine iniquities.”
I am certain Nephi knew that the Savior’s grace allows and enables us to overcome sin. This is why Nephi labored so diligently to persuade his children and brethren “to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God.”
After all, that is what we can do! And that is our task in mortality!
Salvation is not of our own merit
The parable of the bicycle is a very sweet story of a dad who buys a bike for his daughter. It is a depiction of the atonement, but if we’re not careful we might take away the wrong lesson. In the parable, a young girl works very hard to earn enough money to buy the bike she wants, but despairs when she realizes how far from her goal she is. Her dad asks her to give him all that she has (in money) and a hug and kiss, and “the bike is yours”. I like the “all that you have” part, since that is what Christ wants as well (in a broader sense). The risk of taking the wrong lesson from this parable comes from the fact that the daughter is earning the same currency by which the bike is eventually purchased, so we (the audience) believe that she did all that she could and dad made up the rest. That was true in the parable — it is not true for our own salvation.
Consider the accelerator pedal in a car. One must push the pedal to move forward, but one would be foolish to believe that by pushing the pedal they are actually themselves pushing the car forward. Rather, by pressing the pedal they are acting on faith that by doing so, an engine will react to propel them forward. The grace of Christ is like that. We only move to heaven by the grace of Christ. We must not confuse the pedal, which is exercising our faith through obedience to the law Jesus set forth for us, with actual merit in obtaining salvation. Jesus blessed us with an engine and a pedal (the atonement) but we mustn’t flatter ourselves that we are moving the car by using the pedal.
In Alma 22:14, Aaron teaches Lamoni’s father about mankind’s inability to merit anything of himself.
since man had fallen he could not merit anything of himself;
King Anti-Nephi-Lehi told his people in Alma 24 that “all we can do” means to repent, rather than anything merit-worthy of ourselves (emphasis added):
10 And I also thank my God, yea, my great God, that he hath granted unto us that we might repent of these things, and also that he hath forgiven us of those our many sins and murders which we have committed, and taken away the guilt from our hearts, through the merits of his Son.
11 And now behold, my brethren, since it has been all that we could do (as we were the most lost of all mankind) to repent of all our sins and the many murders which we have committed, and to get God to take them away from our hearts, for it was all we could do to repent sufficiently before God that he would take away our stain
15 Oh, how merciful is our God! And now behold, since it has been as much as we could do to get our stains taken away from us, and our swords are made bright, let us hide them away that they may be kept bright, as a testimony to our God at the last day, or at the day that we shall be brought to stand before him to be judged, that we have not stained our swords in the blood of our brethren since he imparted his word unto us and has made us clean thereby.
The 3 degrees of glory
It’s interesting to consider the 3 degrees of glory (Telestial, Terrestrial, Celestial) when thinking about faith vs. works. In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul points out a difference between Telestial and the other two that I think we often miss (emphasis added):
40 There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another.
41 There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory.
42 So also is the resurrection of the dead.
The lesson we usually take from these verses is how the 3 degrees of glory compare to one another in magnitude of glory. But I think Paul is also pointing out that there is only one common glory in each of the two upper kingdoms (Celestial and Terrestrial), while in the lowest (Telestial) kingdom people have varying degrees of glory. Why might that be?
We learn from D&C 76:81-82 that the telestial kingdom will be peopled who rejected Christ as their savior, while in verses 71-80 we learn that the terrestrial kingdom will be made up of folks who accepted Christ (but were not valiant). Think about what accepting Christ means. It means we accept that we alone are insufficient. It means we take upon His name, and ask for His merits and grace to be applied to us. Next to his merits and grace, we know our own works pale in comparison. In fact, when Christ came to earth to give us the higher law, we learned that He is the only way. Not me + Christ, not my works + Christ’s. He alone. Those who reject Christ, reject his merits and grace.
There will be people of many levels of ‘goodness’ in the telestial kingdom. None of them approach Christ’s, of course, but we know that it houses all people who reject Christ (regardless of their other works), save those reserved for outer darkness due to rejecting the testimony of the Holy Ghost. That’s quite a range of people, that we suppose includes murderers as well as ‘decent’ but prideful people. We’re told in verse 89 that “the glory of the telestial… surpasses all understanding”.
Taken together, what I get from this is that if you accept Christ as your Savior, be prepared to not be recognized for your works. Everyone who accepts Christ will be seen with His glory rather than their own. And that’s a good thing, because as verse 91 says “the glory of the terrestrial which excels in all things the glory of the telestial, even in glory, and in power, and in might, and in dominion.” And from verse 92, everyone who is valiant in Christ, and seeks not just salvation but eternal exaltation will inherit “the glory of the celestial, which excels in all things—where God, even the Father, reigns upon his throne forever and ever;”
Summary
Let us not take pride in being better than our brother or neighbor, for are we not all beggars? Let us not confuse fulfilling Christ‘s law (that includes repentance and saving ordinances) with being perfect as required for heaven. Obeying Christ’s law does not earn us heaven. We cannot earn it. In fact, the currency we ‘earn’ from fulfilling His commandments is not redeemable for entrance into heaven at all, so it isn’t even a partial payment. Christ’s merits are the only acceptable currency. Christ offers it freely, on condition that we accept and follow Him. Following Him includes works, that are mandatory yes, but they don’t earn us anything. We don’t deserve heaven by doing them by any stretch of the imagination. We merely qualify for a free gift from Christ.
Some might say “if Christ attached conditions, it’s not a free gift.” To that I say hogwash. A gift is free if it isn’t earned, and we absolutely do not earn salvation. A free gift may have criteria to obtaining it. Even free toys from Kellog’s requires that you fulfill their requirements which includes mailing in a form, perhaps with a proof of purchase. A free gift just means that any affixed criteria are not themselves redeemable for what we can only get another way (through Christ).
“Wherefore, let no man glory in man, but rather let him glory in God.” – D&C 76:61
It is my prayer that as latter-day saints, we can become more comfortable in our being saved by grace. In doing so, we will break down barriers that keep our Christian friends of other faiths from investigating the Lord’s true and living Church. We will overcome more of our own sinful pride, and rely more wholly on the merits of Him who is mighty to save.