I wonder if I’m misunderstanding something, because it seems that two scriptures contradict each other. There’s this one in the Bible:
“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)
And this one in the Book of Mormon:
“For we labor diligently to write, 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.” (2 Nephi 25:23)
Here is my understanding about the grace of Christ. I want you to tell me if I’ve made some sort of mistake. I’ve seen many members of the church who have the wrong idea about how grace really works. A lot of people think that grace merely complements our good works, that we have to do the best we can, obviously, but that grace only serves to make up the difference. In my opinion, this idea ofgrace is mistaken. Grace pays the full price of all our sins. Our works only demonstrate our loyalty, love, and gratitude to the Savior, but don’t actually make things right with Him. The matter how good we are, we are all sinners, and our Savior paid the full debt. I feel like the Scripture in the Book of Mormon is talking about something different than what is described in the Bible verse, but I’m not sure.
For members of the church, Jesus Christ is the divine Son of God, our Savior and Redeemer through whom salvation is made possible. (Reflections of Christ)
Hi friend. According to my understanding, these scriptures--as well as others in the Bible like "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven" (Matthew 7:21)--do not in fact contradict each other. Let me explain what I mean.
We are saved by grace when we accept Christ as our Savior. No matter how good we are, we will never "deserve" salvation. Our good works are never sufficient to "earn" a place in heaven because they can never compensate for our fallen natures. It's only through accepting Christ that we can be saved.
Now, how do we truly accept Christ? Is accepting Christ just saying pretty words and feeling pretty feelings? No. We truly accept Christ when we do His will, when we follow His commandments. The words "disciple" and "discipline" have the same root.
So our works are very important. Our works don't save us, but to truly accept Christ we must do the things He would have us do. If we don't follow Christ's commandments, we can't truly accept Him as our Savior.
I hope this perspective helps. I think there may be many "right" ways of understanding the role of faith and works, but I've found the above way of thinking to be helpful. Best of luck to you.
Stephen Douglas
2014-04-13 04:26:50
If you are interested, I answer this question quite thoroughly in my manuscript I wrote to answer Evangelical questions. Send me an email to puteoli1@aol.com and I will send it to you on a Word file. Here's a partial response:
Ephesians 2:8, 9: "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast."
The Greek word for "through" is, dia, literally, "by means of." The Greek word for "faith" in this verse is, pisteos, literally, "faithfulness." Throughout the NT, pisteos is "faithfulness." Faith in this verse requires demonstration of said faith.
Second, a lesson in grammar. We find the present perfect tense, not the past perfect--"we are saved, " not "we have been saved, " as rendered in the NIV. It describes an eventual state, not an event. Use this same format with these terms: "We are nourished by food through eating." Stop eating; are you still nourished by food? Nourishment is conditional upon eating, as is Salvation conditional upon our faithfulness to Christ's grace. In fact, with the same statement in the same present perfect tense, "ye are saved, " Paul taught the Corinthian saints salvation is conditional, twice using conditional statements, "if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain." (1 Cor. 15:1, 2)
Stephen Douglas, what a wonderful explanation! In addition, I think the two scriptures complement each other, rather than contradict. Ephesians tells us that grace is the gift of God that saves us if we believe. If we believe, then we should be striving to live a Christ-like life, and thus, any mistakes we make can be forgiven through the Atonement. But if we are doing good and do not believe in God, then while our good works help others in this life they do not help us in the next life - otherwise, men could boast that they did not need God's help in order to return to Heavenly Father. The scripture in 2 Nephi confirms this... It tells us that we should do all we can to bring others to Christ so that they too can experience HIs grace after doing all they can do live a Christ-like life - 'after all we can do.'
These are important scriptures for two reasons. First, some Christian churches believe that grace alone saves us an good works are not necessary at all, that one can live a life of debauchery and on one's deathbed just say 'I believe' and they are saved. Second, the atheistic humanist movement teaches that good works are all that matters and that belief in God means nothing. These two scriptures explain why both views are the teachings are men, not God's.
We are saved by grace when we accept Christ as our Savior. No matter how good we are, we will never "deserve" salvation. Our good works are never sufficient to "earn" a place in heaven because they can never compensate for our fallen natures. It's only through accepting Christ that we can be saved.
Now, how do we truly accept Christ? Is accepting Christ just saying pretty words and feeling pretty feelings? No. We truly accept Christ when we do His will, when we follow His commandments. The words "disciple" and "discipline" have the same root.
So our works are very important. Our works don't save us, but to truly accept Christ we must do the things He would have us do. If we don't follow Christ's commandments, we can't truly accept Him as our Savior.
I hope this perspective helps. I think there may be many "right" ways of understanding the role of faith and works, but I've found the above way of thinking to be helpful. Best of luck to you.
Ephesians 2:8, 9: "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast."
The Greek word for "through" is, dia, literally, "by means of." The Greek word for "faith" in this verse is, pisteos, literally, "faithfulness." Throughout the NT, pisteos is "faithfulness." Faith in this verse requires demonstration of said faith.
Second, a lesson in grammar. We find the present perfect tense, not the past perfect--"we are saved, " not "we have been saved, " as rendered in the NIV. It describes an eventual state, not an event. Use this same format with these terms: "We are nourished by food through eating." Stop eating; are you still nourished by food? Nourishment is conditional upon eating, as is Salvation conditional upon our faithfulness to Christ's grace. In fact, with the same statement in the same present perfect tense, "ye are saved, " Paul taught the Corinthian saints salvation is conditional, twice using conditional statements, "if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain." (1 Cor. 15:1, 2)
These are important scriptures for two reasons. First, some Christian churches believe that grace alone saves us an good works are not necessary at all, that one can live a life of debauchery and on one's deathbed just say 'I believe' and they are saved. Second, the atheistic humanist movement teaches that good works are all that matters and that belief in God means nothing. These two scriptures explain why both views are the teachings are men, not God's.