The Divine Gift of Repentance (Part 3)

by John Draney

This is the third post I devote to a translation of certain portions of the October 1, 2011 General Conference address, The Divine Gift of Repentance, given by Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Elder Christofferson:

Second, repentance means striving to change. It would mock the Savior’s suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the cross for us to expect that He should transform us into angelic beings with no real effort on our part. Rather, we seek His grace to complement and reward our most diligent efforts (see 2 Nephi 25:23).

Translation:

Where Elder Christofferson speaks of “striving to change,” “real effort on our part,” and “our most diligent efforts,” he is referring to the genuine, meaningful nature of our choice to come to Christ.

In other words, if the principal purpose of our lives is to demonstrate to God what we want, then our choice for the righteousness available to us in Christ must be a real choice, not a passing fancy. We must choose Christ differently from the way we choose an entrée from a lunch menu.

The apostle is implicitly criticizing any soteriological system that proclaims that our choice for Christ is complete once we respond to an altar call, or offer a rote prayer, or argues that once we are born again and forgiven, we are irrevocably saved (once saved, always saved).

Jesus compares the substantive choice to come to him with constructing a tower. We begin at the foundation, and continue until we finish the project (Luke 14:28-30).

Latter-day Saints understand this parable to simply mean that we continue (JST Luke 14:31), that we endure to the end.

Once we are aware of the Lord and what he requires of us, we come to him, and we do so for the rest of our lives. We endure in faith on his name until our time of testing is over, and we do not allow any worldly or other distraction to prevent us from following him.

We endure, not in perfect obedience, but in faith.

We continue, not in perfect contractual performance, but in discipleship.

Consequently, our choice to come to Christ must be a life-changing matter of substance, severity, and significance.

However, no matter how we excel on the scale of the restricted, relevant range of mortal goodness and holiness, we do not and cannot approach the infinite, perfect goodness and holiness required to dwell in the fullness of the presence of God.

Our spiritual strivings during our fallen, mortal lives demonstrate the genuineness of our choice for Christ, but do not and cannot elevate us to heaven. In fact, what we do has no power at all to elevate us to a divine stature and standing.

As fallen beings, we move toward Christ, but we cannot move upward—not even a little bit—precisely because we are fallen beings. This is why the Lord must condescend to come down to us. We cannot go up to him.

Elder Christofferson is emphasizing the importance and weight of the choice to come to Christ where he observes that “we seek His grace to complement and reward our most diligent efforts.”

In reality, however, “our most diligent efforts” are not the foundation upon which the Lord adds his grace, whether to “complement” what we do, or to “reward” what we do.

In reality, the Lord’s grace is the only thing that can elevate us to a divine stature and standing. His grace must stand alone, without addition, without external assistance, without anything we do, for he alone acquires the power through atonement to raise us up to salvation, and he must do so through grace.

I used to wonder whether the Apostle Paul, after his departure from this life, ever felt any regret over some of the things he wrote that were “hard to be understood” (2 Peter 3:16), given the way many misinterpret his words.

Now I wonder the same thing about the ancient Prophet Nephi, who is the author of the verse to which Elder Christofferson refers:

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).

This passage is the most misinterpreted verse in the entire canon of the Restoration.

We Latter-day Saints routinely use it to defend the notion that what we do, even “all we can do,” directly contributes to our own salvation and perfection, and that Jesus simply makes up the difference, or helps us over eons of time to eventually close the infinite gap separating us from the divine righteousness and holiness of heaven.

This flawed interpretation permanently fractures the inherent doctrinal agreement on redeeming grace between the Book of Mormon and the New Testament, particularly the Book of Romans.

This flawed interpretation unavoidably places Nephi in conflict with Paul over the relationship between what we do as fallen, mortal beings and what Jesus does through his redeeming grace.

Paul writes:

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).

Paul understands that, in the plan of salvation, we must be saved by grace because we must be saved by Christ. The only thing we can do, even all we can do, is come to Christ “through faith” so that he can save us “by grace.”

Nephi understands the same thing.

Nephi writes to persuade us to “believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God.”

Is this not faith?

Do we not begin our spiritual journey with faith, and continue with it until the very end?

Nephi writes that “it is by grace that we are saved.”

Does he therefore not recognize that salvation itself must be a “gift of God” obtained “not of [ourselves]” because the Son of God must procure it for us?

What is “all we can do” as fallen, mortal beings?

Does Nephi really use the unduly esoteric phrase “all we can do” to describe our best efforts, or our doing our “all,” since our best and our all contribute directly to our salvation?

Of course not.

The phrase “all we can do” is a description of the only option available for fallen (and free) humanity if we want the righteousness available to us in Christ.

According to Nephi, “all we can do” is “believe in Christ,” and “be reconciled to God.”

Both Nephi and Paul understand that what we do in the plan of salvation is choose (and demonstrate our choice for the Son of God by exercising real, living faith in him), and what Jesus does is save us by grace, which is how he must save us, for only he can save us—that is, rescue us from the punishments decreed against us at the Fall, deliver us from the sins we commit as fallen, mortal beings, and elevate us to a condition of divine holiness and righteousness.

Consequently, 2 Nephi 25:23 and Ephesians 2:8-9 are equivalent declarations, not contradictory claims.

One reason that, in over 30 years of attending various worship services in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I have never heard Ephesians 2:8-9 quoted from the pulpit is that we must conscientiously ignore and conspicuously misplace passages like Ephesians 2:8-9 because we routinely and consistently misinterpret 2 Nephi 25:23.

Someday soon, someone of understanding and authority is going to stand at a Latter-day Saint pulpit, and correctly and precisely preach the doctrine of redeeming grace.

The sign certifying the truthfulness of this future sermon of consequence will be the inclusion of 2 Nephi 25:23 and Ephesians 2:8-9, quoted together (in part fulfilling the prophecy of 1 Nephi 13:40) and properly paired as one—one doctrine of grace, the most beautiful, comforting doctrine of all the doctrines of Christianity.

Our choice to follow Christ is a serious, enduring choice.

Even more serious and enduring is the Lord’s merciful promise to save us by grace.

For a more comprehensive discussion of the interaction between what we do and what Christ does in the plan of salvation, see Chapter 4: Distinguishing the Cause from the Conditions and Chapter 8: Saved by Grace in the book Redeeming Grace in the Canon of the Restoration (Amazon CreateSpace and Kindle).