I remember one dark fall evening walking down the street next to my companion who was, like me, dressed in a white shirt and tie, black slack, and wearing a black name tag. We were missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. We had no lessons scheduled for the evening so we were knocking on peoples doors and trying to find anyone that might be interested in hearing our church’s message. I remember walking up to a man who was much older than me. He was taking out his trash can and I could tell he was purposely trying to avoid eye contact with us. Being the bold missionary that I was, and desperate to find anyone to teach that I could, I walked right up to him.
“Hello sir.” I said.
“Hello” said the older man.
I began my introduction, “We are missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and we were wondering if you…”
“I’m not interested,” he interrupted.
“Oh, I’m sorry, but what are you not interested in?” I asked.
He looked at me sternly and asked, “Are you part of the Mormon church?”
“Yes,” I said.
“Well I’m not interested in talking to you guys. You have different beliefs than me,” he said.
“What are your beliefs?” I asked
“I’m Christian and I don’t believe in being saved by my works like you guys do,” he responded.
I silently sighed and thought to myself, “Here we go again…”
This is the question that I originally wanted to address in my first post, but I realized that it would be near impossible to answer this question without readers understanding the Mormon theology of the Plan of Salvation. This is why my first post was entirely about the Plan of Salvation.
Grace vs. Works. This topic has arisen in almost every religious debate between Mormons and Mainstream Christians since the beginning of Mormonism.[1] If you don’t believe me go ask any return LDS missionary who has served in the Bible Belt area of the United States.
When most Mainstream Christians are in a religious conversation with someone, and the word “grace” or “works” is stated in the same sentence, they tend to perk up. It’s a buzzword. They don’t usually like hearing that word because it may mean that someone is, in a sense, trying to take glory, praise, or worship away from the name Jesus Christ. The same goes for a Mormon who is in a conversation with another Christian, because it may mean that their belief in the sacredness and importance of temple worship, and other ordinances, are about to get attacked.
So before everyone gets all hostile we need to take a step back and really look at what is being discussed.
Being “saved” can have multiple meanings.
There is:
Salvation from Physical Death.
All people eventually die. But through the Atonement and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, all people will be resurrected—saved from physical death. Paul testified, “As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:22).[2]
Salvation from Sin.
Mormons believe that to be cleansed from sin through the Savior’s Atonement, you must exercise faith in Jesus Christ, repent, be baptized, and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost (see Acts 2:37–38). In the Mormon church we believe that if you have been baptized and have received the Holy Ghost through the proper priesthood authority, you have already been conditionally saved from sin. You will not be completely saved from sin until you have finished your life on the earth, having faithfully endured to the end.[3]
Being Born Again.
Mormons are sometimes asked if they have been born again. The principle of spiritual rebirth appears frequently in the scriptures. The New Testament contains Jesus’s teaching that we must be “born again” and that unless we are “born of water and of the Spirit, [we] cannot enter into the kingdom of God” (John 3:3, 5). This rebirth is a process that occurs after we have been baptized and have received the gift of the Holy Ghost. It comes as a result of our willingness “to enter into a covenant with our God to do his will, and to be obedient to his commandments in all things that he shall command us, all the remainder of our days” (Mosiah 5:5).[4] [5]
Salvation from Ignorance.
Many people live in a state of darkness, not knowing the light of the restored gospel. They are “only kept from the truth because they know not where to find it” (D&C 123:12). As a member of the Lord’s Church, you are saved from this condition. You have a knowledge of God the Father, Jesus Christ, the purpose of life, the plan of salvation, and your eternal potential. You can live as a disciple of the Savior, who declared, “I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life” (John 8:12).[6]
Salvation from the Second Death.
The scriptures sometimes speak of salvation from the second death. The second death is the final spiritual death—being cut off from righteousness and denied a place in any kingdom of glory (see Alma 12:32; D&C 88:24). This second death will not come until the Final Judgment, and it will come to very few (see D&C 76:31–37). Almost every person who has ever lived on the earth is assured salvation from the second death (see D&C 76:40–45).[7]
Eternal Life, or Exaltation.
This is the most pure definition of salvation, because in order to receive eternal life and exaltation, you would also need to qualify for all of the other forms of salvation previously stated. When I think if receiving eternal life or exaltation I imagine a future time when I hope to be standing in front of heaven's pearly gates that are opening to receive me.[8]
Next we need to understand what “grace” means.
Grace is the divine power that Jesus Christs gives us. We learn in the bible that grace is not a one time thing but it is a processes that must be acquired over time.[9] Through grace all people, good and bad, will be resurrected and receive immortality.[10] Through Jesus Christ’s grace we can also accomplish more than we could on our own, and in a sense, without it, we have nothing.[11],[12]
Now what about Works?
In physics “work results when a force acts upon an object to cause a displacement (or a motion) or, in some instances, to hinder a motion.”[13] In a religious context it’s really not that different. Anything that takes effort or energy can be considered a work.
Moving on:
Now that we have a more complete picture of what salvation, grace, and works is we can tackle the question of, are we saved by grace or by works?
Many Christians would argue that the Bible teaches that it is wrong to believe that we are saved by works because of scriptures like these:
“Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law (Romans 3: 27-28).”
“For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus (Romans 3: 23-24).”
But there is an undeniable amount of evidence supporting the idea that we must also put in effort in order to receive salvation.
For example the book of James says,
“What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works (James 2: 14-18).”
And in Matthew we read,
“Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven (Matt 7:21).”
Are you wondering how I answered the man I met in Virginia? I said to him,
“Sir do you mind if I ask you a question? What do you believe a person must do in order to be saved?”
“You must call upon the name of Jesus Christ and ask for your sins to be forgiven and accept him as your Lord and Saviour,” he gave in response.
I then asked, “So you must pray to God in order to be saved?”
“Yes,”
“Well doesn’t it take some effort to pray to God? Don’t you need to open your mouth and say the words, or at least think them in your mind? Wouldn’t you say that takes some work?
The man huffed a sigh of disgust but didn’t have a response.
I said to him, “Well it looks like you and I do have the same belief after all; we are saved by the grace of Jesus Christ and the way we access his grace is through our works.”
The Virginia man looked away and said, “Have a good evening,” and walked into his house without another word.
The problem is that most Christians cannot fit the idea of grace and works into their formula because it doesn’t coincide with their doctrine of there being just one Heaven and one Hell. You see, with this doctrine, you are either on the side of God or you are on the side of the Devil. There is no inbetween. Mainstream Christians believe works play no part in this judgment, they can’t, because there isn’t a place to put any inbetweeners. Even though the Bible makes it abundantly clear that our works play a big part in our salvation, Mainstream Christianity has somehow decided that it makes more sense to make the only qualifying prerequisite to heaven being that you verbally accept the name of Christ. This is the only thing they can do to separate who goes to Heaven from who goes to Hell.
Mormon eschatology is slightly different in that we believe there are 3 different Kingdoms of glory, and 1 hell, that a person can be sent to after final judgment. And we know that inside the kingdoms there are other levels of heaven. This may sound strange to you if you have never heard about the Mormon’s plan of Salvation but Jesus Christ himself even said that inside his Fathers house there are many mansions and he is preparing a place for us there.[14]
Because the Mormons believe that there are multiple glories to heaven, it leaves room for people to be judged according to their faith and their works. This makes so much more sense when viewed from a scriptural point of view and it also answer questions that a Christian might have for example.
Why would God cause someone to be born in a country where christianity is outlawed and punishable by death and then judge him to eternal Hell because he never converted?
Or what about the salvation of all the millions of people who lived across the world in the dark ages when the name of Jesus Christ was only know by a small percentage of the world?
In short the answer to the question, “Are we saved by grace or works?” is, both. We are saved only by the Grace of Jesus Christ. But the way we accept Jesus Christ’s Grace is through our works.
Written by,
Brett Reynolds
If you want to learn more about the plan of salvation go here:
http://amormonperspective.blogspot.com/2015/06/Plan-Of-Salvation-Questions.html
________________
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mainstream#In_religion
[2] https://www.lds.org/manual/true-to-the-faith/salvation?lang=eng
[3] Note that you cannot be saved in your sins; you cannot receive unconditional salvation simply by declaring your belief in Christ with the understanding that you will inevitably commit sins throughout the rest of your life (see Alma 11:36–37). Through the grace of God, you can be saved from your sins (see Helaman 5:10–11). To receive this blessing, you must exercise faith in Jesus Christ, strive to keep the commandments, forsake sin, and renew your repentance and cleansing through the ordinance of the sacrament. ; https://www.lds.org/manual/true-to-the-faith/salvation?lang=eng
[4] This teaching is affirmed in the Book of Mormon: “All mankind, yea, men and women, all nations, kindreds, tongues and people, must be born again; yea, born of God, changed from their carnal and fallen state, to a state of righteousness, being redeemed of God, becoming his sons and daughters; and thus they become new creatures; and unless they do this, they can in nowise inherit the kingdom of God” (Mosiah 27:25–26).
[5] https://www.lds.org/manual/true-to-the-faith/salvation?lang=eng
[6] https://www.lds.org/manual/true-to-the-faith/salvation?lang=eng
[7] https://www.lds.org/manual/true-to-the-faith/salvation?lang=eng
[8] In the scriptures, the words saved and salvation often refer to eternal life, or exaltation (see Abraham 2:11). Eternal life is to know Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and dwell with Them forever—to inherit a place in the highest degree of the celestial kingdom (see John 17:3;D&C 131:1–4; 132:21–24). To receive this great gift, we must do more than repent of our sins and be baptized and confirmed by appropriate priesthood authority. Men must receive the Melchizedek Priesthood, and all Church members must make and keep sacred covenants in the temple, including eternal marriage.
If we use the word salvation to mean eternal life, none of us can say that we have been saved in mortality. That glorious gift can come only after the Final Judgment.
[9] 2 Peter 3:18
[10] 2 Nephi 9:6-13
[11] John 15:5
[12] Philippians 4:13
[13] http://www.physicsclassroom.com/calcpad/energy
[14] John 14:2
