Understanding Grace A Little More

The occasional stroll through your Facebook feed indeed does feed you with interesting updates.

I felt the need to post a spiritual thought in response to this photo that a dear friend of mine posted.

In the most bold, clear and straightforward way I can express myself, I declare that the message given in this image is false doctrine.

Robert E Parsons shared:

"One cannot be an active Christian or a student of the scriptures without being introduced to the term grace. It is as much a part of Christian theology and doctrine as are faith, baptism, the Atonement, and the Judgment. Just as we grow in our spiritual understanding of these principles, so we must grow in our spiritual understanding of grace. Scriptural statements about grace are clear and faith-promoting to those who understand the gospel. But they are often misunderstood by those who interpret them without a proper understanding of the gospel, and they are but foolishness to those who reject Christ as their Redeemer."

(https://www.lds.org/ensign/1989/07/i-have-a-question?lang=eng, 30/11/2015)

President Uchtdorf said:

"It is a most wondrous thing, this grace of God. Yet it is often misunderstood. Even so, we should know about God’s grace if we intend to inherit what has been prepared for us in His eternal kingdom."

(The Gift of Grace, April 2015, General Conference).


So, having quoted some brethren, what is grace?

"Grace is God’s love in action. It is his doing for us what we cannot do for ourselves."

(https://www.lds.org/ensign/1989/07/i-have-a-question?lang=eng, 2015)

Grace did save Noah, for grace was found in the reliability of a ship that never sank in a forty-day-and-night flood. It was found in the strength and reliability of every plank of wood. It was found in the cooperation of every animal that embarked that ship. It was found in the commandment God gave Noah to build an ark. I'm not sure Noah had built an ark before, so it would've been found in the inspiration of every choice Noah made in how to build the ark. Indeed, our every breath is from God, and every moment is a gift from Him, as part of His grace. Taking grace away is taking away our every capacity to do anything. It was through God's grace that Noah had the ability and capacity to obey, and to comprehend the importance of obeying.

God loves doing for us what we cannot do for ourselves. Our freedom to choose and act is something we can do for ourselves. In His love and mercy, He gracefully endows each of us with agency – the freedom to choose between right and wrong. Grace alone does not save. Obedience alone does not save. It is through grace we are saved after all that Christ and us do together.

The grace of God flows from the Atonement of Jesus Christ. The Atonement is a wonderful, amazing doctrine, infinitely deeper than any of man's discoveries or any other teaching in this world, or in any world through all time. It requires all spiritual and physical senses to learn about, and no mortal man in this life can learn the smallest fraction of it on his own.

I exhort all to give serious thought, study, ponderation and prayer to the doctrine of the Atonement, and the doctrine of God's grace.