His Grace is Sufficient, and...
Recently, I came across an article that reminded me of President Nelson's recent conference talk entitled, Christ is Risen; Faith in Him Will Move Mountains. Something he said stirred up a bit of controversy, but I took his words to heart and tried to learn what the message was for me. He said,
"My dear brothers and sisters, my call to you this Easter morning is to start today to increase your faith. Through your faith, Jesus Christ will increase your ability to move the mountains in your life, even though your personal challenges may loom as large as Mount Everest.Your mountains may be loneliness, doubt, illness, or other personal problems. Your mountains will vary, and yet the answer to each of your challenges is to increase your faith. That takes work. Lazy learners and lax disciples will always struggle to muster even a particle of faith. To do anything well requires effort. Becoming a true disciple of Jesus Christ is no exception."
It's the last part I would like to focus on. In Ephesians 2:8, it reads, "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God." As I've been studying and pondering this week, I've come to the conclusion that many members of the church misunderstand this verse. One reason, I believe, is because it's taken out of context. We must remember that this was what was told to those who were struggling to give up the Law of Moses. They believed that obedience to the Law of Moses was the basis for salvation. They needed to be taught that Christ is their Savior and that they needed to look to Him, not rituals.
In contrast, our dispensation has gone nearly 180 degrees the other way. While we still look to some rituals to define our level of spirituality, we are equally in danger of leaving Christ out of our salvation equation. Too many of us, myself included, have put nearly all the responsibility of our salvation on him. We think, 'his grace will save me, plus I have a little extra insurance because I hold a temple recommend.' Maybe that's true, and maybe it's more complicated than that. I honestly don't really know.
But, again, we can look to Paul for some insight. In Romans 12: 1-2, Paul makes it clear that we are to present our bodies as a living sacrifice and we must be transformed by renewing our minds. This doesn't sound as easy as promising to pay your tithing and showing up to "do your calling". It's also telling that Paul's view of presenting our bodies as a holy, living sacrifice is our "reasonable service". It's like he's saying, 'It's the least you can do.' But I don't think he's specifically talking about a healthy diet or being chaste, although that would certainly be part of it. I think what he's saying is that we need to maintain holiness in our bodies through all of our words and actions.
As far as our minds go, this task won't be any easier. Verse two talks about not conforming to this world, but being transformed. This is not only allowing us to be good people, it's the only way we can do the will of God. We can only truly do His will if we have His mind. This is made clear in Romans 10:2-4 when Paul explains that it isn't enough to think you are a good person. You have to know the mind and will of God or your "zeal" doesn't mean anything.
Well, all of this seems very overwhelming for sure. Just be perfect and don't let the world influence your thoughts. But this is where we get to apply Christ's grace. In Philippians 4:13, Paul teaches, "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." And Paul would know. Paul suffered a lot of strange things and always seemed to come out ok. In Acts 27:3 he was bitten by a snake (viper). Those who were with him were convinced that he must be evil to deserve a snake bite and that it was to make up for the fact that he dodged fate by surviving the boat wreckage. Paul merely shook the snake off of his hand into the fire and went about his business.
Paul was put through a lengthy process of trying to be set free due to false charges. He pled with the Jews, King Agrippa, and Ceasar to set him free because he had done nothing wrong (Acts 25:10). He kept getting bounced around, bound up, accused. etc. So many things could have gone wrong, yet he was eventually freed. I'm not trying to say that Paul had an easy life. He certainly didn't, but through the trials that would have broken any other man without Christ, Christ's power was demonstrated over and over again through Paul's trials.
Having a perfect understanding of these principles, Paul declared,
"Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ" (Phillippians 3:8)
Paul, like so many apostles and disciples before him, sacrificed everything for Christ. It makes me wonder why so many of us believe that we can sit idly and assume our mansion is being built in heaven just because we belong to Christ's church. How are we different than the Pharisees?
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