In the Spring 2015 General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Deiter F. Uchtdorf, 2nd Counselor in the First Presidency gave a remarkable talk on the subject of Grace and Salvation. This talk was surprising to some because it appeared to take a much more liberal position in favor of grace over works in the doctrine of Mormon Soteriology. Much like the recent interview with Elder Christofferson on the issue of supporting gay marriage, it is necessary to closely examine the language that was used in the sermon in order to understand the effect of its message.

[toc]Soteriology is the study of religious doctrines of salvation. By examining the scriptural and prophetic guidance given about salvation, one can make certain determinations about what would be required in order to achieve this ultimate state. This goal is the highest thing to which a human can aspire.  It has been the primary focus of religion to instruct men and women on how to achieve that state – they are in fact the only authority on the matter.

Religions, such as Mormonism, which take an exclusive attitude in this regard teach that it is their prescription alone which can bring a soul to those Elysian heights.

Faith vs. Works – After all

The question of what specific pre-requisites fulfill the requirements of salvation in Christian religions has long centered around the issues of Faith vs. Works. Religions which give Faith primacy in this regard focus on a sincere declaration of belief in Christ and God as the only strict requirement, while those that preach Works hold that obedience or a sincere attempt at obedience to God’s Laws are essential to being justified before God. I have had numerous discussions with faithful Mormons over the past year and have heard conflicting opinions on exactly what official mormon doctrine is in this regard. The majority opinion has been that Mormons have a hybrid position where it is faith which entitles one to the Grace of God which cleanses you of sin, but only after “all that you can do” – mean that one must perform labors in keeping God’s commandments to be entitled to that Grace.

This is usually supported by the verse in 2 Nephi which states:

“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, lds.org)

In his talk, Uchtdorf addresses this concept head on and, in effect, redefines “all we can do” to mean something different than a casual reading of the text implies. He states that “all we can do” really just means.

“I wonder if sometimes we misinterpret the phrase “after all we can do”. We must understand that “after” does not equal “because”. We are not saved because of all that we can do. Have any of us done all that we can do? Does God wait until we have expended every effort before he will intervene in our lives with His saving grace? Many people feel discouraged because they constantly fall short. They know first hand that the spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak. They raise their voices with Nephi in proclaiming “my soul grieveth because of mine iniquities” I’m certain Nephi knew the Savior’s grace allows and enables us to overcome sin. this is why Nephi labored so diligently to persuade his children and brethren to believe in Christ and to be reconciled to God. After all, that is what we can do and that is our task in mortality.”
(Deiter F. Uchtdorf, 5 April 2005, general conference.)

In making this distinction, Uchtdorf is stating that a belief in God and reconciliation with God are all that we can do. This sounds very faith centered and actually, as we will see, sounds very familiar to protestant Christianity which favors faith as the means to grace. Uchtdorf later makes a more impressive statement on the role of works – i.e. obedience to Gods commandments:

“Salvation cannot be bought with the currency of obedience – it is purchased by the blood of the Son of God. Thinking that we can trade our good works for salvation is like buying a plane ticket and then supposing that we own the airline or thinking that after paying rent for our home, we now hold title to the entire planet earth. If grace is a gift of God, why then is obedience to God’s commandments so important? Why bother with God’s commandments or repentance for that matter? Why not just admit we are sinful and let God save us? Or to put the question in Paul’s words, “Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?” Paul’s answer is simple and clear: “God Forbid.” Brothers and sisters we obey the commandments of God out of love for Him. Trying to understand God’s gift of grace with all our heart and mind gives us all the more reasons to love and obey our Heavenly Father with meekness and gratitude. As we walk the path of discipleship it refines us it improves us it helps us to become more like Him and it leads us back to His presence. The Spirit of the Lord our God brings about such a mighty change in us that we have no more disposition to do evil but to do good continually. Therefore, our obedience to God’s commandments comes as a natural outgrowth of our endless love and gratitude of the goodness of God. This form of genuine love and gratitude will miraculously merge our works with God’s grace, virtue will garnish our thoughts unceasingly and our confidence will wax strong in the presence of God.”

What is Reconciliation?

Another Apostle taught about reconciliation. In the October 1996 General Conference Apostle Russell M Nelson taught what reconciliation meant in the context of Christ’s atonement:

Reconciliation comes from Latin roots re, meaning “again”; con, meaning “with”; and sella, meaning “seat.”Reconciliation, therefore, literally means “to sit again with.”
(“The Atonement” Russell M Nelson, 1996 General Conference, lds.org)

Nelson invokes this definition while exploring other descriptions of Christ’s atonement. Later he clarifies exactly what reconciliation means to a faithful mormon:

“Essential ordinances of the gospel symbolize the Atonement. Baptism by immersion is symbolic of the death, burial, and Resurrection of the Redeemer. Partaking of the sacrament renews baptismal covenants and also renews our memory of the Savior’s broken flesh and of the blood He shed for us. Ordinances of the temple symbolize our reconciliation with the Lord and seal families together forever.”
(“The Atonement” Russell M Nelson, 1996 General Conference, lds.org)

 

Looking at the requirements

The Mormon pathway to salvation and justification before God includes the following – pay attention to the distinction between “salvation” and “exaltation”:

1. Salvation
   1. Salvation can be divided into 2 parts – being saved from spiritual death and being saved from physical death.
   2. Salvation from physical death is a free gift to all and requires no works or effort. It is accomplished completely by the grace and sacrifice of Christ – through the resurrection. This qualifies you for resurrection and at least the lowest of the three kingdoms of glory – the Telestial kingdom.
   3. Salvation from spiritual death (or separation from God) can be accomplished through the grace of Christ – by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel. Faith alone without these laws and ordinances will not qualify you for salvation.
   4. The laws and ordinances of the gospel are:
      1. Faith in Jesus Christ
      2. Repentance
      3. Baptism
      4. Gift of the Holy Ghost.
   5. Keeping those laws qualifies you for at least the Terrestrial Kingdom.
2. Exaltation
   1. Exaltation is the highest state of happiness and glory in the celestial kingdom. There are additional requirements to achieve this state
   2. Those requirements are to:
      • Stay faithful to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel listed above.
      • Receive the Melchizedek Priesthood (if you are male)
      • Receive certain temple ordinances (more on this later)
      • Be married in the temple
      • Love your neighbors
      • Keep the commandments
      • Continually repent
      • Attend church meetings/take sacrament
      • Strengthen your family
      • Daily prayer
      • Share the gospel
      • Scripture study
      • Follow the prophet
      • Receive the holy ghost
   3. Since Temple attendance is required then you must be able to pass the temple recommend interview to show that you are worthy to enter the temple. This means you must truthfully answer and pass these requirements:
      • Have faith in and testimony of Jesus, God and the Holy Ghost
      • Have a testimony of the Atonement of Christ
      • Have a testimony of the restoration of the gospel (this means that you must believe that Joseph Smith was a prophet and called by God and believe in the Book of Mormon, D&C and Pearl of Great Price and all subsequent LDS doctrine)
      • Sustain the current Prophet and all church leaders
      • Live the law of chastity (no sex outside of marriage)
      • Live family relations in keeping with church teachings
      • Not support or affiliate with people or groups that are not in agreement with church teachings
      • Try to attend church meetings and live the gospel.
      • Be honest
      • Pay 10% of your annual increase to the church (tithing)
      • Keep the Word of Wisdom (no tobacco, coffee, alcohol, tea, illegal drugs; eat meat sparingly)
      • Pay any child support owed
      • Wear temple garments night and day
      • Confess serious sins to church authorities
      • Feel worthy to enter the temple
   4. Since the temple endowment is required for exaltation,then you must fulfill the commitments that are part of that ceremony. This includes:
      • Being washed and anointed
      • Covenanting to obey the “Law of Obedience” where women promise to obey the law of the lord and to harken unto their husbands as they harken unto God, and men promise to harken unto God.
      • Covenanting to obey the “Law of Sacrifice” where you must promise to sacrifice all that you possess, even your life if necessary, to the sustaining and defending the kingdom of God (the LDS church).
      • Covenanting to obey the “Law of the Gospel” – avoiding loud laughter, lightmindedness, speaking ill of church leaders, using the name of the Lord in vain and any other impure practice.
      • Covenanting to obey the “Law of Chastity” (no sex outside marriage).
      • Covenanting to obey the “Law of Consecration” promising yourself, your time, talents and all that God has or will blessed you with to the LDS church.
      • Receiving and keeping new names, signs (hand signals) and tokens (handshakes) with special symbolic significance.

If someone is able to achieve all of this and continue to do so while “enduring to the end”, then they will receive exaltation in the highest degree of glory – the Celestial Kingdom. They will have the benefit of having all that God has, Being a God themselves and having their own spirit children to raise, just as our God has us.

Salvation vs Exaltation

Long Story short – to a Mormon salvation is a general term that encompasses any degree of glory. The lowest of these may be achieved by grace alone and the term ‘salvation’ may be applied to that. Exaltation is obtaining the highest degree of glory. This requires obedience to laws and ordinances – requiring works (both keeping laws and performing ordinances).

If you ask a Mormon what it means to be saved – they will have to explain a bit. More likely than not, they will not lay out all the requirements as I have listed them above. They take a “milk before meat” approach and will likely keep things simple focusing on Faith in Christ and Love. For a Mormon, that is where it starts, but as you can see above – that is not where the story ends.

If you ask a Biblical Christian what it means to be saved – they will tell you that it is to be found guiltless before God and be received into His presence by the Grace of Christ.

If you want to compare between the requirements between Mormons and Biblical Christians you must make sure that you are comparing as close to “apple to apples” as possible. To a Christian salvation is entering to the presence of God and receiving all that he has promised for eternity. To a Mormon, this is most closely analogous to exaltation.

To be clear – if you simply compare what Mormons generically term ‘salvation’ to the Christian concept of salvation – Mormons will say that the requirements are similar. Faith, baptism, repentance, etc. That is not a good comparison, however, because they define these terms differently. To find the closest comparison between the two you must compare the Mormon concept of Exaltation with the Biblical Christian Concept of Salvation.

Biblical Christian Soteriology

To a biblical Christian – what is required for salvation? They look to the account in John 6 where the people asked Jesus what the works of God were and he answered simply “to believe on him whom he hath sent” they look to the encounter with Nicodemus in John 3 where he said that a man must be born again of the water and the spirit and they look to when they Asked Jesus what the great commandment was and he said that Love God and Love your neighbor were the 2 great commandments and like unto each other. All other laws hang on those.

To summarize the perspective of a Biblical Christian, salvation requires the following:

1. Belief/Faith in Jesus Christ
2. Rebirth through the living water of Christ and the Holy Spirit
3. Love (God and Neighbor)

Good works are a part of the Biblical Christians walk, but they are not the price of Grace, but rather the meaningful effect of it.

Faith, Rebirth and Grace

To a biblical Christian Faith in Christ alone qualifies you for the Grace. Not a mere fleeting pronouncement of the name of Christ – but a deep transformative faith that involves a regenerated heart in Christ. A person born again in such a manner will have good works flow from them – not because of obedience to a law – but out of a natural expression of their transformed heart in Christ.

To a Biblical Christian, when Christ spoke of his yoke being easy and his burden being light – they know that he was contrasting his covenant of Grace with the law that he came to fulfill. The Mosiac law had 613 commandments the Jews had to obey – and it was impossible to do so. The “Works” spoken of in contrast with grace are obedience to this Law.

In Romans 11:6 when Paul said that it is either Grace or Works – he was not trying to confuse people – he was stating that they were mutually exclusive as a requirement for salvation.

It is also said that faith without works is dead – but that is demonstrating that the works are the fruit of a sincere and legitimate faith. Faith is still the key requirement. This is driven home when Christ speaks in Matthew 7 of those who would come to him saying “Lord Lord” and claiming to have prophesied and done many great works in his name – yet he did not know them. Their great works were dead without the right faith to inspire them.

In Galatians 2:16 when Paul says that man is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Christ and goes on to say that by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified – he is speaking plainly

In Galatians 2:21 he says that if righteousness come by the law – then Christ is dead in vain

In Galatians 3:11 he says that no man is justified by the law.

In Romans 3:28 he says that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.

In Acts 15:10 he warns against returning to a legalistic law based theology – admitting that the law was a yoke that neither the disciples nor their fathers could bear.

The Law – A Yoke and A Burden

When Christ spoke of his burden being light and his yoke easy – he was talking of moving from a doctrine of law based, legalistic salvation to one of pure grace. Not the caricature that you hear of where people say “I’m born again!” and then proceed to revel in sin – but a transforming grace that changes people’s hearts. This process of being ‘Born Again’ defines a transformative and effective faith in Christ. Works are not longer a matter of obedience – but an authentic expression of spiritual regeneration in Christ.

Legalism Leads to Pride

Legalistic, law based theologies lead to pride. The pharisees were the ultimate expression of this and Matthew 23 shows Christs response to it. it’s not pretty. He calls them vipers, children of hell, hypocrites, sons of the killers of the prophets and many other choice things. When your salvation is based on obedience to laws, then you are set up in a system that creates a significant hurdle to humility. You start to feel good that you are able to obey the laws. Your own confidence in keeping the laws minimizes your impulse to seek for the aid of Christ – after all – you are doing pretty good by obey the laws! You become your own savior. You can see others around you not obey them in the same way and it is hard to avoid feeling pity or passing silent judgement on them. It starts subtly but grows in mens hearts, till they find them selves standing in front of a crowd thanking god that they have been blessed to be among the righteous and free from the sins of the world, while blinded by their own pride. Christ reinforces this in his tale of the prayer of the Pharisee and the publican in Luke 18.

In Ephesians 2:8-9 Paul alludes to this when he says that “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.”

A doctrine of works inevitably leads to pride and boasting.

Ordinances

Ordinances represent a special type of works. Under the mosaic law, the ordinances involved a priest acting as an intercessor between the children of Israel and God. God dwelt in the Holy of Holies in the temple and only the High Priest could intercede on behalf of the people to offer blood sacrifice and cover their sins. The veil separated God from his children. When Christ died on the cross, that veil was ripped from top to bottom – signifying the end of those ordinances. Christ became the last and only High Priest and Prophet for the new covenant. Temples of stone became obsolete.

Christ – The One and Only High Priest

In Hebrews 7, the author explains that while the High Priests until then has offered sacrifice, they had to continually do so because they would die themselves, where Christ was the last and only high priest needed because his perfect sacrifice would atone for all and forever. Christ is the only High Priest to a biblical christian. His sacrifice is the only ordinance required.

Prophets?

In Hebrews 1 the author points out that in the past, while God spoke to men through prophets, the last messenger is Christ. This is reinforced by the parable of the wicked husbandmen that Christ taught in Matthew 21 – where the landowner (god) left his land to vine dressers (men) who at the time of harvest sent his servants (Prophets) to collect the fruits and they were killed by the wicked vine dressers – then “last of all” he sent his son (Christ), whom they also killed. Christ was the last Prophet.

To a biblical christian, God loves his children now just as in times of old – but speaks to them in their hearts through the holy spirit, rather than through prophets.

Temples

To a Christian, temples are no longer built of brick and stone – they are our own bodies and hearts. The veil separating God and man was rent and each of us can receive the Holy spirit in our hearts and commune directly with God. 1 Corinthians 3:16 states “We are a temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in us.”, 1 Corinthians 6:19 “Our body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, which is in us because we are bought with a price. Everyone who has been purchased (redeemed) by the blood of Christ also has the Spirit of God dwelling in him.”

LDS Views on Grace vs Works

LDS leaders have had some different views on the grace vs works issue:

““One of the most fallacious doctrines originated by Satan and propounded by man is that man is saved alone by the grace of God; that belief in Jesus Christ alone is all that is needed for salvation”
(Spencer W. Kimball, The Miracle of Forgiveness, p. 206)

Then there is:

“This second greatest truth is that Christ worked out this infinite and eternal atoning sacrifice so that all men are raised in immortality and those who believe and obey are raised also unto eternal life. Now the opposite of that is the second greatest heresy in all Christendom, and the opposite is that men are saved by some kind of lip service, by the grace of God supposedly, without work and without effort on their part.”
(Bruce R. McConkie, “The Seven Deadly Heresies,” an address given at Brigham Young University on June 1, 1980. Transcribed from actual speech).

and also:

“Even that grace of God promised in the scriptures comes only ‘after all we can do’”
(Boyd K. Packer, “The Brilliant Morning of Forgiveness,” Ensign, November 1995 (Conference Edition), p. 19).

And

“This grace is an enabling power that allows men and women to lay hold on eternal life and exaltation after they have expended their own best efforts. Divine grace is needed by every soul in consequence of the fall of Adam and also because of man’s weaknesses and shortcomings. However, grace cannot suffice without total effort on the part of the recipient. Hence the explanation, ‘It is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do’ (2 Ne. 25:23)”
(LDS Bible Dictionary, p. 697).

Finally:

“For example, some of our friends can’t see how our Atonement beliefs relate to our beliefs about becoming more like our Heavenly Father. Others mistakenly think our church is moving toward an understanding of the relationship between grace and works that draws on Protestant teachings. Such misconceptions prompt me to consider today the Restoration’s unique Atonement doctrine”
(Bruce Hafen, “The Atonement: All for All,” Ensign (Conference Edition), May 2004, p. 97).

Grace and Love – Earned by Obedience or Faith?

Many church members like to feel good about grace being the ultimate answer. To the thief on the cross – it was. He could do no works beyond his declaration of faith. To a faithful LDS member, grace must be earned by obedience.

To a faithful LDS member, God’s love is conditional upon their ability to obey commandments. This is made abundantly clear by Apostle Nelson in his exposition of the conditional love of God towards man. (http://www.lds.org/ensign/2003/02/divine-love)

If grace can only be earned by obedience and not by faith, then grace is no more grace and works is the rule. This is not to say that works will not follow from an abiding faith – just that it is the faith that produces the works, not the works that guarantee salvation.

Conclusion

As you can see, there are significant differences in the salvation doctrine between Mormonism and biblical christianity. It was surprising to hear predominantly grace based theology coming from Mormons – but I am seeing more LDS follow their hearts, even when their beliefs technically conflict with official church doctrine.