The Gift of Grace

A gift for my sister-in-law. 💗

As important as it is to remember that we show our faith by our works, it is at least as important to remember that our works do not save us. It is only the Grace of our Savior that has the power to unlock the chains of death and sin. And He has given that Grace freely to all. There is nothing we need to do to earn it or deserve it. All we need to do is accept the gift, use it, and keep the commandments our Savior has given us so that we can live comfortably and joyfully in His presence.

Without works

The relationship between faith and works is an oft debated topic in Christendom. My own understanding is that our good works do not save us. Strictly speaking, our faith doesn't save us either. But if we have faith in the Savior, we will be saved. However, if we do not good works (by keeping His commandments) we cannot truly say we have faith. James' words mean, in essence, that "faith without works is not faith," or "there is no such thing as faith without works."
One useful parable to illustrate this point is to think of two men lost at sea, far from any land. They pray to be rescued from drowning, and a ship happens to pass by and sees them. Those on board throw life preservers to the men. One of them grabs the preserver and is pulled to safety. The other however continues to pray rather than grabbing the preserver, claiming that he will be saved because he believes that those on the ship can save him.
It is, admittedly, not a perfect analogy, but I think it illustrates the important points. While the first man couldn't truthfully say to have saved himself, grabbing the preserver was required for him to be rescued. The second man could have been saved as well, but merely believing in the ability of the rescuers to save him wasn't sufficient.
We do not save ourselves by performing good works. To claim otherwise would be even more ridiculous than the first man claiming to have saved his own life. But we must do more than profess belief. Our Savior's grace is available to all; we have only to reach out.

Thorn in the Flesh

I don't think we're told exactly what Paul's "thorn in the flesh" was. He describes it as being a "messenger of Satan" to torment him. And so he asked the Lord to remove it from him; to cure him of his infirmity. Whatever it was, while it may have come from Satan, the Lord allowed it to stay, the reason being that His Grace may come upon Paul. Perhaps this was to more fully teach Paul to depend on the Lord for strength, and to fortify his faith that the Lord would do so when called upon in faith. Paul concludes by saying, in effect, that he would rather suffer and have the Lord's help, than not suffer and be left on his own.
We all suffer various infirmities. While God may not directly cause them, it's clear He often does allow them. I think this passage helps us understand a bit better why that could be. In our infirmities we learn to depend on the Lord. And perhaps there are other things we can learn too: patience through challenges, empathy for those going through similar trials, and we may learn more about ourselves too, and our own strengths and weaknesses.

Saved By Grace

Many members (and even non-members) are familiar with this scripture from 2 Nephi, or at least the last part. But I think we often misinterpret it. We read "it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do," and we think it means "I am only saved by grace after I have done all that I can do; if I don't do all I can do, I won't be saved." In reality, we should interpret it to mean, "Even after all I can do, it is grace that saves me, not my own works."
In the grand scheme of things, our all, our very best and most valiant efforts are pitiful compared to the great debt we owe our Heavenly Father, both because of all He has given us, and because of our own disobedience and unworthiness. Luckily, it is not our good works that pays our debt. Rather, it is by our good works that we show our faith (see James 2:18). It is an act of faith to humbly make our paltry offering, in spite of the great debt we owe. Such faith will ultimately be rewarded by the great gift of our Savior's Grace, which is sufficient to pay the debts of every person who has ever lived and ever will live. We will never be able to repay our Savior for that gift. And if we will accept Him and exercise faith in Him, we'll never have to.