A lesson on grace from a 2011 BYU Devotional by Brad Wilcox. :
Christ’s arrangement with us is similar to a mom providing music
lessons for her child. Mom pays the piano teacher... Because Mom pays the debt in full, she can turn
to her child and ask for something. What is it? Practice! Does the
child’s practice pay the piano teacher? No. Does the child’s practice
repay Mom for paying the piano teacher? No. Practicing is how the
child shows appreciation for Mom’s incredible gift. It is how he takes
advantage of the amazing opportunity Mom is giving him to live his life
at a higher level. Mom’s joy is found not in getting repaid but in
seeing her gift used—seeing her child improve. And so she continues to
call for practice, practice, practice.
If the child sees Mom’s
requirement of practice as being too overbearing (“Gosh, Mom, why
do I need to practice? None of the other kids have to practice! I’m just
going to be a professional baseball player anyway!”), perhaps it is
because he doesn’t yet see with mom’s eyes. He doesn’t see how much
better his life could be if he would choose to live on a higher
plane.
In the same way, because Jesus has paid justice, He can
now turn to us and say, “Follow me” (Matthew 4:19), “Keep my
commandments” (John 14:15). If we see His requirements as being way too
much to ask (“Gosh! None of the other Christians have to pay
tithing! None of the other Christians have to go on missions, serve in
callings, and do temple work!”), maybe it is because we do not yet see
through Christ’s eyes. We have not yet comprehended what He is trying to
make of us.
Elder Bruce C. Hafen has written, “The great
Mediator asks for our repentance not because we must ‘repay’ him in exchange for his paying our debt to justice, but because
repentance initiates a developmental process that, with the Savior’s help, leads us along the path to a saintly character” (The Broken
Heart [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1989], 149; emphasis in original).
Elder Dallin H. Oaks has said, referring to President
Spencer W. Kimball’s explanation, “The repenting sinner must suffer for
his sins, but this suffering has a different purpose than punishment
or payment. Its purpose is change” (The Lord’s Way [Salt
Lake City: Deseret Book, 1991], 223; emphasis in original). Let’s
put that in terms of our analogy: The child must practice the piano, but
this practice has a different purpose than punishment or payment. Its
purpose is change.
I have born-again Christian friends who say to me, “You Mormons are trying to earn your way to
heaven."
I say, “No, we are not earning heaven. We are learning heaven. We are preparing for it (see D&C 78:7). We are
practicing for it.”
They ask me, “Have you been saved by grace?”
I answer, “Yes. Absolutely, totally, completely,
thankfully—yes!”
Then I ask them a question that perhaps they have not fully considered: “Have you been changed
by
grace?”
They are so excited about being saved that maybe they are not
thinking enough about what comes next. They are so happy the debt is
paid that they may not have considered why the debt existed in the first
place. Latter-day Saints know not only what Jesus has saved us from but
also what He has saved us for. As my friend Brett Sanders puts it, “A
life impacted by grace eventually begins to look like Christ’s
life.” As my friend Omar Canals puts it, “While many Christians view
Christ’s suffering as only a huge favor He did for us, Latter-day
Saints also recognize it as a huge investment He made in us.” As Moroni
puts it, grace isn’t just about being saved. It is also about
becoming like the Savior (see Moroni 7:48).
The miracle of the
Atonement is not just that we can live after we die but that we can
live more abundantly (see John 10:10). The miracle of the Atonement is
not just that we can be cleansed and consoled but that we can be
transformed (see Romans 8). Scriptures make it clear that no unclean
thing can dwell with God (see Alma 40:26), but, brothers and sisters, no
unchanged thing will even want to.
I know a young man who just
got out of prison—again. Each time two roads diverge in a yellow
wood, he takes the wrong one—every time. When he was a teenager dealing
with every bad habit a teenage boy can have, I said to his father,
“We need to get him to EFY.” I have worked with that program since 1985.
I know the good it can do.
His dad said, “I can’t
afford that.”
I said, “I can’t afford it either, but you put some in, and I’ll put some in, and then we’ll go to my mom,
because she is a real softy.”
We finally got the kid to EFY, but how long do you think he lasted? Not even a day. By the end of the
first day he called his mother and said, “Get me out of here!” Heaven will not be heaven for those who have not chosen to be
heavenly.
In the past I had a picture in my mind of what the final judgment would be like, and it went something like this: Jesus
standing there with a clipboard and Brad standing on the other side of the room nervously looking at Jesus.
Jesus checks His clipboard
and says, “Oh, shoot, Brad. You missed it by two points.”
Brad begs Jesus, “Please, check the essay question one more time!
There have to be two points you can squeeze out of that essay.” That’s how I always saw it.
But the older I get, and the more I
understand this wonderful plan of redemption, the more I realize that in the final judgment it will not
be the unrepentant sinner
begging Jesus, “Let me stay.” No, he will probably be saying, “Get me
out of here!” Knowing Christ’s character, I believe that if
anyone is going to be begging on that occasion, it would probably be
Jesus begging the unrepentant sinner, “Please, choose to stay. Please,
use my Atonement—not just to be cleansed but to be changed so that you want to stay.”
The miracle of the Atonement is not
just that we can go home but that—miraculously—we can feel at home
there. If Christ did not require faith and repentance, then there would
be no desire to change. Think of your friends and family members who
have chosen to live without faith and without repentance. They don’t
want
to change. They are not trying to abandon sin and become comfortable
with God. Rather, they are trying to abandon God and become comfortable
with sin. If Jesus did not require covenants and bestow the gift of the
Holy Ghost, then there would be no way to change. We would be left
forever with only willpower, with no access to His power. If Jesus did
not require endurance to the end, then there would be no internalization
of those changes over time. They would forever be surface and cosmetic
rather than sinking inside us and becoming part of us—part of who we
are. Put simply, if Jesus didn’t require practice, then we would never
become pianists.
(Click here for the rest of the talk.)
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