The Grace He Proffers Us

“Have you been changed by grace?” This is the question I asked several years ago when I was invited to give a Brigham Young University devotional address. It became a life-­changing question for Brad McNary, his wife Rachel, and their five ­children.

Recently, Brad wrote me this e-mail: “A couple years ago the seams that held the fabric of our family together were splitting apart. My relationship with Rachel was broken and we were losing our oldest daughter. Everywhere I turned the outlook was grim and I was terrified. I felt the bottom was about to fall out of my life.” At that low point, two LDS missionaries arrived. Brad and his family began attending church. He recalled, “I had been raised as an evangelical so I appreciated how closely the LDS Church aligned with the description of Christ’s Church in the New Testament, but I worried because I didn’t hear much said about grace.”

Brad asked the missionaries, “Do Mormons believe in grace?” The elders assured him that we do and provided some materials to study, including that BYU devotional. Brad wrote, “Your question, ‘Have you been changed by grace?’ really made me consider for the first time how I was responding to God’s grace. It made me think about my life and placed me on a path toward humility and repentance for major obstacles—sins that surely would have ruined our family.”

The McNarys were baptized on July 26, 2014, and sealed a year later. In Brad’s e-mail, he wrote, “My wife and I are closer than ever. Our oldest daughter is happier and making better choices. We are now an eternal family and serving faithfully in the Church. We have been changed through His grace.”

On the cover of this book is Walter Rane’s beautiful depiction of Christ healing the blind man (see John 9:1–7). I love how the painting shows this man turning toward Christ, but I love even more how Christ is reaching out toward the man. This is how the Savior reaches out to all of us.

The full extent of His reach is clearly demonstrated in the text of a favorite hymn: “I stand all amazed at the love Jesus offers me, confused at the grace that so fully he proffers me” (Hymns, no. 193). The word confused can mean perplexed and disoriented, but it can also mean overwhelmed. Indeed, we should feel overwhelmed by the magnitude of Christ’s grace. Proffers is more than a synonym for offers. Adding the prefix pro to offers indicates that instead of simply extending a gift to someone, the giver takes initiative to proactively place the gift before the receiver.

Think of the emblems of the sacrament. They are not simply offered to the congregation. Latter-day Saints don’t approach the front of the chapel to take them. Rather, the bread and water are proffered to us—literally placed before each of us individually, even when we are late and standing in the foyer (and don’t ask me how I know that). This teaches us much about how lovingly the gift of grace is given.

Nevertheless, in Doctrine and Covenants 88:33 we read, “For what doth it profit a man if a gift is bestowed upon him, and he receive not the gift? Behold, he rejoices not in that which is given unto him, neither rejoices in him who is the giver of the gift.” We stand all amazed at the grace Jesus proffers us, but He must stand a little amazed Himself at how many are unwilling to receive His selfless gift. The emblems of the sacrament simply sit in trays when we refuse to accept and internalize them.

The purpose of this book is to help all of us choose to receive Christ’s grace and more fully rejoice in the gift and the Giver. Some, like Brad McNary, wrongly assume that Latter-day Saints do not believe in grace or that it does not play a central role in our doctrine. This is not so. The Restoration offers a fullness of knowledge concerning grace. Camille Fronk Olson, chair of Brigham Young University’s ancient scripture department, has written, “By linking teachings and history in the New Testament and the Book of Mormon . . . we can observe multiple angles for applying the doctrine of grace and replace our perplexity with greater clarity.”1

Many Christians turn to the Bible alone to understand this topic, but Latter-day Saints can enjoy a broader perspective. We can read Paul’s teachings about grace in the context of the plan of salvation and temple worship—the very perspective with which Paul surely wrote them. The scriptures of the Restoration are full of grace. Joseph Smith’s teachings are full of grace. General conference addresses are full of grace. Our hymns are full of grace. I have chosen to draw from all these sources as “we contemplate [His] lasting grace” (Hymns, no. 169).

We must understand what grace is, what it isn’t, and its connection to the Atonement. We need to know how a covenant relationship allows us to receive grace in greater and greater abundance and escape the bondage of addictions. Through the Holy Ghost—the messenger of grace—we can be strengthened, saved, and also transformed. As we more fully value and appreciate grace, we can offer it to others as liberally as it is offered to us.

God is a “God of grace” (Hymns, no. 88). His gift is not a prize for the righteous. It is the source of righteousness. His help is not a reward for the worthy. It is the source of worthiness. It is not waiting for us once we change. It is the power we need throughout the entire perfecting process. No wonder we sing with all our hearts, “Oh, it is wonderful, wonderful to me!” (Hymns, no. 193).

Note

1. Camille Fronk Olson, “Saved and Enabled by the Grace of Jesus Christ” in Shedding Light on the New Testament: Acts–Revelation, ed. Ray L. Huntington, Frank F. Judd, and David M. Whitchurch (Provo, Utah: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2009), 49.