“Full of Grace and Truth”

Many Christmases ago my parents-in-law gave Debi and me a beautiful set of dishes we could use to entertain friends and family during the holiday season. This twelve-piece set has dessert plates based on the traditional carol “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” The first plate has an artistic rendering of a partridge in a pear tree with the words written below. The second plate depicts two turtle doves, and so forth, up to twelve drummers drumming. One year as I set the table, I saw something on the fourth plate I had never noticed before. The words beneath the picture read, “Four colly birds.” I wondered how such a glaring spelling mistake had been made. I had always heard and sung, “Four calling birds.”

I pointed out the error to family members helping in the kitchen, thinking everyone would have a good laugh. Instead, my son said, “Dad, I think the plate’s right and you’re wrong.” With the help of Google, we looked up colly and discovered it was indeed the word used in the 1780 version of the song. It was a regional English expression for “black.” So, on the fourth day of Christmas the singer’s true love sent four black birds! Who knew? It was not until many years later that carolers began replacing the word with calling. Isn’t it interesting how something I thought I knew so well—something I was absolutely sure of—could change?

Calling birds. Colly birds. Who cares? Such a change is trivial. However, in many ways we can experience the same transition in our knowledge of grace, and that change is not trivial. Just when we think we comprehend it, something happens to expand and deepen our understanding. Such has been the case for me. Truly understanding grace is essential because it helps us avoid the extremes to which some have taken this doctrine. It also helps us recognize the upward pull within us and rely more fully on the merits, mercy, and grace of our Savior as we respond to that pull.

Meaning of Grace

On the outside of Westminster Abbey in England are carved the words, “May God grant to the living, grace.” Few would disagree with the plea, but for what exactly are we pleading? Like many English words, grace has multiple meanings. It can describe elegance and beauty or kindness and courtesy. It can be a prayer (“saying grace”) or a salutation (“Grace be unto you”). In Hebrew the word means favor or goodwill given with compassion. Perhaps this is why Christians throughout the centuries have used grace to describe God’s favor, goodwill, and love. However, grace is more than a description of God’s attributes. It is how He engages with us as we strive to attain those attributes. It is the power that propels us upward toward perfection and exaltation (see Moroni 10:32). President Dieter F. Uchtdorf defined grace as “the divine assistance and endowment of strength by which we grow from the flawed and limited beings we are now into exalted beings.”1 Thus, grace is the strength He offers in order to make us strong. It is the divine help He offers in order to make us divine.

When I was younger I associated God’s grace with gifts that would be mine only after I did my very best to reach the finish line. Now I realize grace applies right here and now. It is the force that gets me to the finish line. I once saw grace as an equation of my part plus God’s part as if I had to meet some sort of minimum height requirement to enter heaven. Now I see it is not about height, but about growth. Elder D. Todd Christofferson taught, “We do not need to achieve some minimum level of capacity or goodness before God will help—divine aid can be ours every hour of every day, no matter where we are in the path of obedience.”2 Instead of a ratio, I now see a relationship in which “all needful grace will God bestow” (Hymns, no. 88). Instead of seeing Christ as making up the difference, I now see He makes all the difference.

The word grace probably shouldn’t be used as a catchall label for every divine interaction. God grants us many tender mercies and answers to prayer. When my son Russell was finishing school to become a nurse anesthetist and was assigned a clinical rotation in a hospital four hours from where they were living, my daughter-in-law Trish was discouraged. Not only would she be caring for two toddlers on her own, but they had just had their third child, and the baby was fussy and not sleeping well. Trish didn’t know how she was going to do it. When the rotation started, the baby suddenly began eating better and sleeping through the night. Our family knew we had witnessed a tender mercy.

When Russell was a teenager he lost the only set of keys for our car. He and his friend backtracked their steps and looked everywhere without success. Finally, Russell prayed and asked God to lead him to the lost keys. When he found them in a place he had already searched multiple times, our family knew we had witnessed an answer to prayer.

Such experiences touch our hearts, build our faith, and are definitely included under the large umbrella covering the many ways God reaches out to assist us. However, with President Uchtdorf’s definition in mind, the word grace best describes the times God’s assistance enables us to “progress and grow in righteousness.”3 For example, when we are able to resist temptation, break bad habits, or develop patience and charity, we can see God’s grace is shaping and molding our characters. When we can faithfully endure a tragedy or forgive an offense, we witness God’s grace. Thus grace can be clearly evident in our lives even when tender mercies and answers to prayer are not.

Grace is different from the Atonement. It is not Christ’s suffering, death, and Resurrection. Instead, grace is the power that flows from those sacred moments. Sheri Dew, former member of the Relief Society general presidency, has called it “the power the Atonement makes available to us.”4 Long ago, people looked forward to the Atonement. Now the act of the Atonement is past. Either way, grace allows its influence to be continuous. When someone says, “The Atonement helped me,” the words may be well intentioned, but they are not completely accurate. It is Jesus Christ who helps us through His Atonement. Grace is the help His Atonement makes possible.

Grace is not priesthood in the narrow sense of authority and keys, but it is priesthood in the broader sense of God sharing His power with His children (see D&C 84:20–21). Grace is not a priesthood ordinance, but essential ordinances invite greater endowments of grace into our lives.

Grace comes from the Godhead. We can speak of receiving grace from God and Christ interchangeably (see 1 Thessalonians 1:1). Grace also comes from the Holy Ghost, “the agent of the Atonement.”5

The Bible Dictionary states, “Grace is an enabling power” (“Grace,” 697). In today’s world, parents are often warned about enabling their children’s bad choices by shielding them from natural consequences. Such enabling handouts become disabling despite the best of intentions. Grace is not a handout but a hand up. Notice how the definition in the Bible Dictionary combines the word enabling with the word power. God is not enabling us to bypass His laws but empowering us with an increased ability to live His laws. Grace is not the absence of God’s high expectations. It is the presence of His power—a portion of His unlimited capacity that allows us to join with Him and do together what we could never do alone.

I once had the opportunity to speak at a young single adult conference in Kirtland, Ohio. The young people enjoyed touring the historic sites, participating in service projects, and interacting at the dance. The highlight of the weekend was a sacrament service held in the Kirtland Temple. What a moment it was for all of us to renew our covenants with Christ in the very place where Christ renewed His everlasting covenant with us in this final dispensation. As I stood to speak at that special meeting, I drew the congregation’s attention to the beautiful windows and intricate woodwork on the pulpits. Then I pointed out one of the building’s flaws. “Remember,” I said, “this edifice was built by volunteers who knew little about construction.” I mentioned some of the minor problems with construction that one of the tour guides had previously pointed out to me. Although the builders had done their very best, there were still minor flaws in the building. Nevertheless, when Christ appeared, He accepted the building as His—flaws and all (see D&C 110:7). Where there was weakness, He provided strength and transformed an imperfect building into a holy temple.

Christ will do the same for us. Our flaws and inadequacies can turn us to the Lord and force us to acknowledge our total dependence on Him. Through His grace, He can strengthen us and make us holy. Paul described grace like this: “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” (Philippians 4:13). Ammon said, “Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things” (Alma 26:12).

Perils of Grace

Perhaps the reason Latter-day Saints have been hesitant in the past to speak and teach about grace is that we never want to be seen as going to the same extreme as many other Christians when it comes to this doctrine. Sadly, too many in the world see grace as little more than permission to sin and procrastinate rather than the power to become “dead to sin” (Romans 6:2) and “born of God” (Mosiah 27:25). Too many live like spiritual couch potatoes and still expect God to beam them up when the time comes. They view grace as a get-out-of-jail-free card that exempts them from living even the most basic of commandments. They speak endlessly of forgiveness but rarely of repentance. They see ordinances as nonessential “works” and believe their rejection of them will be overlooked by God because “by grace are ye saved through faith” (Ephesians 2:8). Latter-day Saints agree with Christian authors who label such views as “cheap grace”6 or “easy-believism that makes no moral demands on the lives of sinners.”7

Sadly, this kind of thinking has led to a world in which ­people see little difference between the lives and choices of many Christians and those who profess no religious beliefs at all.8 C. S. Lewis warned, “If conversion to Christianity makes no improvement in a man’s outward actions . . . then I think we must suspect that his ‘conversion’ was largely imaginary.”9

Kanzo Uchimura, one of the most well-known and widely respected Christians in Japan’s history, came to the same conclusion. He converted to Christianity but was disillusioned when he traveled to the United States. Missionaries had told him America was the ideal Christian civilization, where everyone celebrated Christmas and Easter, but Kanzo was totally unprepared for the swearing, dishonesty, snobbery, and prejudice he found displayed on all sides by people who claimed to be saved by the grace of the Son of God. He wrote, “If it was Christianity that made the so-called Christendom of today, let Heaven’s eternal curse rest upon it!”10

At the same time that some Christians have gone to the extreme C. S. Lewis and Kanzo Uchimura described, some Latter-day Saints have gone to the opposite extreme. We say, “God helps those who help themselves” or “We’ve got to meet God halfway” and are slow to recognize our complete dependence on Christ. Too many view His grace as a final boost into celestial glory once we’ve gotten as far as we can on our own steam. We speak often of repentance but struggle to feel forgiven—­especially when we are tempted with the same sins over and over.

Our pioneer heritage has enthroned hard work, grit, self-control, and willpower above all other virtues. We roll up our sleeves, put our “shoulder[s] to the wheel” (Hymns, no. 252), and “save ourselves with all our dead” (Hymns, no. 5). Instead of feeling safe and confident in God’s care, we never quite feel good enough. We awake early, go to bed late, read, pray, serve in callings, and still feel that we are falling short. We become so focused on checking items off our to-do lists that we forget why God gave us those lists in the first place. We read about good examples and instead of feeling inspired, we feel discouraged. Think of Mother’s Day. A lot of members don’t even like to go to church that day because instead of being uplifted when someone talks about his “angel mother,” they feel guilty for not being better mothers or children themselves. This attitude sometimes breeds a culture of unrealistic expectations, perfectionism, and comparison that affects health and happiness.

Author Robert L. Millet calls both of these extremes “theological traps”11 or the “perils of grace.” He reminds us that in reality, faith and works are not at odds with each other: “Faith always manifests itself in faithfulness. Salvation may come by grace alone, but grace is never alone.”12

Perhaps the answer for all of us is found within the text of the hymn “Sweet Hour of Prayer.” We sing, “And since he bids me seek his face, believe his word, and trust his grace, I’ll cast on him my ev’ry care” (Hymns, no. 142). Maybe Christian friends need to believe Christ’s word a little more. When He called for disciples to keep the commandments, He meant it (see Matthew 7:21; Luke 9:23; John 14:15). Maybe Latter-day Saints need to trust Christ’s grace a little more. When the Lord said, “My grace is sufficient,” He meant it (see D&C 17:8; 18:31; 2 Corinthians 12:9; Ether 12:26). By avoiding perilous extremes, we can all find the desirable middle ground where we can seek His face more sincerely and cast on Him our every care more confidently.

An Upward Pull

As we consider all “his grace imparts” (Hymns, no. 146), few can imagine a greater gift than the opportunity to be sealed together with their families for eternity. Yet, knowing the struggles all families face, perhaps the greatest gift is not only that families can be sealed, but that they can be healed so they want to be together forever.

When my son Russell was in the Missionary Training Center in Spain, he participated in a question-and-answer session with the teachers. All the missionaries were asked to write questions on papers, and then the instructors would pull the papers from a bowl and respond. Not too long into the session, one of the teachers fished out Russell’s question and read it aloud: “What if we are teaching a family that doesn’t want to be sealed for eternity?” The teacher said, “Well, that’s a silly question. Who wouldn’t want to be sealed forever?”

Actually, it was not a silly question. We spend much time and effort in temples sealing ancestors together, but maybe they were in unhappy marriages. Perhaps some women were trapped into staying with their husbands because they were financially dependent on them. We might be sealing children to parents who were abusive. Comfort is found in understanding that vicarious work for the departed never overrides ­people’s agency, but it is also found in knowing that people can change. If I were answering Russell’s question, I would have said, “If people say they don’t want to be sealed, they don’t need to be. However, those desires may change as people change.”

Through Christ’s grace, people can change. Here and hereafter, families can change. We can all be helped to “overcome and avoid bad and to do and become good.”13 The Savior can change our very natures.

“Accept yourself” and “be who you are” are great slogans when it comes to physical characteristics over which we have no control. However, when it comes to moral choices that define our characters, these phrases become little more than excuses. By rejecting absolute truth and creating their own versions of right and wrong, many people seek to erase the need for change, improvement, and emulation of the divine. They speak of tolerance and acceptance but want it to extend in only their direction. They don’t realize that one-sided tolerance and acceptance can quickly become vices rather than virtues as they begin to threaten freedom for everyone.

I sometimes wonder how much tolerance and acceptance Moses would receive in our modern world. What kind of reply would he get from an editor if he were to submit the Ten Commandments to a mainstream publisher today? I imagine it would read something like this:

Dear Moses:

Thank you for your submission, but it is obvious your hand is not on the pulse of what people want in our society. Are you serious about not swearing? I think that part of your manuscript should be deleted, since everyone swears. Haven’t you seen a movie or walked through an airport lately? Sabbath day? That one had better be cut too, or at least revised to make church attendance optional and sports acceptable. From Little League to professional games, do you realize how much Sunday sports do for our economy? The graven image thing can stay since nobody worships idols anyway. However, I’m afraid people might realize their money and material possessions can be considered gods and then they could be offended. Safer to cut it altogether. The “don’t steal” and “don’t kill” bits can stay since most agree on those, but you can’t mention anything about copyright laws or abortions, or the book will never sell. My biggest concern is with the section on adultery. The way you have written it sounds so old-fashioned. What if readers have chosen to have open marriages or define marriage differently than you do? This is a politically-charged issue, and you have left absolutely no room for personal interpretation, so I would prefer that you soften the language. Call pornography harmless adult entertainment and sex outside of marriage moral as long as those involved love each other. Once you make these revisions, I invite you to resubmit, but don’t get your hopes up. I can’t foresee this manuscript being a bestseller.

Sincerely,

A Concerned Editor

Although many people don’t believe change is possible or even necessary, at one time or another we all reflect on our poor choices and ask, “Is this it? Is this as good as it gets?” Pop psychologists and amateur atheists would answer, “Yes! Embrace who you are!” However, deep inside we hear a different answer. We have all felt an upward pull to rise higher and be better.

President Henry B. Eyring has assured us this feeling “comes from our Heavenly Father. The opposing thought, that the upward pull is an illusion, comes from the adversary, who wants us all to be miserable, as he is.” President Eyring continued, “Heavenly Father does more than allow you to feel that upward pull. He has provided a way to rise higher, almost beyond our limits of imagination, not by our own powers, . . . but through the power of the atonement of His Son, Jesus Christ.”14

Similarly, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland testified, “Only the adversary, the enemy of us all, would try to convince us that . . . people don’t really improve, that no one really progresses. And why does Lucifer give that speech? Because he knows he can’t improve, he can’t progress, that worlds without end he will never have a bright tomorrow. . . . Don’t fall for that. With the gift of the Atonement of Jesus Christ and the strength of heaven to help us, we can improve.”15

Merits, Mercy, and Grace

In the Book of Mormon we read, “How great the importance to make these things known unto the inhabitants of the earth, that they may know that there is no flesh that can dwell in the presence of God, save it be through the merits, and mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah” (2 Nephi 2:8). Let’s examine more closely what is communicated by all three of those key words.

Christ’s merits mean He was the only one authorized and able to perform the Atonement. His anointing in the premortal world, unique birth, and perfect life made Him the only one who could atone for us. The fact that He chose to do so means He loves us.

Christ’s mercies mean that He was willing to save us from the physical and spiritual deaths that came in consequence of the Fall. Even though we are completely undeserving, He can resurrect us, forgive us as we repent, and enter a covenant relationship with us. The fact that He chooses to do so means He loves us just the way we are.

Christ’s grace means that He stands ready to transform and exalt us. He offers His divine help throughout that perfecting process. The fact that He chooses to do so means He loves us enough not to leave us just the way we are.

It is this miracle of transformation that is often the focus of our prophets, seers, and revelators. A look at their general conference addresses over the last fifty years reveals that the most quoted verses from the Book of Mormon have been Mosiah 3:19 (putting off the natural man and becoming a Saint through the Atonement), 3 Nephi 27:27 (the manner of men we ought to be—even as Christ), and Moroni 10:32 (coming unto Christ and being perfected in Him). Do you see a theme? The Brethren are consistently teaching us of both the need to change and the power to change. We don’t have to settle for the status quo. We can all “triumph in redeeming grace” (Hymns, no. 163)

This was the message that caught the interest of my great-great-grandmother, Louisa Gwyther. She was the daughter of a wealthy Protestant minister in England. As a child, Louisa read the Bible, but she felt confused at the contradictions she saw between what Jesus taught and the religious practices that surrounded her. She felt there had to be something better. In 1849 she heard the Mormon missionaries and attended LDS church services. The members were living the way she wanted to live. She realized this was the fullness she had been waiting for. One week later, unbeknownst to her family, she was baptized in the middle of a big storm. She climbed down a rope from her second-­story bedroom window and met the missionaries, who had to break the ice in a stream to baptize her. When the secret came out, Louisa was disowned and cast out of her home for joining what her parents called “that low-down set of people.” She was forced to make her own living as a maid and seamstress.

Not long after this, Louisa met her husband-to-be, George Taylor, at a church meeting. She was in a silk dress and wore her dark hair in long ringlets. George told his friends that she was the girl he wanted to marry. They told him she was out of his league, but George won Louisa’s love, and they were married in 1853. Two daughters soon followed. They longed to immigrate to Utah to be with the Saints but lacked sufficient funds. George decided to move to America, where he could earn money faster and then send for his wife and family to join him.

Louisa’s father heard that George had “abandoned” his daughter and her two children. He sent Louisa’s sister to plead with her to denounce the Mormons and divorce her husband. Her father promised that his granddaughters would be well educated. Louisa told her sister that she valued education but had found something even more important. She had found the fullness of the gospel. She was not content to settle for less when she could have more. She wanted her daughters to have an education, but she also wanted them to know and love the Savior. Her sister departed, and soon George sent enough for Louisa and their girls to sail to America.

The voyage was difficult. Louisa and her daughters were traveling in steerage. Fearing lice, Louisa cut her and her daughters’ long hair. A storm blew the ship off course, which delayed their arrival in New York by several weeks. Food was being rationed. Louisa became so ill she was confined to her bed while her two daughters roamed the deck and made do as best they could. Louisa prayed to be spared until she could deliver her girls to their father. One night a man came to her with some bread and cheese. The food lifted her spirits and gave her the nourishment she needed. From that moment her health began to improve. When the ship finally landed, Louisa asked the captain who the kind man was so she could thank him. The captain listened to her description and assured her there was no such man on board. She knew she had received divine help and strength beyond her own.

Louisa was soon reunited with George, and the family made their way west. Because of Louisa and George and other ancestors like them, I have been blessed with the restored gospel they treasured and for which they sacrificed. In Louisa’s home she had learned of Christ’s merits and mercies, but it was only when she encountered His grace that she was changed. Like Louisa, we don’t have to settle for less. We can choose “a more excellent way” (Ether 12:11).

In 2 Nephi 2:6 we read, “Redemption cometh in and through the Holy Messiah; for he is full of grace and truth.” That phrase, grace and truth, is important enough that it is found in all the standard works (see John 1:4; D&C 93:11; Moses 1:32). Like other words we’ve examined thus far, these also have great meaning—especially when they are coupled together.

Because Christ is full of truth, He saw that Louisa could become more than she was. He knew what her choices would mean to her posterity. He also sees us as we really are and as we really can be (see Jacob 4:13). He sees worth when we see worthlessness. He sees potential when we see limitations.

Because Christ is full of grace, He can share His vision with us and engage with us in reaching our potential. He helped Louisa see that her life could be more meaningful than she ever dreamed, and He helped her make the needed sacrifices. The Lord is willing to do the same for us. Because Christ is full of truth, He knows the greatness written in our spiritual DNA. Because He is full of grace, He can and will unlock it as we turn to Him.

Each December our family enjoys pulling out the holiday dishes commemorating the twelve days of Christmas. Whether we sing about calling birds or colly birds, it makes little difference. However, our understanding of grace makes a big difference. It helps us avoid doctrinal extremes and, just as it did for Louisa, it helps us desire to change and draw closer to the Savior, who makes it possible. On the real first day of Christmas we didn’t receive a partridge in a pear tree. We received “a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11), a Savior who “is full of grace and truth” (2 Nephi 2:6), a Savior who chose to become like us so we can choose to become like Him.

Notes

1. Dieter F. Uchtdorf, “The Gift of Grace,” Ensign, May 2015, 107.

2. D. Todd Christofferson, “Free Forever, to Act for Themselves,” Ensign, November 2014, 19.

3. True to the Faith: A Gospel Reference (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2004), 78.

4. Sheri Dew, Amazed by Grace (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2015), 4.

5. Gérald Caussé, “For When I Am Weak, Then Am I Strong,” BYU Devotional Address, 3 December 2013, 6.

6. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship (New York: Touchstone, 1995), 43–45.

7. John MacArthur, The Gospel According to Jesus (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 1988), 15–16.

8. See David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons, UnChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks About Christianity . . . and Why It Matters (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Books, 2007).

9. C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (San Francisco: Harper Collins, 2001), 207.

10. Kanzo Uchimura, The Complete Works of Kanzo Uchimura, Vol. 1: How I Became a Christian, Out of My Diary (Tokyo, Japan: Kyobunkwan, 1971), 118.

11. Robert L. Millet, By Grace Are We Saved (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1989), 4.

12. Robert L. Millet, “The Perils of Grace,” in BYU Studies Quarterly 53, no. 2 (2014), 10.

13. David A. Bednar, “In the Strength of the Lord,” BYU Devotional Address, 23 October 2001, 3.

14. Henry B. Eyring, Because He First Loved Us: A Collection of Discourses (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2002), 38.

15. Jeffrey R. Holland, “Tomorrow the Lord Will Do Wonders among You,” Ensign, May 2016, 125; emphasis in original.