Grace

One day last week I was in a classical music mood so I tuned in on my computer to BYU's radio station.  While listening, the station played a rebroadcast of a BYU devotional by Brad Wilcox.  I remember him as one of my favorite speakers from EFY and Education Week when I attended as a teenager.  His talk was on grace and how that applies to the Atonement and our lives.  It is one of the best talks about this that I have ever heard.  (You can go here to watch it yourself.)

We are told that we are saved by grace "after all that we can do."  So what does that mean?  Bro. Wilcox answers this question by comparing grace to parents paying for piano lessons.  By paying for lessons, parents can then require us to practice.  Practicing does not pay the piano teacher, nor does it pay back our parents.  Instead, practice makes us better and is a way for us to show our gratitude for their payment, thereby making the payment by our parents worth it.  This is like the Atonement.  "Doing all that we can" does not pay the original price, nor the price paid by our Savior in our stead.  Rather, our efforts go into a different bank account that simply prepares us for heaven.  I had never thought of it this way.  Bro. Wilcox quotes Elder Bruce C. Hafen, "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."

More favorite quotes from Bro. Wilcox:

Jesus doesn't make up the difference.  Jesus makes all the difference.  Grace is not about filling gaps.  It is about filling us.

We are not earning heaven, we are learning heaven...we are practicing.

Have you been changed by grace? ...Grace isn't just about being saved, it is about becoming like the Savior.  The miracle of the Atonement is not that we can live after we die, but that we can live more abundantly.  Scriptures make it clear that no unclean thing can dwell with God.  But...no unchanged thing will even want to.

Heaven will not be heaven for those who have not chosen to be heavenly....  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....  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 will power and have no access to His power.  If Jesus did not require endurance to the end, then there would be no internalization to those changes over time....  If Jesus did not require practice, then we would never become pianists.

When we understand grace, we understand that God is long suffering, that change is a process, and repentance is a pattern in our lives.  When we understand grace, we understand that the blessings of the Atonement are continuous; we can...continue in patience until we are perfected.

Christ is not waiting at the finish line once we have done all we can do.  He is with us every step of the way.  ...Grace is not a finishing touch, but the Finisher's touch.

"...grace shall be as your day." (Come, Come Ye Saints)  Grace shall be like a day.  As dark as night may become, we can always count on the sun coming up.  As dark as our trials, sins, and mistakes may appear, we can always have confidence in the grace of Jesus Christ.

Grace is not the absence of God's high expectations.  Grace is the presence of God's power.
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I have thought a lot lately about change and how it really works.  One of the scriptures that we have memorized as as family is Ether 12:27 and I think it answers the question:

And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness.  I give unto men weakness, that they may be humble.  And my grace is sufficient for all men who humble themselves before me.  And if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.

Christ's grace is sufficient, as Bro. Wilcox explained.  Our part is to show faith by practicing, to be humble and to be patient.  Keep trying, don't give up.  Then it is Christ who makes the change, not us.  It is His power, not ours that makes the change.  For me, that relieves a lot of pressure.  I know I still don't completely understand grace and the Atonement, and I am still learning how to apply it in my life.  But I am grateful for the opportunity to learn.