16 Now they did not suppose that salvation came by the law of Moses; but the law of Moses did serve to strengthen their faith in Christ; and thus they did retain a hope through faith, unto eternal salvation, relying upon the spirit of prophecy, which spake of those things to come.
How plain and simple was their understanding of the Purpose of the Law of Moses! They did not believe that salvation came by keeping the Law of Moses, but instead the Law of Moses pointed them to, and strengthened their faith in, Jesus Christ. Salvation was obtained by a hope through faith in Christ, and they understood and focused on that.
They relied on the Spirit of prophecy, of that which was to come in the future, meaning the prophesies about the future coming of the Lord Jesus Christ to suffer, bleed and die for their sins. In other words, they believed in the prophesies and scriptures of that which was to come, and therefore the Law did not become a set of blinders to them. The Law was kept in proper perspective.
I’m reminded of horses, and those blinders, I think they are called, that are supposed to keep them from getting distracted by anything in their peripheral vision, so they would be focused on and move toward their masters’ destination. They serve a good purpose in keeping that horse on track and not distracted. But the blinders are tool and not the goal, and ought not to be the focus. If the horse somehow focused on the blinders, he would be blind! All he would see would be darkness. He would be walking in the dark, wandering off the path, while all the while the true destination was right in front of him.
The blinders are not the destination. The blinders are supposed to help point the horse to the destination. And so it is with the law of Moses. It pointed the way. But it was not the way! Jesus Christ is the way, the truth and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by him. And so it was with the blind Jews in Christ’s day. They followed the Law of Moses to the letter, but totally missed the mark. They focused completely on the Law, but ignored the Law Giver and the purpose of the Law! They were as blind as a horse who focused on his blinders instead of the beautiful vistas right in front of him.
And so it is with us, if we are not careful. Do we look at the Law (the Gospel, the commandments, the Church organization and programs, callings and assignments) the same way? Do we believe that if we are doing a relatively good job staying “active” in the church, that that is where our salvation rests? If so, we are in danger of being just as blind as the Pharisees and Sadducees. We will be missing the mark. For salvation is not in the law— whether it be the law of Moses, or the law of the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints in the last days. It is the same.
If we do not have a daily attitude of profound humility and reverence and indebtedness to the Savior for his supernal gift, then chances are we may be missing the mark also. If we do not experience sorrow for sin on a regular basis, considering we sin every day, then chances are we may be missing the mark.
King Benjamin so aptly taught this principle— of our complete and utter reliance on the Savior and his Atonement for our salvation, and our nothingness without Him.
20 I say unto you, my brethren, that if you should render all the thanks and praise which your whole soul has power to possess, to that God who has created you, and has kept and preserved you, and has caused that ye should rejoice, and has granted that ye should live in peace one with another—
21 I say unto you that if ye should serve him who has created you from the beginning, and is preserving you from day to day, by lending you breath, that ye may live and move and do according to your own will, and even supporting you from one moment to another—I say, if ye should serve him with all your whole souls yet ye would be unprofitable servants.
22 And behold, all that he requires of you is to keep his commandments; and he has promised you that if ye would keep his commandments ye should prosper in the land; and he never doth vary from that which he hath said; therefore, if ye do keep his commandments he doth bless you and prosper you.
23 And now, in the first place, he hath created you, and granted unto you your lives, for which ye are indebted unto him.
24 And secondly, he doth require that ye should do as he hath commanded you; for which if ye do, he doth immediately bless you; and therefore he hath paid you. And ye are still indebted unto him, and are, and will be, forever and ever; therefore, of what have ye to boast?
So you see, even if we love and serve God with all of our heart, might, mind and strength, and even if we should give all of the thanks and praise which our whole soul has power to possess, and even if we are “keeping the commandments”, we are still beggars, still indebted to him, and will be forever and ever. Salvation does not come by keeping the Law, even though keeping the Law to the best of our ability is a condition. Salvation comes through Christ and His paying the price of the demands of justice, through his suffering in our behalf.
Salvation is a gift. As it has been said, “We know that it is by grace that we are saved”, in spite of anything we can do. Grace is a gift. A gift is not earned! You can not earn a gift, else it is no longer a gift, but a wage.
But, we have to receive a gift. If someone is knocking on your door with a precious gift for you, you must answer the door and open it to receive the gift! Let’s say there’s a famine and you are starving to death, and someone with a wagon full of food stands at your door and knocks. But because you don’t believe anyone would give you food, or because you are so bitter and angry at your sufferings, or you falsely think it’s just another beggar at your door looking for food, you refuse to answer the door. Would that not be a shame? Your gift, your life giving gift, would be lost and you would die.
So it is with Grace and the Law, with faith in Christ and works. The gift is available to us. It is a precious, lifesaving gift, and it cost the Giver everything he had. But it will go to waste if we don’t have faith and hope enough to make the effort to go open the door! That faith and effort to open the door and receive the gift is the Law. It is the commandments. We don’t feed ourselves. We are not the living water. We don’t cleanse ourselves from sin. But we must go to the One who can do those things to receive the blessed gift.
The one and only condition to receive the gift is to strive to keep the commandments every day, and then repent every single day as we fall short in some small or large way. For surely we will fall short and do fall short and sin every day. Just pick one of the sins of commission and omission that the scriptures say are too numerous to number.
The one condition to receive the Gift of Grace is to have faith and hope enough to go open the door and receive it.
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