Bob Millet on grace

[jay santos]

“Too often we think of grace as the little cherry on top that is the last little step in our path to perfection.”

Tex, when I hear you use the word atonement, this comes to my mind. Am I being unfair?

[JohnnyLingo]

Originally Posted by jay santos

“Too often we think of grace as the little cherry on top that is the last little step in our path to perfection.”

Tex, when I hear you use the word atonement, this comes to my mind. Am I being unfair?

So our works are the little cherry on top that is the last little step in our path to perfection, then.

[ChinoCoug]

Originally Posted by JohnnyLingo

So our works are the little cherry on top that is the last little step in our path to perfection, then.

that's what SE Robinson says.

[JohnnyLingo]

Originally Posted by ChinoCoug

that's what SE Robinson says.

Hmm.

I guess the problem is that our works seem so huge in the life. There are tons of commandments to keep, service we need to do, callings we need to magnify, families we need to righteously preside over... it can get overwhelming.

To say these things are almost nothing seems hard to grasp, I think.

[All-American]

Originally Posted by JohnnyLingo

Hmm.

I guess the problem is that our works seem so huge in the life. There are tons of commandments to keep, service we need to do, callings we need to magnify, families we need to righteously preside over... it can get overwhelming.

To say these things are almost nothing seems hard to grasp, I think.

That pretty much sums it up, methinks. "Here, do all of these things and devote yourself entirely to obeying the commandments. Your entire life is a pittance of what is necessary to earn Eternal Life, of course, but even if it is essentially irrelevant, you're required to give it anyway."

It is hard to correctly describe the significance of grace without diminishing the importance of works.

[YOhio]

Originally Posted by JohnnyLingo

Hmm.

I guess the problem is that our works seem so huge in the life. There are tons of commandments to keep, service we need to do, callings we need to magnify, families we need to righteously preside over... it can get overwhelming.

To say these things are almost nothing seems hard to grasp, I think.

This reminds me of King Benjamin's sermon in Mosiah 2.

21 I say unto you that if ye should aserve him who has created you from the beginning, and is bpreserving you from day to day, by lending you cbreath, that ye may live and move and do according to your own dwill, and even supporting you from one moment to another—I say, if ye should serve him with all your ewhole souls yet ye would be funprofitable servants.

22 And behold, all that he arequires of you is to bkeep his commandments; and he has cpromised you that if ye would keep his commandments ye should prosper in the land; and he never doth dvary from that which he hath said; therefore, if ye do ekeep his fcommandments 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 arequire that ye should do as he hath commanded you; for which if ye do, he doth immediately bbless 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?

25 And now I ask, can ye say aught of yourselves? I answer you, Nay. Ye cannot say that ye are even as much as the dust of the earth; yet ye were acreated of the bdust of the earth; but behold, it cbelongeth to him who created you.

This is certainly difficult for our mortal minds to comprehend.

[Tex]

Originally Posted by jay santos

“Too often we think of grace as the little cherry on top that is the last little step in our path to perfection.”

Tex, when I hear you use the word atonement, this comes to my mind. Am I being unfair?

Yes, you are being unfair. I think grace is hugely underemphasized in Mormon culture.

Witness, for example, my inversion of Mike Waters "ladder" analogy. (I'll say here, I'm not a big fan of the ladder analogy, in general).

http://cougarguard.com/forum/showpos...17&postcount=2

[Archaea]

Originally Posted by YOhio

This reminds me of King Benjamin's sermon in Mosiah 2.



This is certainly difficult for our mortal minds to comprehend.

Is it just difficult to comprehend, or are we unwilling to accept emotionally that we are crap and what we do is miniscule?

After trying meagerly to comprehend a scintilla of the eternities, I've realized we're crap, and emotionally I can comprehend that whatever I do is virtually meaningless to anybody but myself.

[JohnnyLingo]

Originally Posted by Archaea

Is it just difficult to comprehend, or are we unwilling to accept emotionally that we are crap and what we do is miniscule?

After trying meagerly to comprehend a scintilla of the eternities, I've realized we're crap, and emotionally I can comprehend that whatever I do is virtually meaningless to anybody but myself.

I am a child of God, and he has sent me here.

[Archaea]

Originally Posted by JohnnyLingo

I am a child of God, and he has sent me here.

So?

His children die all the time and nobody notices.