Today I am grateful for my wonderful students. We had a conversation about grace today. Often, we think of Christ "making up the difference". Like we need to score a million points to get to heaven. We score points by "being good". Maybe we get 500,000 points or so. Then Christ comes in and "makes up the other 500,000 or so that we didn't do ourselves. I see this as flawed. We can't do anything to make us DESERVING of eternal life and progression. There is no way we could live a life that would merit such an awesome destiny. Christ has scored "a million points" for all of us. Everything we do to "be good" we do because of the strength, mercy, and wisdom provided us by the abounding love of the Savior. We don't do anything right on our own. We are such unprofitable servants.
So then I asked the class, "If we can't earn our way to Heaven, if we can never do enough to make ourselves worthy of it, when why should we 'be good'? Whats the point?"
Queue the Holy Ghost.
I had some of my own ideas, but I didn't ask it looking for a specific answer, I was just curious about what they would say. They are so wise! I heard a lot of "We obey God because we love God." How holy is that attitude, to obey not because you fear punishment or even want reward, but because you LOVE God. (Side note- I think that a love of God's children naturally follows a love for God.) We also talked about having a desire to become more like our savior, not just for this life, but for the eternities.
I am a grace girl. Whenever the works vs. grace issue comes up, I always plant myself firmly on the side of grace. I don't believe it is works, not even in part. It is by grace that we are saved.
I guess I'm also grateful for grace.
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