A news article was published this last week proclaiming that “Grace is not a heresy” in Mormonism, but the very fact that this is making news perhaps indicates the opposite. I can’t help but remember the constant refrain that Christ didn’t come to save us “in our sins” but to save us “from our sins”during my childhood and teenage years, which emphasized to me again and again that the “moral laws of the universe” required that Christ suffer for my sins on the cross in order for me to be saved, but that I had to do a whole lot of work in order to qualify for that redemption. If I didn’t, I’d end up being forced to suffer what Christ did all by myself (D&C 19:17).
So let’s talk again about whether or not grace is a heresy in Mormonism. What is grace? It is defined as the “free and unmerited favor of God.” On one level, Mormons believe that we are loved by God no matter what we do. In fact, one of the most liberating doctrines of Mormonism to me has always been our idea of universal resurrection and our rejection of “hell” and embrace instead of a universal heaven (though the heaven is still gradated by a works-based earning system). But our access to Christ’s grace often seems to be preached as something that is limited by our works.
I loved Dieter Uchtdorf’s talk on grace a couple of years ago. In fact, I was cheering from my couch cushions because I so rarely hear anything about grace within Mormonism. He says “salvation cannot be bought through the currency of obedience” and “ we are not saved because of all we can do. Have any of us done all that we can do? Does God wait until we have expended every effort before He will intervene in our lives with saving grace?” His answer is a resounding “No.”
Uchtdorf also talks about another of the doctrines of Mormonism that I find remarkably uplifting, the idea that God’s plan for us is more than just saving us from sin, that He wants to lead us upward to Him. He says that God’s plan “leads to heights we can scarcely comprehend. It leads to exaltation in the celestial kingdom of our Heavenly Father, where we, surrounded by our loved ones, receive of ‘his fulness and glory.’ All things are ours and we are Christ’s. Indeed all that the Father hath shall be given to us.” Hallelujah! Mostly, anyway.
I want to celebrate in this teaching of Mormonism, but even Uchtdorf has qualifications about this grace. He says “we must enter this gate with a desire to be changed.” He defines grace as the “divine assistance and endowment of strength by which we grow from the flawed beings we are into exalted beings of ‘truth and light.’ Going back to the traditional Christian definition of grace, the free and unmerited favor of God, I’m not sure that requiring us to even have the desire to be changed is part of grace. Does God wait for us to desire to be changed or does He choose to change us? Do we grow into flawed beings or are we transformed by the light and glory of Christ?
I think the Mormon doctrine of grace is not, in fat, as unlimited as it could be. And I understand absolutely why even when we talk about grace we want to qualify it and even when we offer universal resurrection and heaven, we still want there to be degrees of glory, and a list of things that will keep you from the highest kingdom. Because we’re still mortals and I think it is impossible for us to conceive of the true love of God that surpasseth all things. We are still resisting (and I think this is a mortal thing, not just a Mormon one) the idea that God can love us even in our brokenness, even in our imperfection, even in our sins. But this is God’s grace, not the grace of any mortal being.
My life has been one in which I’ve prided myself on my intelligence and hard work. I like to believe that my success has come from the things I’ve done that other people haven’t done. I went to years of graduate school for that PhD. I spent more years working on my writing skills. I published my first novels through my hard work and perseverance, and that’s why I was rewarded with the reputation I have now. I want the credit for this. And I live in a mortal world in which works are all that is recognized and rewarded.
But this is exactly the opposite of Christ’s grace, which is as available to those who haven’t worked hard and haven’t succeeded as it is to those who have. As much as I want to maintain a distinction between my good works that qualify me for a higher heaven than other people, this isn’t the kingdom of heaven that Christ preached about, where those who are hired for the last hour of the day get the same reward as those who worked all day, or where the guests for the wedding are often the last people you’d expect to be invited.
If you accept the idea of grace, I’m not sure that there is any place left for talk of works, of qualification, of worthiness. So where does that leave Mormonism? I’m afraid it leaves us with some work to do. We can either proclaim that Christ’s grace saves, or that it doesn’t. We can talk about universal resurrection and heaven or we can keep a hierarchy of rules that qualify souls for divine progression—or for temple recommends, callings, full activity in Christ’s kingdom here on earth, and more. Which is it? Are we a works-based church or a grace-based one? I’m really not convinced that we can have it both ways.