I Am What I Am Through The Grace Of God

     Seminary was very invigorating today. On days like these I am tempted to puff up my chest, not a great metaphor, and feel self-satisfied. But that self reflection would indeed negate what I had taught. Today we covered Romans 3-4 and I introduced the sobering truth that there are none righteous upon the earth, no not one. Some years ago, teaching Institute, I was severely countered as I introduced these sobering words of Psalms, spoken by Paul, and which were quoted by Moroni. One brother was offended that I would say there are no righteous people on the earth. He didn't quite understand and I was struggling with this statement myself. I felt accused by God and pondered and prayed about that. "Am I so unworthy?" I asked God. He answered me with a simple statement. 

  "It is not about you."

   I was left pondering again as to what this answer to prayer meant. I went back to Paul and Moroni. This experience helped me today as we started class reading verses about grace. We glued them into our notebooks and underlined important words. Then we passed them to the right and read what our classmates had underlined. After passing the journals six times we had a clearer understanding to open up into Romans 3. (Click here to refer to three glue in handouts. )

   Paul has a doctrinal case he is making. He asks questions to lead his readers to come to the conclusion that all men are damned and unable, even with law, to make themselves righteous enough to come back into the presence of God. So, who is this about? Jesus Christ and his infinite atonement make it possible to overcome the fall. But, my class questioned, aren't we able to do righteous things? Certainly, but the important word here is "do". The righteous things part comes from the influence of the Holy Ghost, so our part is to act. Hence the reason why agency is so important. When we act, we act under the influence of either the power of good or the power of bad. Wow, today we covered the doctrine of Agency, The Fall, and The Atonement. The Spirit is awesome.

   Moroni 10:25 "And wo be unto the children of men if this be the case; for there shall be none that doeth good among you, no not one. For if there be one among you that doeth good, he shall work by the power and gifts of God."

   1 Corinthians 15:10 "But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me."