The Right Way

The night was coming on and it was getting cold, at least for northern California.  I had less than a month to serve on my mission, and Christmas was just around the corner; we were working hard, but were not having much success.  On this particular day, two teaching appointments stood us up -- "We got dogged," as we always said -- but on the positive side we did get in a door while tracting to teach a discussion.  Now, as the shadows of the evening fell, we had a chance encounter with a teenage boy named Eric.

Eric had been tracted into recently by the Span Ams -- the Spanish speaking elders -- and expressed some interest in learning more about the church.  My companion and I each bore our testimonies and encouraged him to read the Book of Mormon, but it seemed to have little effect.  Eric said he was part of a youth group that did Bible study and that he would need to fast and pray to find out if he should read the Book of Mormon.  Naturally, we encouraged him to both fast and pray.  He then said that he was concerned that we are not Christians.

I answered by saying that we are Christians, that we believe in Jesus Christ and worship him.  Then I opened my mini-quad to 2 Nephi 25 and read verse 29: "And now behold, I say unto you that the right way is to believe in Christ, and deny him not; and Christ is the Holy One of Israel; wherefore ye must bow down before him, and worship him with all your might, mind, and strength, and your whole soul; and if ye do this ye shall in nowise be cast out."

I could think of no better expression of the centrality of the Savior in the LDS faith, yet Eric seemed unimpressed.  He again expressed reluctance to read the Book of Mormon.  We had been talking in his driveway for an hour and the day was past and gone.  It had been in the light of a streetlamp that I had read the scripture.  It was cold, and we knew the ride back to our apartment on our bikes would be even colder.  Again we bore our testimonies and encouraged him to read the Book of Mormon, and then we departed.

Perhaps a seed had been planted, and perhaps it grew, but soon I would be flying home and leaving the work I loved so much behind.  Thanks to Eric, we completed that week with thirty-one hours of teaching and tracting, and it was our third week in a row of at least thirty hours.  Most of the hours were spent tracting; that week we had scheduled eleven appointments only to get dogged by nine of them.

I felt a little like Nephi, "For we labor diligently . . . to persuade . . . our brethren, to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God; for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do" (2 Nephi 25:23).  "And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophecy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins" (verse 26).

The twenty-fifth chapter of 2 Nephi is a powerful chapter -- perhaps in part because it follows the twelve Isaiah chapters -- as Nephi prophecies with plainness of Jesus Christ.

"But, behold, they shall have wars, and rumors of wars; and when the day cometh that the Only Begotten of the Father, yea, even the Father of heaven and of earth, shall manifest himself unto them in the flesh, behold, they will reject him, because of their iniquities, and the hardness of their hearts, and the stiffness of their necks.  Behold, they will crucify him; and after he is laid in a sepulchre for the space of three days he shall rise from the dead, with healing in his wings; and all those who shall believe on his name shall be saved in the kingdom of God.  Wherefore, my soul delighteth to prophesy concerning him, for I have seen his day, and my heart doth magnify his holy name" (verses 12-13).

Then Nephi speaks of our day: "And the Lord will set his hand again the second time to restore his people from their lost and fallen state.  Wherefore he will proceed to do a marvelous work and a wonder among the children of men.  Wherefore, he shall bring forth his words unto them. . . ." (verses 17-18.)

"And now, my brethren, I have spoken plainly that ye cannot err.  And as the Lord God liveth that brought Israel up out of the land of Egypt, and gave Moses power that he should heal the nations after they had been bitten by the poisonous serpents, if they would cast their eyes unto the serpent which he did raise up before them, and also gave him power that he should smite the rock and the water should come forth; yea, behold I say unto you, that as these things are true, and as the Lord God liveth, there is none other name given under heaven save it be this Jesus Christ, of which I have spoken, whereby men can be saved" (verse 20).

"And now behold, my people, ye are a stiffnecked people; wherefore, I have spoken plainly unto you, that ye cannot misunderstand.  And the words which I have spoken shall stand as a testimony against you; for they are sufficient to teach any man the right way; for the right way is to believe in Christ and deny him not; for by denying him ye also deny the prophets and the law" (verse 28).

We have the opportunity to participate in the marvelous work and a wonder, not just as full time missionaries, but as member missionaries.  Greater success in spreading the gospel is found when the members work with the missionaries to help them find people to teach.  And our testimonies may be added to Nephi's that the right way is to believe in Jesus Christ and deny him not.

As Elder Dallin H. Oaks said in a talk during the April 1998 General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, "Some Christians accuse Latter-day Saints . . . of denying the grace of God through claiming they can earn their own salvation.  We answer this accusation with the words of two Book of Mormon prophets," Nephi and Moroni.  After quoting verse 23 of 2 Nephi 25, Elder Oaks continued by asking "And what is 'all we can do'?  It surely includes repentance and baptism, keeping commandments, and enduring to the end."

Elder Oaks then quoted Moroni: "Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourself of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfected in Christ" (Moroni 10:32).

"We are not saved in our sins, as by being unconditionally saved through confessing Christ and then, inevitably, committing sins in our remaining lives," argued Elder Oaks.  "We are saved from our sins by a weekly renewal of our repentance and cleansing through the grace of God and His blessed plan of salvation."

As King Benjamin taught, "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" (Mosiah 2:21).  We are weak, we will always fall short, despite our best efforts, and He does so much for us every day.

In the first place, He created us, granting us life; secondly he requires that we should do as he commands, and if we do we are blessed, and thus we remain in His debt.  As long as this pattern of obedience and blessing continues we remain in His debt forever and ever; "therefore, of what have ye to boast?  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 created of the dust of the earth; but behold, it belongeth to him who created you" (Mosiah 2: 23-25).

Even if we could somehow manage not to fall short because of the weakness that remains in us, we would still be in His debt, and thus we need His grace to save us.

"Oh, how we all need the healing the Redeemer can provide," said Elder Richard G. Scott during the April 1994 General Conference.  "Mine is a message of hope for you who yearn for relief from heavy burdens. . . .  Whatever the cause, I testify that lasting relief is available on conditions established by the Lord."

And so we rejoice in Christ, because His grace is sufficient.

"My greatest thrill and the most joyful of all realizations, said Elder Jeffrey R. Holland in the October 1994 General Conference, "is that I have the the opportunity, as Nephi phrased it, to "talk of Christ, . . . rejoice in Christ, . . . preach of Christ, [and] prophesy of Christ' wherever I may be and with whomever I may find myself until the last breath of my life is gone.  Surely there could be no higher purpose or greater privilege than that. . . ."