What is Grace?

"Brothers and sisters, all the Lord expects of us is to try, but you have to really try!" --President Hinckley





Grace: The main idea of the word is divine means of help or strength, given through the bounteous mercy and love of Jesus Christ.

It is through the grace of the Lord Jesus, made possible by His atoning sacrifice, that mankind will be raised in immortality, every person receiving his body from the grave in a condition of everlasting life. It is likewise through the grace of the Lord that individuals, through faith in the Atonement of Jesus Christ and repentance of their sins, receive strength and assistance to do good works that they otherwise would not be able to maintain if left to their own means. This grace is an enabling power that allows men and women to lay hold on eternal life and exaltation after they have expended their own best efforts.

Divine grace is needed by every soul in consequence of the Fall of Adam and also because of man’s weaknesses and shortcomings. However, grace cannot suffice without total effort on the part of the recipient. Hence the explanation, “It is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do” (2 Ne. 25:23). It is truly the grace of Jesus Christ that makes salvation possible. 

A Woman in a Pit
Think of a woman in the bottom of a pit. At the top, is a friend with a ladder, lowering it to her friend. What is required in order for the woman in the pit to be saved? What is the role of her friend? What is the role of the woman in the bottom of the pit? Think about the Savior as the person at the top, and us at the bottom. How does that teach us about Grace?


What do you know about Grace?
What do you think grace means to you?
How do you see it in your life?
Do you believe in grace?
What are your questions about grace?


Grace in your life
How do you see grace in your life?
Think of examples from the scriptures. Who received grace from God in these stories? (Nephi, Ammon, Alma the Younger.)


What if I'm not Good enough?
Think of this example from brother Cornish:

Through a series of tender mercies as a young doctor coming out of medical school, I was accepted for pediatric residency training in a high-powered, competitive program. When I met the other interns, I felt like the least intelligent and least prepared of all. I thought there was no way I could measure up to the rest of the group.

Early in our third month, I was sitting in the nurse’s station in the hospital late one night, alternately sobbing to myself and falling asleep as I tried to write the admission orders for a small boy with pneumonia. I had never felt so discouraged in my life. I didn’t have any idea how to treat pneumonia in a 10-year-old. I began to wonder what I was doing there.

Just at that moment, one of the senior residents put his hand on my shoulder. He asked me how I was doing, and I poured out my frustrations and fears. His response changed my life. He told me how proud he and all of the other senior residents were of me and how they felt like I was going to be an excellent doctor. In short, he believed in me at a time when I didn’t even believe in myself.

As with my own experience, our members often ask, “Am I good enough as a person?” or “Will I really make it to the celestial kingdom?” Of course, there is no such thing as “being good enough.” None of us could ever “earn” or “deserve” our salvation, but it is normal to wonder if we are acceptable before the Lord, which is how I understand these questions.

Sometimes when we attend church, we become discouraged even by sincere invitations to improve ourselves. We think silently, “I can’t do all these things” or “I will never be as good as all these people.” Perhaps we feel much the same as I did in the hospital that night.

Please, my beloved brothers and sisters, we must stop comparing ourselves to others. We torture ourselves needlessly by competing and comparing. We falsely judge our self-worth by the things we do or don’t have and by the opinions of others. If we must compare, let us compare how we were in the past to how we are today—and even to how we want to be in the future. The only opinion of us that matters is what our Heavenly Father thinks of us. Please sincerely ask Him what He thinks of you. He will love and correct but never discourage us; that is Satan’s trick.

The Atonement

The Savior’s Atonement cannot become commonplace in our teaching, in our conversation, or in our hearts. It is sacred and holy, for it was through this “great and last sacrifice” that Jesus the Christ brought “salvation to all those who shall believe on his name.”

--President Uchtdorf

Sources

Ephesians 2:8–9; 2 Nephi 25:23 (By grace we are saved)

Philippians 4:13; Jacob 4:6–7 (The grace of Jesus Christ gives us strength)

Moroni 10:32–33 (Grace can make us perfect in Christ)

Bible Dictionary, “Grace”

J. Devn Cornish, “Am I Good Enough? Will I Make It?” Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2016, 32–34

Dieter F. Uchtdorf, “The Gift of Grace,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2015, 107–10

David A. Bednar, “Bear Up Their Burdens with Ease,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2014, 87–90

“Grace,” True to the Faith (2004), 77–78