Salvation is a gift that you must choose
Many professed Christians embrace the pagan belief that salvation is an arbitrary gift that is obtained from courting the favor of a capricious God, and several denominations differ only in how they attempt to court his favor. Some even believe that because Jesus was righteous, they are too, even if they don’t obey his teachings. Salvation is not the gift of an arbitrary God. If God could freely give salvation to anyone, he would give it to everyone.3 He does not give you eternal life against your will. You cannot be treated by God as if you were righteous without actually being righteous, and there is no righteousness that exists outside of similarity to Jesus.4
God can “give” you immortality through resurrection, but he cannot “give” you his character attributes.5 You can receive immortality because of what Jesus did, but you can only obtain eternal life to the degree you become like he is.6 God’s characteristics can’t be forced upon you. You must willingly take them upon yourself.7 He can’t force us to know what he knows, to do what he does, or to share his motives. These are things he gives us, through the price he has paid, according to our choices to seek and obtain them.8
The idea of meriting eternal life is a foreign concept to most Christians, in spite of many scriptures explaining it this way.9 They correctly understand that there is no path to what the Father has except through what the Son offers, and that none of us will ever deserve the sacrifice he made for us in coming here and dying for our sins, but they incorrectly understand our obligations in that path.
Salvation is a gift in the sense that it is impossible without what Jesus has done and continues to do.10 Jesus created this world which is necessary for the opportunity to learn more about and become more like God. He sacrificed the glory he had with the Father before the world was created11 to come down from heaven12 and demonstrate the example we are to follow.157 He endured a life filled with trials,158 sorrow,159 and pain,160 culminating with the sacrifice of his life in order to provide us with the opportunity to obtain forgiveness of our past sins161 and obtain greater eternal joy through learning about and living like him. The gift of Christ is not some way to receive the blessings of being like him while continuing to be unlike him. Rather, it is everything needed to know how he is, believe that you can be the same, have sufficient reasons to make the necessary changes, and be forgiven after choosing to follow his example.
Salvation is the greatest gift possible because of what it costs and what it enables.162 However, no gift, no matter how great, will increase the joy of those who refuse to receive it. We must receive and value it.163 We receive that gift through completely reconciling to the full application of our sincere understanding of the character of Jesus Christ throughout every moment of our lives.164 Through the gift he has given us, we can both conform ourselves perfectly to our present understanding of how he is, and receive incremental instruction and experience to advance the breadth and depth of our understanding of how he is.
Footnotes
- 1. Do not suppose, because it has been spoken concerning restoration, that ye shall be restored from sin to happiness. Behold, I say unto you, wickedness never was happiness....Therefore, my son, see that you are merciful unto your brethren; deal justly, judge righteously, and do good continually; and if ye do all these things then shall ye receive your reward; yea, ye shall have mercy restored unto you again; ye shall have justice restored unto you again; ye shall have a righteous judgment restored unto you again; and ye shall have good rewarded unto you again. For that which ye do send out shall return unto you again, and be restored; therefore, the word restoration more fully condemneth the sinner, and justifieth him not at all. (Alma 41:10, 14-15) ↩
- 2. And thus he shall bring salvation to all those who shall believe on his name; this being the intent of this last sacrifice, to bring about the bowels of mercy, which overpowereth justice, and bringeth about means unto men that they may have faith unto repentance. And thus mercy can satisfy the demands of justice, and encircles them in the arms of safety, while he that exercises no faith unto repentance is exposed to the whole law of the demands of justice; therefore only unto him that has faith unto repentance is brought about the great and eternal plan of redemption. (Alma 34:15-16) ↩
- 3. The idea that he can give salvation freely, but only to those who believe in him is inadequate to explain why it is that only some are saved. Since everyone will believe in him in the last day, when all knees will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is the Christ, how is it that he would ever have reason to say this to anyone? “And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” (Matthew 7:23) ↩
- 4. Righteousness is similitude to God: “O then, my beloved brethren, come unto the Lord, the Holy One. Remember that his paths are righteous....” (2 Nephi 9:41) And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God. (Mark 10:18) ↩
- 5. Jesus said it “is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father.” (Matthew 20:23) He said: “I will not give my glory unto another.” (Isaiah 48:11) ↩
- 6. Do ye exercise faith in the redemption of him who created you? Do you look forward with an eye of faith, and view this mortal body raised in immortality, and this corruption raised in incorruption, to stand before God to be judged according to the deeds which have been done in the mortal body? I say unto you, can you imagine to yourselves that ye hear the voice of the Lord, saying unto you, in that day: Come unto me ye blessed, for behold, your works have been the works of righteousness upon the face of the earth? Or do ye imagine to yourselves that ye can lie unto the Lord in that day, and say—Lord, our works have been righteous works upon the face of the earth—and that he will save you? Or otherwise, can ye imagine yourselves brought before the tribunal of God with your souls filled with guilt and remorse, having a remembrance of all your guilt, yea, a perfect remembrance of all your wickedness, yea, a remembrance that ye have set at defiance the commandments of God? I say unto you, can ye look up to God at that day with a pure heart and clean hands? I say unto you, can you look up, having the image of God engraven upon your countenances? I say unto you, can ye think of being saved when you have yielded yourselves to become subjects to the devil? I say unto you, ye will know at that day that ye cannot be saved; for there can no man be saved except his garments are washed white; yea, his garments must be purified until they are cleansed from all stain, through the blood of him of whom it has been spoken by our fathers, who should come to redeem his people from their sins. (Alma 5:1521) ↩
- 7. ...And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men... (2 Nephi 2:27) ↩
- 8. And unto him that repenteth and sanctifieth himself before the Lord shall be given eternal life. (D&C 133:62) ↩
- 9. The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands hath he recompensed me. For I have kept the ways of the Lord, and have not wickedly departed from my God. For all his judgments were before me, and I did not put away his statutes from me. I was also upright before him, and I kept myself from mine iniquity. Therefore hath the Lord recompensed me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in his eyesight. (Psalm 18:20-24) ↩
- 10. And now, my sons, I would that ye should look to the great Mediator, and hearken unto his great commandments; and be faithful unto his words, and choose eternal life, according to the will of his Holy Spirit; (2 Nephi 2:28) ↩
- 11. And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. (John 17:5) ↩
- 12. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16) ↩