MORMONS
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For Mormons Only:
THE MISSING PUZZLE PIECE
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ plan of salvation has a
missing piece to its puzzle (figuratively speaking) and it isn’t just a small one,
but instead the KEY piece to the whole puzzle. It is my prayer that readers
will feel the love and urgency behind these words.
I have talked with Latter-day Saints at various times who know something is amiss, but they often blame themselves for not being all they should be. I have good news! That is not the real problem!
The missing key puzzle piece has to do with how we attain salvation in its fullest sense — or to put it in other terms, how we attain celestial glory, so we can spend eternity in the presence of Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. Matthew 5:20 speaks of our righteousness exceeding the righteousness of the religious leaders of the day. Matthew 5:48 indicates that in some sense of the word we must be perfect (note this is a present tense command). And it says to be perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect. I think that means no sins now. How can we do that? It is obviously an all or none situation, not just a requirement to try to obey because James 2:10 indicates that if we break even one of God’s commands we are considered to be guilty of having broken all of them. That is pretty tough! Further, I see in Romans 3:10 that God’s judgment of the human race is that "there is none righteous, no, not one." Looks like no one is going to make it. We need a key here. Further in the chapter I see (verse 23) that it is saying (literally) that we have all sinned and keep on coming short of the glory of God. There were about 633 laws in the old (law) covenant God made with Israel. That sounds like a manageable number, but when Jesus was on earth he said (John 7:19) that no one was keeping the Mosaic law. No one! I see this as our universal human dilemma. (There are about 1050 commands in the new testament...what chance have we got to do better than those folks did under the old covenant?)
I am aware that Mormonism offers A solution to the problem, (you are to repent and try again). But throughout the 4 standard works I find no reference to the concept of trying to obey, and dozens of statements to obey, and keep all the commandments. Please understand: break-repent, break-repent, break-repent does not = keep/obey. Certainly God knows how to say what He means. As I have searched within Mormonism’s writings I find that the only solution that will work, the Biblical solution is nowhere taught. At least I didn’t find it in the Book of Mormon, D & C, Pearl of Great Price, Articles of Faith, Gospel Principles, Missionary Lessons, Mormon Doctrine, or The Miracle of Forgiveness. I am saddened by this to say the least. So I share the missing piece of the puzzle here.
Simply put, there are two kinds of righteousness described in the Bible. The first is the one we are all familiar with — related to what we do and do not do daily. Let’s call it personal righteousness. But remember, according to Romans 3:10, "there is none righteous". So this type of righteousness (apart from Christ himself) is actually nonexistent. But another kind is mentioned in Romans 10:3 and Philippians 3:9. Let’s look at those verses.
"For they (the Israelites), being ignorant of God’s righteousness and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God."
"...that I may gain Christ, and be found in Him, not having my own
righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the
righteousness which is from God by faith:"
Let’s find out more about this righteousness which becomes ours through our faith. Look with me at Romans chapter 4. As we do, keep in mind that the same root word that is translated as righteous/righteousness is also translated as justified / justification in the new testament.
"But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.. (Romans 4:6)
A person who is ungodly (i.e... no personal righteousness) is declared justified (righteous) in some sense. Note the word counted. The same concept is found several times in this chapter. Verse 6 speaks of David having had righteousness imputed to him. There is an amazing truth in these words. Imputed reminds me of computed. The concept here is similar to a transfer from one bank account to another. God is saying he will put into our spiritual record His Son’s actual record of righteousness and transfer out all our sins in this divine transaction. (Note that to be righteous means no negative balance of sin, and also a full level of goodness — thus we are saved by both Christ’s life and His death - Romans 5:10.) The same thought of a spiritual record is seen in Rom. 4: 9 where it speaks of a legal reckoning and in verse 11 (imputation) and in verse 24-25 (imputation). I would suggest you read the whole chapter to get the full picture. But what this second kind of righteousness does for us is give us a permanent perfect record with God so he can justly qualify us to enter His presence. That is what I would call imputed righteousness. It is based on believing in what Christ did (His perfect life and death to wipe out our sins) and not on our personal righteousness.
Have you, as a Mormon, ever heard this before? I didn’t think so. My guess is that you are questioning whether it can even be true. One way to know is to see if this principle is found in the other places in the Bible where the subject of salvation is discussed. Let’s do that. First look at II Cor. 5:19-21.
"God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation....For He (God) hath made Him (Christ) to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. See the transfer here? No more sin put on our record, instead righteousness put on it.
Let me clarify that this is not a matter of our believing that Christ can enable us to have a good enough performance to make it. The basis upon which this kind of righteousness is offered is faith. And the object of that faith (to be a valid faith) must be the shed blood of Christ, not our blood, sweat and tears as we try to obey. We already know that won’t work.
Hebrews 10:14 clarifies that this record God gives us is a permanent one: "For by one sacrifice He hath perfected forever them who are being sanctified. " Don’t let the word sanctified throw you. Verse 10 spells out that sanctification is a work done by Christ through HIS sacrifice. There is a sense in which sanctification is progressive, but not in the context of this passage. Isn’t a perfect record forever a glorious promise?
Here is another verse - one of my favorite on this subject: Romans 8:2. It is like a riddle. "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath set me free from the law of sin and death." We have to figure out what the two laws (principles) are here. But Romans 6:23 gives us the answer to that.
The first law is simply that through Jesus Christ we receive spiritual
life, which is in essence (John 17:3) a fellowship-relationship with Christ
and God which is permanent (that is why it is called eternal life). The second
law is that sin leads to spiritual death, which is the opposite of spiritual
life — separation from God and Christ. Now we are ready to solve the riddle. If
you have spiritual life in Christ (forgiveness, and imputed righteousness are
yours) you are now FREE from any threat of ever being separated from God and
Christ. Think about it: that is guaranteed celestial glory! That is
worth shouting about! Shouldn’t the LDS church be telling you this?
Here is another passage: I John 2:1-2. This one answers the question, what happens when I sin? Chapter one speaks of confessing the sin and being forgiven. But what if I neglect or forget to confess it? That in itself could be considered a sin, right?
"My little children, these things I write to you, that you sin not, If anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and He is the propitiation for our sins, and not ours only, but also for the whole world."
It doesn’t say, "If you sin, YOU had better do this or that. It says you have an advocate. Advocate means lawyer. If you sin you have a lawyer to plead your case with the Father and his argument is based on the value of his shed blood. The word propitiation means a fully satisfactory sacrifice.
Further, I read elsewhere that the Father is ultimately going to give the son the right to judge, so... you could say your lawyer is also your judge. And His blood will cover every sin.
More verses to study: John 5:24, 6:47, Acts 10:43, Romans 4:16, 10:9-10, Titus 3:5.
OK, let me second-guess two possible reactions. First... "Isn’t that
just a license to sin?" So good works don’t matter? Answers: NO it isn’t;
and yes they do. I will elaborate on this below. Another reaction might be
this: "I can’t believe my church might be misleading me... and even if I
don’t make it to the top level in my trying to obey, I will make it to terrestrial
glory. Answer: Are you absolutely positive?
Revelation 20:15 compared to Revelation 21:24-27 indicates that we have ultimately two, and ONLY two choices. One is having your name in the book of life (eternal life)...and the other is NOT having your name in the book of life, in which case you end up in the lake of fire. If you wish to think of terrestrial glory as a lake of fire... that is your choice, but I wouldn’t be interested in going there. In John 5:29 Christ spoke of the resurrection of the just (righteous) and the wicked with no mention of any in-between categories.
Here is more evidence for you on this issue. Look at D & C 101:65-66. Joseph Smith himself identified two ultimate destinies for mankind here... one like a burning furnace and the other as celestial glory. And there is more to the story than you have been told regarding Smith’s vision of the three degrees of glory.(D & C 76) In the same vision (you can look this up in your church writings- see History of the Church, Vol. 2, pages 380-381) he also saw several of the then-current twelve apostles in celestial glory. But not long after that about half of them apostatized, some never returning to the church. That part of the vision was obviously false....apostates end up anywhere but the celestial kingdom! Are you sure you want to risk your future on believing the first part of this vision that contradicts other scriptures?
SEVEN REASONS TO BE A DO-GOODER
Now let’s talk about the place of good works in the Bible. It does not teach that it is OK to sin. To put faith and works and salvation in their proper perspective, I offer two formulae.
It is not Faith plus works = salvation (Eph. 2:8-10 says this is a false formula)
It is Faith = salvation plus works.
I am saying that works are not the means or cause of salvation. That comes through faith in Christ’s life and death which brings that gift of imputed righteousness to you. But Ephesians 2:8-10 spells out that even though works don’t save us, they are in the picture. We are "created unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them". They are to be the natural result or effect of salvation. So James 2:10 is true: a genuine faith will result in good works (faith without works is dead). James never says "faith without complete obedience is dead" but he is saying we will be do-gooders.
I like to think of it this way: Because I’m saved and its guaranteed, I WANT to do all I can to say thank you. That is where good works come in. A part of the salvation package is the entrance of the Holy Spirit into our life, and He is there to change our want-to and to grow us. Genuine salvation changes us; real faith works. Further, obeying God’s commands can spare us a lot of harmful consequences in this life. And finally, obeying God’s commands will bring reward both now and later. So here, in a nutshell are the seven reasons I choose to obey God:
1) The Holy Spirit in me pulls me in that direction.
2) It is my way to say thank you to God.
3) It is how I show that I love Him.
4) I will spare myself untold misery by obeying God’s commands,
both in terms
of natural Consequences,
and in terms of direct discipline by God.
5) There are rewards on earth (blessings) for serving God.
6) There will be rewards beyond this life for serving God.
7) Above all, I want to hear Him say to me someday,
"Well done, good and
faithful servant".
CONCLUSION:
LDS have been told the road to exaltation and forgiveness is a long, hard road with spikes and thorns along the way. It is worse than that. If it depends on full obedience, it is simply impossible. But look at the words of Jesus on this subject (remember He was talking to religious leaders laden down with the Mosaic law plus hundreds of human additions to it)
Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give
you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly,
and ye shall find rest unto your souls. Matt. 11:28
Do you need soul rest from the impossible requirement to be as perfect as God is? It is found by trusting in the value of Christ’s atonement to give you His imputed righteousness.
I John 5:13 says we can know (for sure) that we have (present tense) eternal life. ONLY through a principle such as imputed righteousness could such a statement be made. I have told you the truth, and my prayer is that you will receive Christ’s offer by faith. If you do, all the pieces of life’s most significant puzzle will fall into place, and someday, I will see you in the Heavenly Father’s presence.
If you have questions or comments, I’d love to address them.
Sincerely, Sharon Doty
e-mail me:
saintalk@mormonsinshock.com
