Scripture Difficultiesgraceworks2-nephi-25salvation

“After All We Can Do”

Does 2 Nephi 25:23 teach that we earn salvation by works, or that we are saved by grace after we have done all we can do?

Bible

They quote this

Bible · Ephesians 2:8–9

KJV + NRSVUE

They quote Paul, then 2 Nephi 25:23, and pretend they have caught us.

King James Version
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.

NRSVUE
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God—not the result of works, so that no one may boast.

The Bible answers

Bible · Titus 3:5

KJV + NRSVUE

Not by works of righteousness which we have done. The Book of Mormon is not at war with Paul.

King James Version
Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;

NRSVUE
He saved us, not because of any works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy, through the water of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.

Book of Mormon

They quote our book

2 Nephi 25:23
This is the line they quote. Read the verse: we are saved by grace. ‘After all we can do’ is not the ticket.
For we labor diligently to write, to persuade our children, and also 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.
How we read it
We are saved by grace. “After all we can do” is not a ticket we earn and then cash. It is the honest order: we do what He asked, and still it is His grace that saves. That is Paul plus James, not a rival gospel.

The Book of Mormon answers

Moroni 10:32
The same book: deny yourselves and come unto Christ, and His grace is sufficient.
Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves 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 perfect in Christ.

Ancient witnesses

Dead Sea Scrolls and related extra-biblical texts that illuminate the same pattern the Restoration restores.

1QS XI (Community Rule, hymn of the Instructor)

As for me, my justification is with God. In His hand are the perfection of my way and the uprightness of my heart. He will wipe out my transgression through His righteousness. … If I stumble, the mercies of God shall be my eternal salvation. If I stagger because of the sin of flesh, my justification shall be by the righteousness of God which endures for ever.

The Qumran covenanters were rigorous about works of the law, yet their hymn refuses self-justification. Perfection of way is in God’s hand. That is covenant religion, not a ledger. 2 Nephi 25:23 belongs in the same family as Paul and 1QS: grace is not the opposite of obedience; it is the only reason obedience is not a joke.

Faithful answers

Scripture Central

By grace we are saved, after all we can do

Scripture Central

Read the verse in its paragraph. Nephi’s labor is to persuade people to believe in Christ and be reconciled. The ‘all we can do’ is that turning—repenting, coming, keeping covenant—not a stack of merits that finally tips the scale. 2 Nephi 2, 2 Nephi 10, Mosiah 2 (‘ye are eternally indebted’), and Moroni 10 all say the same thing Paul says. Restoration theology is not Pelagian. It is covenantal.

Nephi’s sentence is grace-first. ‘After all we can do’ names the emptiness of our all, not the currency with which we pay God.

Paul and Nephi are allies: salvation is a gift; boasting is excluded.
2 Nephi 25 is a Christological chapter, not a works chapter.
1QS shows that even a works-intense ancient community knew justification is with God.

Read the original

The Interpreter Foundation

Grace and discipleship in the Book of Mormon

The Interpreter Foundation

Some Protestants hear ‘after’ as ‘because we completed the list.’ Some Latter-day Saints have preached it that way, and they were wrong. The Book of Mormon’s own usage of grace, the infinite atonement, and ‘rely wholly upon the merits of him who is mighty to save’ (2 Nephi 31:19) forbids that reading. We do all we can do because we have been bought, not so that we might be.

Relying wholly upon the merits of Christ is the doctrine. A checklist that competes with Gethsemane is not.

King Benjamin: even if you serve with your whole souls, you are unprofitable servants.
Ordinances are means of grace, not invoices.

Read the original

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