In a talk with his bishop, a man kept dwelling on his shortcomings. He finally said, “Look, I’m just not celestial material.” The bishop responded, “The problem is not your shortcomings. All of us have them. The problem is, you believe in Christ; you just don’t believe Christ. He says he can make you celestial material, and you say, ‘No, he can’t.’”
On his mission, a young man set up a plan to become perfect by age thirty. He said, “We don’t believe in being saved by grace. We have to earn salvation.” How would he answer these questions: Whose merit gets us to the kingdom? and, Whose good works perfect us?
A woman had led a rough life. When younger, she rode with a motorcycle gang, and when older, she drank heavily and hung around bars. Many were amazed when she joined the Church. Years passed, though, before she could completely give up alcohol and cigarettes, and more years went by before she got her swearing and temper under control. But she never gave up, and at last she was able to go to the temple. Can such a person expect to inherit the kingdom of God? Of course. The harder question is, however, at what point did this woman become a candidate for exaltation?
Another woman went through a stressful year. She graduated from college, passed the CPA exam, took a job, was Relief Society president, and gave birth to her fourth child. But she burned out. She stopped everything. “I can’t do all the things I’m supposed to do,” she said, “and I can’t do them as well as others can. I’m never going to be perfect, and I just can’t pretend anymore that I am.” Somewhere she had lost sight of the central core of the gospel: she believed in Jesus Christ a the great Coach, as the Eternal Advisor, but not as Savior. She was trying to save herself.
In Believing Christ, Stephen E. Robinson eloquently discusses the marvelous news of the gospel: what Jesus Christ has done for us. Using examples from people’s lives and modern-day analogies and parables to illustrate scriptural principles, he explains the doctrines of atonement, grace, justification, salvation, and perfection so clearly and understandably one need never be confused by them again.
“The good news of the gospel is good news to me not because it promises that other people who are better than I am can be saved-wretched, inadequate, and imperfect me. And until I accept that possibility,…I have not really accepted the good news of the gospel.”
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