Transforming Power

TRANSFORMING Power

Yes I have been Saved by Grace, but have you been Changed by Grace?

The Atonement is fundamentally a doctrine of Human Development.

Most people think about repentance when asked about the Atonement. But repentance isn’t just about forgiveness of sins. “He requires us to repent, not as part of paying justice—only as part of helping us to change.”(Brad Wilcox, The Infinite Atonement, p. 12)

Can we become clean without the power of the Atonement?

In D&C 19:15-18 we learn that if we do not repent in this life, we will pay the price of our sins. The purpose of this is to make us clean, or justified. We can become clean from sin without Christ's atonement, even clean enough to stand in His presence. But we won't want to stay there, because we are not changed. Sinlessness is only one of God's attributes. It’s like a criminal who “does his time” in jail but never really changes. There is something about God’s repentance process that changes us.

So, what does repentance do for us that simply paying for our sins does not?

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Lookup these 3 references to the Change of Heart that the Atonement enables:

1. Mosiah 5:2-5

2. Alma 5:13-14, 26

3. Alma 13:12

Elder Bednar taught that the purpose of the Atonement is to make “bad men good, and good men better.” In Mosiah 3:19, King Benjamin addresses this subject. He counseled the saints to “put off the natural man,” meaning to cast off their carnal appetites, be cleansed from their sins and become clean—or as Elder Bednar put it, to make bad men good. But King Benjamin also urged the people to go one step farther and “become a saint”, labeling various traits that go along with this title. This is what Elder Bednar referred to as making good men better. All can become clean after this life, simply by suffering and paying the price for their own sins. But without the transforming power of Grace, we will not be saints, or sanctified and holy like God is.

Through Christ’s Grace, our hearts can be healed, our efforts enabled and strengthened, our sins atoned and thus washed away, our souls redeemed and returned to God’s presence with immortal bodies, and we can be changed to be like God. That when He appears, we shall be like Him.

No unclean thing can enter God’s presence, but no unchanged thing would ever want to. Perhaps the purpose of Christ’s 1^st miracle during His mortal ministry---that of changing water into wine, was to show that He had the Godly power to change things, including us.

The criticism most Christian churches have with LDS people is that we think we can earn our way into Heaven. In truth, our works don’t earn us points in heaven, they help make us heavenly. It’s not about what our works earn us, but how they shape us. We aren’t earning our way into heaven, we’re learning our way there.

The great reward in heaven isn’t something we receive, but what we become through Grace.

In the end, we will judge ourselves and will go wherever we feel comfortable being. If we through our faith and by applying the atonement become like the Savior, then we will feel comfortable living with him. If we did not, then we will gladly take a lower kingdom. Heaven is only heaven to the heavenly people.

Alma 5:26? Can you feel so now?

            The truth is that each of these powers transforms us, and the change comes about as we apply the Atonement and seek to do His will. Elder Dallin Oaks said, "The final judgement is not just an evaluation of a sum total of good and evil acts--what we have done. It is an acknowledgement of the final effect of our acts and thoughts--what we have become." (With Full Purpose of Heart", pg 37-38) That is the purpose, power and blessing of the Atonement. It's power to change, transform and help us become like He is.