But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins

We had a Sunday School lesson the other day about the miracles Jesus performed during his mortal ministry. The teacher had written on the board, "Why Jesus performed miracles." As we discussed some of these events in the New Testament, the class came up with various reasons such as showing individual love and compassion, teaching gospel principles, giving witness of His divine role, etc. However, the question elicited a much different response from me. Rather than thinking of why He did perform miracles in certain circumstances, I was pondering about why He sometimes doesn't intervene with a miracle. All I could think about was times when a wanted miracle didn’t occur – when people exercised faith and God could have intervened to heal someone, save a life, or soften a heart, but didn’t. I was thinking of the few times in my life when I put all the faith I could in the promise, "ask and ye shall receive," but I didn't receive. I know this may sound like unfaithful doubt to some, but I think it's important to ask these difficult questions as a way to strengthen our faith. I don't doubt at all God's ability to intervene in our lives, His love for us, and His infinite wisdom; but the simple fact is sometimes we don't see the miracle we're looking for and those are often the most difficult times in our lives.

One of Christ’s miracles described in Mark 2 helps answer these questions. A group of faithful men went through great effort to bring their friend who was sick with palsy to Jesus. In response to their faith, Christ said, “Son, they sins be forgiven thee.” When some of the scribes in the room questioned Christ’s authority to forgive sins, he stated, “Whether is it easier to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and take up thy bed, and walk? But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (he saith to the sick of the palsy,) I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house” The man was healed and a great lesson was taught. At first, Christ basically ignored the request to physically heal the man but instead responded to their faith by forgiving sins. He later offered the physical healing as a witness that he has power to forgive. He seemed to be teaching us that the miracle of true significance was the Atonement, the power of Christ to forgive our sins and reconcile us with God, and that any other miracle is only to help us have faith in that great and eternal miracle of the Atonement. I think He was teaching that with an eternal perspective, any other miracle is relatively unimportant. While God, at times, may not intervene to stop an untimely death, heal an infirmity, or soften a hardened heart – He never withholds the miracle of forgiveness and Atonement for those who seek it in faith.

While I still don’t always understand why some requests are granted and miracles are performed while others aren’t, I can exercise faith in God’s infinite wisdom. I know that even the worst of trials we face in this life is “but a small moment” (DC 121:7) in the eternal scheme. Any miracle we do witness is only a testimony of the more important miracle of forgiveness, and any miracle we seek for but do not receive pails in comparison to the miracle of the Atonement already performed for us.

Grace

Grace, much like other common and seemingly simple scriptural words such as faith and hope, carries much more meaning that any simple definition can convey. I’ve often struggled to understand exactly what the concept of grace really means. Some of the difficulties my wife and I went through during my recent deployment to Afghanistan gave me an increased understanding on the topic.

I think my idea of grace has, for a long time, been shaped by the words in 2 Nephi 25:23, “…for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do,” as well as a popular book from LDS author Stephen Robinson called Believing Christ. His book shared what he called the Parable of the Bicycle where a young boy does all he can to save money to buy a bicycle, but comes up drastically short of the needed sum. His father, recognizing the boy’s intent, effort, and limitations, makes up the difference. This story and the scripture in Nephi build the concept that grace is what we are given as a reward for our faithful efforts, given from a loving Heavenly Father that knows we will fall short of our end goal. I think I had the idea that while we can’t earn salvation, perhaps we can earn grace, and, “we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved” (Acts 15:11). I’ve come to believe, however, that we should be very careful of thinking we can “earn” anything, even grace. Faithful effort and good works are necessary requirements for growth, but I believe they have intrinsic rewards and grace isn’t bestowed contingent upon them.

The definition of grace on LDS.org states, “Grace is the help or strength given through the Atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ.” In my trials, I’ve found grace not to be the reward for my own faith, but rather the unearned and undeserved strength I received when my own faith failed. It was what allowed me to carry on when I gave up, the help I was given when I quit asking. It was the blessings I received when I stopped doing my part, not what I received after doing my fair share. Grace, I’ve found, is the most humbling of all gifts. It’s when I realize I gave up just before the finish line and the Lord carried me across anyway. When I receive God’s grace, I realize how much I don’t deserve, how limited my faith really is. It’s when I didn’t do what the Lord asked and I still receive the blessing, not because I earned it or deserve it, but because Heavenly Father has boundless love and knows that the bestowal of the undeserved blessing is the only way for me to move forward.

In addition, I have come to believe that the limitations of our language and temporal understanding have led us to apply some sort of chronological limitation on grace. It’s what we get after all we can do…we exercise faith; then we get grace…we do our part, then the Lord makes up the difference. Perhaps we could replace these temporally limiting words of “after” and “then” with “in spite of” or “notwithstanding.” We are given grace in spite of our own failures, notwithstanding our tendency to give up and quit. It’s not that we live a complete and good, but imperfect, life and then God gives us grace to qualify us for salvation. Rather, we are constantly failing to live up to our own potential, do be as faithful and good as we could be, and God’s grace is constantly being bestowed on us anyway simply to keep us moving in the right direction.