I am grateful to be here with my wife, Debi, and my two youngest children\u2014who are currently attending BYU\u2014and several other family members who have come to be with us.<\/p>\n
It is an honor to be invited to speak to you today. Several years ago I received an invitation to speak at Women\u2019s Conference. When I told my wife, she asked, \u201cWhat have they asked you to speak on?\u201d<\/p>\n
I was so excited that I got my words mixed up and said, \u201cThey want me to speak about changing strengths into weaknesses.\u201d<\/p>\n
She thought for a minute and said, \u201cWell, they\u2019ve got the right man for the job!\u201d<\/p>\n
She\u2019s correct about that. I could give a whale of a talk on that subject, but I think today I had better go back to the original topic and speak about changing weaknesses into strengths and about how the grace of Jesus Christ is sufficient (see Ether 12:27<\/a>, D&C 17:8<\/a>, 2 Corinthians 12:9<\/a><\/span>)\u2014sufficient to cover us, sufficient to transform us, and sufficient to help us as long as that transformation process takes.<\/p>\n A BYU student once came to me and asked if we could talk. I said, \u201cOf course. How can I help you?\u201d<\/p>\n She said, \u201cI just don\u2019t get grace.\u201d<\/p>\n I responded, \u201cWhat is it that you don\u2019t understand?\u201d<\/p>\n She said, \u201cI know I need to do my best and then Jesus does the rest, but I can\u2019t even do my best.\u201d<\/p>\n She then went on to tell me all the things she should<\/i> be doing because she\u2019s a Mormon that she wasn\u2019t doing.<\/p>\n She continued, \u201cI know that I have to do my part and then Jesus makes up the difference and fills the gap that stands between my part and perfection. But who fills the gap that stands between where I am now and my part?\u201d<\/p>\n She then went on to tell me all the things that she shouldn\u2019t<\/i> be doing because she\u2019s a Mormon, but she was doing them anyway.<\/p>\n Finally I said, \u201cJesus doesn\u2019t make up<\/i> the difference. Jesus makes all<\/i> the difference. Grace is not about filling gaps. It is about filling us.\u201d<\/p>\n Seeing that she was still confused, I took a piece of paper and drew two dots\u2014one at the top representing God and one at the bottom representing us. I then said, \u201cGo ahead. Draw the line. How much is our part? How much is Christ\u2019s part?\u201d<\/p>\n She went right to the center of the page and began to draw a line. Then, considering what we had been speaking about, she went to the bottom of the page and drew a line just above the bottom dot.<\/p>\n I said, \u201cWrong.\u201d<\/p>\n She said, \u201cI knew it was higher. I should have just drawn it, because I knew it.\u201d<\/p>\n I said, \u201cNo. The truth is, there is no line. Jesus filled the whole space. He paid our debt in full. He didn\u2019t pay it all except for a few coins. He paid it all. It is finished.\u201d<\/p>\n She said, \u201cRight! Like I don\u2019t have to do anything?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOh no,\u201d I said, \u201cyou have plenty to do, but it is not to fill that gap. We will all be resurrected. We will all go back to God\u2019s presence. What is left to be determined by our obedience is what kind of body we plan on being resurrected with and how comfortable we plan to be in God\u2019s presence and how long we plan to stay there.\u201d<\/p>\n Christ asks us to show faith in Him, repent, make and keep covenants, receive the Holy Ghost, and endure to the end. By complying, we are not paying the demands of justice\u2014not even the smallest part. Instead, we are showing appreciation for what Jesus Christ did by using it to live a life like His. Justice requires immediate perfection or a punishment when we fall short. Because Jesus took that punishment, He can offer us the chance for ultimate perfection (see Matthew 5:48<\/a><\/span>, 3 Nephi 12:48<\/a>) and help us reach that goal. He can forgive what justice never could, and He can turn to us now with His own set of requirements (see 2 Nephi 2:7<\/a>; 3 Nephi 9:20<\/a><\/span>).<\/p>\n \u201cSo what\u2019s the difference?\u201d the girl asked. \u201cWhether our efforts are required by justice or by Jesus, they are still required.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cTrue,\u201d I said, \u201cbut they are required for a different purpose. Fulfilling Christ\u2019s requirements is like paying a mortgage instead of rent or like making deposits in a savings account instead of paying off debt. You still have to hand it over every month, but it is for a totally different reason.\u201d<\/p>\n Christ\u2019s arrangement with us is similar to a mom providing music lessons for her child. Mom pays the piano teacher. How many know what I am talking about? Because Mom pays the debt in full, she can turn to her child and ask for something. What is it? Practice! Does the child\u2019s practice pay the piano teacher? No. Does the child\u2019s practice repay Mom for paying the piano teacher? No. Practicing is how the child shows appreciation for Mom\u2019s incredible gift. It is how he takes advantage of the amazing opportunity Mom is giving him to live his life at a higher level. Mom\u2019s joy is found not in getting repaid but in seeing her gift used\u2014seeing her child improve. And so she continues to call for practice, practice, practice.<\/p>\n If the child sees Mom\u2019s requirement of practice as being too overbearing (\u201cGosh, Mom, why do I need to practice? None of the other kids have to practice! I\u2019m just going to be a professional baseball player anyway!\u201d), perhaps it is because he doesn\u2019t yet see with mom\u2019s eyes. He doesn\u2019t see how much better his life could be if he would choose to live on a higher plane.<\/p>\n In the same way, because Jesus has paid justice, He can now turn to us and say, \u201cFollow me\u201d (Matthew 4:19<\/a><\/span>), \u201cKeep my commandments\u201d (John 14:15<\/a>). If we see His requirements as being way too much to ask (\u201cGosh! None of the other Christians have to pay tithing! None of the other Christians have to go on missions, serve in callings, and do temple work!\u201d), maybe it is because we do not yet see through Christ\u2019s eyes. We have not yet comprehended what He is trying to make of us.<\/p>\n Elder Bruce C. Hafen has written, \u201cThe great Mediator asks for our repentance not<\/i> because we must \u2018repay\u2019 him in exchange for his paying our debt to justice, but because repentance initiates a developmental process that, with the Savior\u2019s help, leads us along the path to a saintly character\u201d (The Broken Heart<\/i> [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1989], 149; emphasis in original).<\/p>\n Elder Dallin H. Oaks has said, referring to President Spencer W. Kimball\u2019s explanation, \u201cThe repenting sinner must suffer for his sins, but this suffering has a different purpose than punishment or payment. Its purpose is change<\/i>\u201d (The Lord\u2019s Way<\/i> [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1991], 223; emphasis in original). Let\u2019s put that in terms of our analogy: The child must practice the piano, but this practice has a different purpose than punishment or payment. Its purpose is change.<\/p>\n I have born-again Christian friends who say to me, \u201cYou Mormons are trying to earn <\/i>your way to heaven.\u201d<\/p>\n I say, \u201cNo, we are not earning heaven. We are learning<\/i> heaven. We are preparing for it (see D&C 78:7). We are practicing for it.\u201d<\/p>\n They ask me, \u201cHave you been saved by grace?\u201d<\/p>\n I answer, \u201cYes. Absolutely, totally, completely, thankfully\u2014yes!\u201d<\/p>\n Then I ask them a question that perhaps they have not fully considered: \u201cHave you been changed<\/i> by grace?\u201d They are so excited about being saved that maybe they are not thinking enough about what comes next. They are so happy the debt is paid that they may not have considered why the debt existed in the first place. Latter-day Saints know not only what Jesus has saved us from but also what He has saved us for. As my friend Brett Sanders puts it, \u201cA life impacted by grace eventually begins to look like Christ\u2019s life.\u201d As my friend Omar Canals puts it, \u201cWhile many Christians view Christ\u2019s suffering as only a huge favor He did for us, Latter-day Saints also recognize it as a huge investment He made in us.\u201d As Moroni puts it, grace isn\u2019t just about being saved. It is also about becoming like the Savior (see Moroni 7:48<\/a>).<\/p>\n The miracle of the Atonement is not just that we can live after we die but that we can live more abundantly (see John 10:10<\/a>). The miracle of the Atonement is not just that we can be cleansed and consoled but that we can be transformed (see Romans 8<\/a>). Scriptures make it clear that no unclean thing can dwell with God (see Alma 40:26<\/a><\/span>), but, brothers and sisters, no unchanged thing will even want to.<\/p>\n I know a young man who just got out of prison\u2014again. Each time two roads diverge in a yellow wood, he takes the wrong one\u2014every time. When he was a teenager dealing with every bad habit a teenage boy can have, I said to his father, \u201cWe need to get him to EFY.\u201d I have worked with that program since 1985. I know the good it can do.<\/p>\n His dad said, \u201cI can\u2019t afford that.\u201d<\/p>\n I said, \u201cI can\u2019t afford it either, but you put some in, and I\u2019ll put some in, and then we\u2019ll go to my mom, because she is a real softy.\u201d<\/p>\n We finally got the kid to EFY, but how long do you think he lasted? Not even a day. By the end of the first day he called his mother and said, \u201cGet me out of here!\u201d Heaven will not be heaven for those who have not chosen to be heavenly.<\/p>\n In the past I had a picture in my mind of what the final judgment would be like, and it went something like this: Jesus standing there with a clipboard and Brad standing on the other side of the room nervously looking at Jesus.<\/p>\n Jesus checks His clipboard and says, \u201cOh, shoot, Brad. You missed it by two points.\u201d<\/p>\n Brad begs Jesus, \u201cPlease, check the essay question one more time! There have to be two points you can squeeze out of that essay.\u201d That\u2019s how I always saw it.<\/p>\n But the older I get, and the more I understand this wonderful plan of redemption,<\/i> the more I realize that in the final judgment it will not<\/i> be the unrepentant sinner begging Jesus, \u201cLet me stay.\u201d No, he will probably be saying, \u201cGet me out of here!\u201d Knowing Christ\u2019s character, I believe that if anyone is going to be begging on that occasion, it would probably be Jesus begging the unrepentant sinner, \u201cPlease, choose to stay. Please, use my Atonement\u2014not just to be cleansed but to be changed so that you want<\/i> to stay.\u201d<\/p>\n The miracle of the Atonement is not just that we can go home but that\u2014miraculously\u2014we can feel at home there. If Christ did not require faith and repentance, then there would be no desire to change. Think of your friends and family members who have chosen to live without faith and without repentance. They don\u2019t want to change. They are not trying to abandon sin and become comfortable with God. Rather, they are trying to abandon God and become comfortable with sin. If Jesus did not require covenants and bestow the gift of the Holy Ghost, then there would be no way to change. We would be left forever with only willpower, with no access to His power. If Jesus did not require endurance to the end, then there would be no internalization of those changes over time. They would forever be surface and cosmetic rather than sinking inside us and becoming part of us\u2014part of who we are. Put simply, if Jesus didn\u2019t require practice, then we would never become pianists.<\/p>\n \u201cBut Brother Wilcox, don\u2019t you realize how hard it is to practice? I\u2019m just not very good at the piano. I hit a lot of wrong notes. It takes me forever to get it right.\u201d Now wait. Isn\u2019t that all part of the learning process? When a young pianist hits a wrong note, we don\u2019t say he is not worthy to keep practicing. We don\u2019t expect him to be flawless. We just expect him to keep trying. Perfection may be his ultimate goal, but for now we can be content with progress in the right direction. Why is this perspective so easy to see in the context of learning piano but so hard to see in the context of learning heaven?<\/p>\n Too many are giving up on the Church because they are tired of constantly feeling like they are falling short. They have tried in the past, but they always feel like they are just not good enough. They don\u2019t understand grace.<\/p>\n There are young women who know they are daughters of a Heavenly Father who loves them, and they love Him. Then they graduate from high school, and the values they memorized are put to the test. They slip up. They let things go too far, and suddenly they think it is all over. These young women don\u2019t understand grace.<\/p>\n There are young men who grow up their whole lives singing, \u201cI hope they call me on a mission,\u201d and then they do actually grow a foot or two and flake out completely. They get their Eagles, graduate from high school, and go away to college. Then suddenly these young men find out how easy it is to not<\/i> be trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, or reverent. They mess up. They say, \u201cI\u2019ll never do it again,\u201d and then they do it. They say, \u201cI\u2019ll never do it again,\u201d and then they do it. They say, \u201cThis is stupid. I will never do it again.\u201d And then they do it. The guilt is almost unbearable. They don\u2019t dare talk to a bishop. Instead, they hide. They say, \u201cI can\u2019t do this Mormon thing. I\u2019ve tried, and the expectations are just way too high.\u201d So they quit. These young men don\u2019t understand grace.<\/p>\n I know returned missionaries who come home and slip back into bad habits they thought were over. They break promises made before God, angels, and witnesses, and they are convinced there is no hope for them now. They say, \u201cWell, I\u2019ve blown it. There is no use in even trying any more.\u201d Seriously? These young people have spent entire missions teaching people about Jesus Christ and His Atonement, and now they think there is no hope for them? These returned missionaries don\u2019t understand grace.<\/p>\n I know young married couples who find out after the sealing ceremony is over that marriage requires adjustments. The pressures of life mount, and stress starts taking its toll financially, spiritually, and even sexually. Mistakes are made. Walls go up. And pretty soon these husbands and wives are talking with divorce lawyers rather than talking with each other. These couples don\u2019t understand grace.<\/p>\n In all of these cases there should never be just two options: perfection or giving up. When learning the piano, are the only options performing at Carnegie Hall or quitting? No. Growth and development take time. Learning takes time. When we understand grace, we understand that God is long-suffering, that change is a process, and that repentance is a pattern in our lives. When we understand grace, we understand that the blessings of Christ\u2019s Atonement are continuous and His strength is perfect in our weakness (see 2 Corinthians 12:9<\/a><\/span>). When we understand grace, we can, as it says in the Doctrine and Covenants, \u201ccontinue in patience until [we] are perfected\u201d (D&C 67:13<\/a><\/span>).<\/p>\n One young man wrote me the following e-mail: \u201cI know God has all power, and I know He will help me if I\u2019m worthy, but I\u2019m just never worthy enough to ask for His help. I want Christ\u2019s grace, but I always find myself stuck in the same self-defeating and impossible position: no work, no grace.\u201d<\/p>\n I wrote him back and testified with all my heart that Christ is not waiting at the finish line once we have done \u201call we can do\u201d (2 Nephi 25:23<\/a><\/span>). He is with us every step of the way.<\/p>\n Elder Bruce C. Hafen has written, \u201cThe Savior\u2019s gift of grace to us is not necessarily limited in time to \u2018after\u2019 all we can do. We may receive his grace before, during and after the time when we expend our own efforts\u201d (The Broken Heart<\/i> [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1989], 155). So grace is not a booster engine that kicks in once our fuel supply is exhausted. Rather, it is our constant energy source. It is not the light at the end of the tunnel but the light that moves us through the tunnel. Grace is not achieved somewhere down the road. It is received right here and right now. It is not a finishing touch; it is the Finisher\u2019s touch (see Hebrews 12:2<\/a><\/span>).<\/p>\n In twelve days we celebrate Pioneer Day. The first company of Saints entered the Salt Lake Valley on July 24, 1847. Their journey was difficult and challenging; still, they sang:<\/p>\n Come, come, ye Saints, no toil nor labor fear;<\/i> \u201cGrace shall be as your day\u201d\u2014what an interesting phrase. We have all sung it hundreds of times, but have we stopped to consider what it means? \u201cGrace shall be as your day\u201d: grace shall be like a day. As dark as night may become, we can always count on the sun coming up. As dark as our trials, sins, and mistakes may appear, we can always have confidence in the grace of Jesus Christ. Do we earn a sunrise? No. Do we have to be worthy of a chance to begin again? No. We just have to accept these blessings and take advantage of them. As sure as each brand-new day, grace\u2014the enabling power of Jesus Christ\u2014is constant. Faithful pioneers knew they were not alone. The task ahead of them was never as great as the power behind them.<\/p>\n The grace of Christ is sufficient\u2014sufficient to cover our debt, sufficient to transform us, and sufficient to help us as long as that transformation process takes. The Book of Mormon teaches us to rely solely on \u201cthe merits, and mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah\u201d (2 Nephi 2:8<\/a><\/span>). As we do, we do not discover\u2014as some Christians believe\u2014that Christ requires nothing of us. Rather, we discover the reason He requires so much and the strength to do all He asks (see Philippians 4:13<\/a><\/span>). Grace is not the absence of God\u2019s high expectations. Grace is the presence of God\u2019s power (see Luke 1:37<\/a><\/span>).<\/p>\n Elder Neal A. Maxwell once said the following:<\/p>\n Now may I speak . . . to those buffeted by false insecurity, who, though laboring devotedly in the Kingdom, have recurring feelings of falling forever short. . . .<\/i><\/p>\n . . . This feeling of inadequacy is . . . normal. There is no way the Church can honestly describe where we must yet go and what we must yet do without creating a sense of immense distance. . . .<\/i><\/p>\n . . . This is a gospel of grand expectations, but God\u2019s grace is sufficient for each of us.<\/i> [CR<\/i>, October 1976, 14, 16<\/a><\/span>; \u201cNotwithstanding My Weakness,\u201d Ensign,<\/i> November 1976, 12, 14<\/a><\/span>]<\/p>\n With Elder Maxwell, I testify that God\u2019s grace is sufficient. Jesus\u2019 grace is sufficient. It is enough. It is all we need. Oh, young people, don\u2019t quit. Keep trying. Don\u2019t look for escapes and excuses. Look for the Lord and His perfect strength. Don\u2019t search for someone to blame. Search for someone to help you. Seek Christ, and, as you do, I promise you will feel the enabling power we call His amazing grace. I leave this testimony and all of my love\u2014for I do love you. As God is my witness, I love the youth of this church. I believe in you. I\u2019m pulling for you. And I\u2019m not the only one. Parents are pulling for you, leaders are pulling for you, and prophets are pulling for you. And Jesus is pulling with<\/i> you. I say this in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.<\/p>\n \u00a9 Brigham Young University. All rights reserved.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nChrist\u2019s Grace Is Sufficient to Cover Us<\/b><\/h2>\n
Christ\u2019s Grace Is Sufficient to Transform Us<\/b><\/h2>\n
Christ\u2019s Grace Is Sufficient to Help Us<\/b><\/h2>\n
\nBut with joy wend your way.<\/i>
\nThough hard to you this journey may appear,<\/i>
\nGrace shall be as your day.<\/i>
\n[\u201cCome, Come, Ye Saints,\u201d Hymns,<\/i> 2002, no. 30<\/a><\/span>]<\/p>\nConclusion<\/b><\/h2>\n