"C. S. Lewis observed that the devil 'always sends errors into the world in pairs--pairs of opposites. ... He relies on your extra dislike of the one error to draw you gradually into the opposite one. But do not let us be fooled. We have to keep our eyes on the goal and go straight through between both errors,' " stated Camille Fronk Olson, Joseph Smith Lecturer and Associate Professor of Ancient Scripture from Brigham Young University, at BYU–Hawaii's devotional on Tuesday, November 10, 2009.
In her speech, "What Is so Amazing about Grace?" Olson spoke about the grace of Jesus Christ, touching on polar opposites of grace that are present in human tendencies: “In either case, we neither comprehend the grandeur of Christ's Atonement nor taste the singular sweetness of His grace. At one extreme of the dichotomy, we can justify any disobedience to God by claiming that Christ's Sacrifice has already paid the price for our sins and so we might as well ‘eat, drink, and be merry.' Discounting any personal responsibility to become more like the Savior while believing Christ has already saved us is commonly referred to as 'cheap grace'."
She continued, "At the opposite extreme, we focus exclusively on our list of good works as evidence of our righteousness, as though Christ’s role is merely to wait at the finish line to congratulate us for a meritorious life when we die. We mistakenly believe that we have to independently produce a noteworthy life before the power of Christ will kick in to help us."
She then stated, “According to the LDS Bible Dictionary, [grace] is an endowment of power, a 'divine means of help or strength,' made possible only through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Grace is the 'assistance to do good works that [we] otherwise would not be able to maintain if left to [our] own means.' "
Quoting M. Russell Ballard, she further stated, "Our works consist of placing our full confidence and trust in Jesus Christ and then exercising our desire and willingness to live by His teachings. We do this by repenting of all our sins and obeying the laws and ordinances of Christ’s gospel. As we do this faithfully over our lifetime, we are sanctified by the Holy Ghost and our nature is changed."
"Grace," she described, "is a gift—an infinite gift—and we are the recipients, not the givers. Grace is receiving what we don't earn and getting what we frankly don't deserve. In a legalistic world filled with warnings about being taken advantage of, we struggle to accept that Christ gives us more—infinitely more—than we can ever repay."
--Photo by Ian Nitta
Click here to read the full transcript of Camille Fronk Olson's devotional