Standing Firm in Our Trials

I was asked to speak on how we might stand firm during our trials. Certainly, we face personal trials where this ability to stand firm can be vital. There are also trials that arise in our own communities. It is the latter that I was encouraged to speak on. I think this is an especially important topic as I see division and contention as a serious issue in our societies (including church society). I was pointed to 3 Nephi chapter 6 where we see how trouble and contention began to weaken the church among the Nephites and Lamanites. It says:

12 And the people began to be distinguished by ranks, according to their riches and their chances for learning; yea, some were ignorant because of their poverty, and others did receive great learning because of their riches.

13 Some were lifted up in pride, and others were exceedingly humble; some did return railing for railing, while others would receive railing and persecution and all manner of afflictions, and would not turn and revile again, but were humble and penitent before God.

14 And thus there became a great inequality in all the land, insomuch that the church began to be broken up; yea, insomuch that in the thirtieth year the church was broken up in all the land save it were among a few of the Lamanites who were converted unto the true faith; and they would not depart from it, for they were firm, and steadfast, and immovable, willing with all diligence to keep the commandments of the Lord.

Words like “firm, steadfast, and immovable” evoke images of tightly holding onto the iron rod for dear life in a storm. Life may be like that at times where the best we can do is to not move backwards. But life also calls us not to merely hold on to the iron rod in one place but to walk forward to the tree.

If we’re going to spend energy, even desperately at times, on being “firm, steadfast, and immovable”, it is important to think about what, or who, it is that we’re holding onto. Hold onto the wrong thing and our “firmness, steadfastness, or immovability” is merely stubbornness and pride which can become our downfall. So, in this talk I wanted to focus not on how to firmly hold onto faith, but on what or who it is that we should hold on to.

Doctrine & Covenants 93:19 gives an extended view into the testimony of John the Beloved. In it, John speaks to the audience revealing his reasons for his testimony:

19 I give unto you these sayings that you may understand and know how to worship, and know what you worship, that you may come unto the Father in my name, and in due time receive of his fulness.

Brothers, sisters, and friends, in good times or in times of “pride”, “inequality”, or “[division]”, as the Nephites experienced, how do we worship? And what (or who) do we worship? So, what are “these sayings” that John gives?

Jesus as “The Way”

Before I read more from that section, I wanted to talk about the early followers of Jesus - of which John was obviously one.

In the gospels, “The Way” is referenced several times in the Gospels.

• “Prepare ye the way of the Lord” (Matthew 3:3)
• “strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life” (Matthew 7:14)
• “John (the baptist) came unto you in the way of righteousness” (Matthew 21:32)
• “Master, we know that thou art true, and teachest the way of God in truth” (Matthew 22:16)
• “And immediately he received his sight, and followed Jesus in the way.” (Mark 10:52)
• “how can we know the way? Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:5-6)

In fact, early Jewish Christians referred to themselves as followers of “The Way” (ἡ ὁδός - hodos in Greek). It wasn’t until the disciples began establishing the Church in Antioch that the term “Christian” began to be used by Romans to describe followers of Christ - later adopted by followers of Christ themselves.

So, what is this “Way”? Well, that is one of the ultimate questions in Christianity. I am by no means going to definitively answer that question. Jesus asked over 300 questions in his recorded ministry - only answering a small number of them. Sometimes a question is itself the teaching. What I wanted to do in the time I have remaining is pick one principle, the principle of grace, that Jesus exemplified and describe how it can inspire us to be “firm, and steadfast, and immovable” in our faith in the way Jesus lived.

Grace is Jesus’ Way

Grace is one of those principles that can be tricky to pin down. Early Christians described it this way in various verses in the New Testament:

• Ephesians 2:8-9 - For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest [anyone] should boast.
• Romans 3:23-24 - …For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
• 1 Peter 1:13 - …gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ
• 2 Timothy 2:1 - …be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus
• Galatians 2:21 - I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.
• Ephesians 2:4-5 - But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved)

A few dimensions stand out from these verses as we try to understand “grace”.

• Grace cannot be earned, nor can we be worthy or unworthy of it (Ephesians & Romans)
• An over-emphasis on law can undermine grace (Galatians)
• Grace is in and from Jesus Christ (Romans, 1 Peter, & 2 Timothy)
• Grace is a choice & should be central in our faith (1 Peter)

From this, one way we can understand grace is that it is a gift or blessing we cannot earn, it is given freely by God through Jesus Christ, and that it is central to our salvation. That sounds great, except the whole “us not earning it” part. Here, our ego gets really nervous. If we cannot earn grace, how can we be in control? If we cannot earn grace, how can we prove just how righteous we are (especially compared to those others)?

Several years ago, the Maxwell Institute did an interview with Adam Miller on his book “Grace is Not God’s Backup Plan” (which is a summary of the Epistle to the Romans). I like this description of grace in his book:

Grace doesn’t grease the wheels of the law. Grace isn’t God’s way of jury rigging a broken law. It’s the other way around. The law is just one small cog in a world animated entirely—from top to bottom, from beginning to end—by grace… Grace isn’t God’s backup plan in case we can’t keep the law. Grace was, from the beginning, the whole point of the law and the only way to fulfill it.

So, understanding grace as an unearned gift of God, let’s return to the testimony of John that we have in Doctrine & Covenants 93. In it, John reveals a mystery of how Jesus grew in grace and invites us to do the same:

12 And I, John, saw that [Jesus] received not of the fulness at the first, but received grace for grace;

13 And he received not of the fulness at first, but continued from grace to grace, until he received a fulness;

14 And thus he was called the Son of God, because he received not of the fulness at the first.

17 And he received all power, both in heaven and on earth, and the glory of the Father was with him, for he dwelt in him.

19 I give unto you these sayings that you may understand and know how to worship, and know what you worship, that you may come unto the Father in my name, and in due time receive of his fulness.

20 For if you keep my commandments you shall receive of his fulness, and be glorified in me as I am in the Father; therefore, I say unto you, you shall receive grace for grace.

When we are looking for something to be “firm, steadfast, and immovable” about in our faith, the grace of Jesus Christ, as something we receive freely and which we return freely into the world, can be a central part of that. What might it mean for Jesus to “receive grace for grace” or to “continue from grace to grace”? The Nephites and Lamanites, in contract, were described as “return[ing] railing for railing”. What might it mean for us to follow in Jesus’ footsteps and instead return “grace for grace”?

Since actions speak louder than words, I think one of the best answers to this is to observe how grace operated in Jesus’ ministry - specifically His interactions with the Samaritans.

Jesus’ Grace Towards Samaritans

The history between the Jews and Samaritans is fascinatingly tragic, and we can learn a lot about the role of grace in Jesus’ life by understanding that. Here are some highlights.

• The separation of Samaritans and Jews went back more than 700 years before the time of Jesus. These tensions and differences were very much woven into the fabric of each other’s race, culture, and religion.
• The Jews and Samaritans make conflicting claims of ancestry, priesthood authority, scripture, land rights, and temple worship.
• Approximately 500 years before Jesus’ day, Ezra rejected Jews who had married non-Jews and required they disown their non-Jewish family members in order to participate in the temple reconstruction. Many who did not disown their families were Samaritans.
• Less than 200 years before Christ, probably still very fresh in the minds of the Jews and Samaritans, Antiochus IV Epiphanes was seeking to establish a universal religion with the penalty for resistance being death. Facing almost certain genocide, the Samaritans aligned themselves with Antiochus which required cutting religious and cultural ties with the Jews in the south. Feeling betrayed, the southern Jews viewed the Samaritans as traitors, heathens, and heretics.
• About 100 years before Christ, the Jewish ruler John Hyrcanus waged war on Samaria and eventually conquered, destroyed their temple, and treated the Samaritans as slaves since they weren’t considered true worshipers of Jehovah.

Needless to say, these weren’t just neighbors who didn’t get along. This was an ancient and deeply rooted hatred and disdain for each other that had attached itself to the very identity many had of what it was to be a Jew or Samaritan at that time.

This is the context in which Jesus chose to speak to the Samaritan woman at the well. The woman was utterly surprised at the grace Jesus showed when she said:

How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. (John 4:9)

Even his own disciples didn’t know what to make of this grace:

his disciples… marvelled that he talked with the woman (John 4:27)

Both the Samaritan woman and Jesus’ Jewish disciples did not know how to operate with grace in this political, religious, and ethnic divide. Jesus showed a way forward rooted in grace. How might this be applicable in the divisions we see today?

So, when Jesus chose to make a Samaritan the protagonist of a parable, it wasn’t a random thought, He was calling for repentance and healing of what society sees as insurmountable differences and conflicts (conflicts that had divided their faith). Jesus is calling for us all to choose and live “grace for grace” in our lives and societies. If we want to be “firm, steadfast, and immovable” in our faith, we will need to be the ones who can have the courage to bring grace into the divided parts of our societies, church, and world today.

Conclusion

This is a big topic that I’m just scratching the surface of here. But as I think on the topic of grace, I can more clearly see “how to worship, and… what (or who) to worship” as John described.

My faith and hope is that as we place our “firm, steadfast, and immovable” faith in living “grace for grace” in this world as Jesus did, we too can receive the “fullness” God promises and heal the divisions and contentions in our communities, in our church, in our families, and in our hearts.

In Jesus’ name, amen.