[Footnote E: Alma xi:40, 41.]
[Footnote F: Doc. & Cov. Sec. xix:16-19.]
[Footnote G: Heb. v:9.]
2. Man's Co-operation With God in Working out Man's Salvation, Grounded in Necessity: These scriptures establish the truth that for redemption from the consequences of man's individual sins the co-operation of man is required, his faith, his repentance; in a word his obedience.
The Gospel so far as the individual man is concerned, is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes and obeys the same. In the difference between the redemption from the transgression of Adam and redemption from man's personal sins, the one being free, unconditional, universal; and the other being free, possible to all, but conditional, and therefore limited to those who comply with the conditions, there is to be observed nice discriminations in the justice of God. Free and universal redemption comes from the consequences of Adam's fall because that fall is absolutely necessary to the accomplishment of the purposes of God with reference to man; without it nothing may be done for his progress, therefore since that fall is necessary to these ends Justice demands that there be provided free and universal and complete and unconditional redemption from its consequences. But in the case of man's personal sins they are not absolutely necessary to the accomplishment of the general purposes of God. Of course the earth-environment of man, including the broken harmonies as we find them, including the self-wilfullness, and even the personal sins of men, with the consequent suffering and sorrow, may be necessary to the experience of man; but all that will abundantly come once men are at the same time free to choose, and good and evil is set before them. But what is here meant is that it is not absolute necessity that individual men should sin, or that they sin without limit. Men can refrain from sin if they will; the power is in them. They are able to stand, "yet free to fall." They have power to choose good and to follow that instead of evil if they so elect. Therefore, while it is eminently proper that the Atonement of the Christ should be made to include satisfaction to Justice for the personal sins of men, and the debt of suffering due to them should be paid vicariously,—especially since man is powerless to offer expiation himself—for it is needful that ample provision be made for the justification of man's pardon; yet it is also in accordance with Justice that man shall co-operate with God in bringing about the blessed result of his deliverance from the consequences of his personal sins; and that conditions shall be required as necessary to participation in the forgiveness provided; such conditions as belief in and acceptance of the terms of Atonement; repentance of sin, and a hearty co-operation with God in overcoming evil and its effects in the human soul.
3. The Work of Salvation a Work of Sanctification as well as of Justification: Moreover, this salvation from the effects of personal sins is not only a matter of forgiveness of past sins; a matter of justification before God; a matter of re-establishing union with God, which is spiritual life; but it is a matter of sanctification of the soul; and of power to maintain the renewed spiritual life with God. It is a matter that involves human desires and human will. Surely it is unthinkable that God would hold man in union with himself against his desire, or against his will. Such a condition would not be "union" but bondage. The co-operation of man then in this work of his personal salvation becomes an absolute necessity, and hence the conditions of individual salvation already noted, and which may be summed up in the doctrine of man's self-surrender unto God, manifested by his obedience to God under the law; and the declared intention of that obedience by receiving the symbols of the Atonement, to be found in the ordinances of the Gospel, especially in baptism and the sacrament of the Lord's supper.
4. Spiritual and Moral Growth: The attainment of this condition of Christian righteousness, however, becomes a matter of character building under the favorable conditions provided by the gospel; and character building, even under favorable conditions is a matter of slow, self-conquest, It means to follow the admonition of the chief Judean apostle, and "add to your faith, virtue; and to virtue, knowledge; and to knowledge, temperance; and to temperance, patience; and to patience, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, charity. For if these things be in you and abound," said he, "they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ."[A]
[Footnote A: II Peter i.]
To be fruitful in that knowledge means to be growing in grace, in knowledge of the truth, in righteousness. It means development according to the type of the Christian spiritual life, which is Christ Jesus. "If you wish to go where God is," said the Prophet Joseph, "you must be like God, or possess the principles God possesses." All of which, of course, may not be possessed without divine help, as well as human effort. "He that lacketh these things"—the virtues above enumerated by Peter, and the disposition to build them up by his own effort, as well as by divine grace, "is blind and cannot see afar off," continues that apostle, "and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."[A]
[Footnote A: II Peter i:9-11.]