Some theologians have suggested that any conditions attached to grace would destroy its character as grace, but I disagree. Suppose a dear relative offered you an all-expense-paid trip to Hawaii gratis (i.e., by grace) and asked that you respond to the invitation by a certain date. Would the required condition of an affirmative response make the offered trip any less an act of goodwill and favor based on love? Would you argue that once you responded affirmatively, your relative then owed you the trip, that you had in fact earned it by meeting the only condition placed on it - by accepting the offer within the specified time? Does being required to acknowledge a gift and affirm our desire to receive it change it from a gift to a wage?
Stephen E. Robinson, Believing Christ, 1992, p. 68, 69 Ether 12:27
No comments:
Post a Comment