Doing All Things After All We Can Do

After great teaching by Aaron, Ammon, and their brethren, many Lamanites accepted truth and repented of “sins and of the many murders which we have committed.” They declared their determination to keep their newly made covenants by physically burying their swords deep in the earth to avoid the temptation to return to their old ways.

As I read their amazing story of redemption and grace, a phrase caught my eye:

And now behold, my brethren, since it has been all that we could do (as we were the most lost of all mankind) to repent of all our sins and the many murders which we have committed, and to get God to take them away from our hearts, for it was all we could do to repent sufficiently before God that he would take away our stain.

“After all we can do” has been a phrase I’ve pondered a lot of my life.  It comes from this verse in 2 Nephi 25.

For we labor diligently to write, to persuade our children, and also our brethren, to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God; for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do.

Wow! Doesn’t that make perfect sense?

We know it is by Jesus Christ’s grace that we are saved after all we can do and it was all we could do to repent sufficiently before God that He would take away our stain!

The salvation I seek is eternal life, which is to live with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ eternally. As He prayed His intercessory prayer, Jesus said,

And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

Enoch taught that the Lord commanded Adam to

teach it unto your children, that all men, everywhere, must repent, or they can in nowise inherit the kingdom of God, for no unclean thing can dwell there, or dwell in his presence; for, in the language of Adam, Man of Holiness is his name, and the name of his Only Begotten is the Son of Man, even Jesus Christ, a righteous Judge, who shall come in the meridian of time.

Repentance cleanses our stain so that we can dwell in God’s presence.

Doing All Things

Curious, I wanted to discover if this train of thought carried through other similarly worded scriptures.

In 1 Nephi 17:30-31, Nephi recounts how Jehovah did all things for Israel.

And notwithstanding they being led, the Lord their God, their Redeemer, going before them, leading them by day and giving light unto them by night, and doing all things for them which were expedient for man to receive, they hardened their hearts and blinded their minds, and reviled against Moses and against the true and living God.

And it came to pass that according to his word he did destroy them; and according to his word he did lead them; and according to his word he did do all things for them; and there was not any thing done save it were by his word.

So what the people could do was repent and keep the commandments, because the Lord was taking care of everything else!  He did do all things for them!

Mormon pointed out other temporal ways the Lord did all things for His people.

Yea, and we may see at the very time when he doth prosper his people, yea, in the increase of their fields, their flocks and their herds, and in gold, and in silver, and in all manner of precious things of every kind and art; sparing their lives, and delivering them out of the hands of their enemies; softening the hearts of their enemies that they should not declare wars against them; yea, and in fine, doing all things for the welfare and happiness of his people; yea, then is the time that they do harden their hearts, and do forget the Lord their God, and do trample under their feet the Holy One—yea, and this because of their ease, and their exceedingly great prosperity.

In Alma 7:8-9, Alma taught that God is doing all things and the next verse on repentance follows this train of thought, too.

This much I do know, that the Lord God hath power to do all things which are according to his word.

But behold, the Spirit hath said this much unto me, saying: Cry unto this people, saying—Repent ye, and prepare the way of the Lord, and walk in his paths, which are straight; for behold, the kingdom of heaven is at hand, and the Son of God cometh upon the face of the earth.

The Lord has power to do all things so what we can, and should do, is to repent!  Alma continued his discourse by describing some of the amazing “all things” Jesus would do for us.

Ye Can Do All Things

After we’ve done all we can do and repented and are cleansed by the blood of our Messiah, then another miraculous thing happens!  He gives us power to act in His name!

The first way we act in the Lord’s name is by keeping His commandments. By keeping commandments, we grow in experience and faith and understanding until we can do all things according to His word!

And Christ truly said unto our fathers: If ye have faith ye can do all things which are expedient unto me.

and

Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever.

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and

[T]hey have received so great blessings from the hand of the Lord—having a knowledge of the creation of the earth, and all men, knowing the great and marvelous works of the Lord from the creation of the world; having power given them to do all things by faith; having all the commandments from the beginning, and having been brought by his infinite goodness into this precious land of promise….

Cheerfully Do Then Stand Still

“Do all things” is a phrase in one of my very favorite scriptures.

Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed.

I love that so much!  We can live cheerfully doing all things in our power and then stand still (with the utmost assurance!) to watch our God do all things in His power for us. I know He can!  And He will!