On the topic of what we need to do to be saved, the most famous verse in the Book of Mormon is 2 Nephi 25:23: “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.”
This verse is a major source of contention in debates between Protestant Christians and Latter-day Saints. Protestant Christians suggest that this verse incompatible with grace because if grace only kicks in after all we can do and it is of course impossible for us as human beings in a fallen world to ever successfully do all that we can do.
In the last few years there has been a major push to interpret this verse in a grace centric fashion suggesting that “all we can do” means “despite what we can do” and therefore that grace is always present and not reliant on our efforts. This interpretation is consistent with the Bible’s declaration that “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)
Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf advanced this view in his 2015 General Conference talk the Gift of Grace
There is some good linguistic and historical evidence that the new view being advanced by Elder Uchtdorf and others is more consistent with the original meaning of the phrase “after all we can do” at the time that the Book of Mormon was published. Dan McLellan, an LDS Biblical scholar, wrote a good article offering a lot of evidence of 19th century usage of the phrase “after all we can do.” My own independent review of books using the phrase “all we can do” written from 1700-1850 in Google Books similarly confirms McLellan’s conclusion. (I invite you to do the search yourself here).
I was curious to see how this verse has actually been used by General Authorities in General Conference and other sources. So I went through and pulled every quotation of the “all we can do” verse from general conference. I omitted citations that were exclusively to the first part of the verse (“For we labor diligently”).
My spreadsheet with color coding can be found here.
Despite the recent trend away from it, this verse has overwhelmingly been used to contrast Latter-day Saint views on grace from protestant views and to emphasize the need for works before grace kicks in. The historical usage of this verse therefore strongly supports the Protestant critique of the Latter-day Saint view of grace.
This works heavy interpretation of 2 Nephi 25:23 starts very early. In 1867 Brigham Young emphasized the importance that we “do the very best we possibly can” because that is just barely enough for us to “save [ourselves] through the grace of God.”
“You may think this is pretty hard talk; but recollect the saying of one of the Apostles, when speaking about getting into the kingdom of heaven, that “if the righteous scarcely be [p. 301b] saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?” 1 Pet. 4:18 The best man that ever lived on this earth only just made out to save himself through the grace of God. 2 Ne. 25:23 The best woman that ever lived on the earth has only just made her escape from this world to a better one, with a full assurance of enjoying the first resurrection. It requires all the atonement of Christ, the mercy of the Father, the pity of angels and the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ to be with us always, and then to do the very best we possibly can, to get rid of this sin within us, so that we may escape from this world into the celestial kingdom. This is just as much as we can do, and there is no room for that carelessness manifested by too many among us.”
Elder Marrion G. Romney in 1976 strongly contrasted Nephi’s view with Paul’s position in Ephesians emphasizing the importance of works and “that we are saved by grace only after all we ourselves can do.”
“Let us work for what we need. Let us be self-reliant and independent. Salvation can be obtained on no other principle. Salvation is an individual matter, and we must work out our own salvation, in temporal as well as in spiritual things. Paul’s statement, “By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast” Eph. 2:8–9 has been misunderstood. Some have interpreted it to mean that works are not necessary. This is an erroneous conclusion. The truth is that we are saved by grace only after all we ourselves can do. (See 2 Ne. 25:23 There will be no government dole which can get us through the pearly gates. Nor will anybody go into the celestial kingdom who wants to go there on the works of someone else. Every man must go through on his own merits. We might just as well learn this here and now.
President Oaks in 1996 emphasized the fact that Latter-day Saints are “saved from sin conditionally, but they will not be saved finally until they have completed their mortal probation with the required continuing repentance, faithfulness, service, and enduring to the end.” President Oaks referred to 2 Nephi 25:23 and emphasized that all we can do “surely includes repentance and baptism, keeping the commandments, and enduring to the end.”
In 2001 Elder Faust quoted 2 Nephi 25:23 in the context of repentance to declare that “After all we can do to pay to the uttermost farthing and make right our wrongs, the Savior’s grace is activated in our lives through the Atonement, which purifies us and can perfect us.” In other words, grace is only activated and purifies us when we “pay to the uttermost farthing” for our sins, a very limited view of the role of grace.
A few years later in April 2003 Elder Gene R. Cook of the 70 put it quite starkly
“Thus, unless one has done all in his own power, he cannot expect the grace of God to be manifest.”
This interpretation of “all you can do” is not a forgotten relic of the past. As recently in 2021 Elder Clark Gilbert cited this verse to emphasize that “We must do our best.”
The interpretation that grace only kicks in after our “total effort” is also still reflected in the LDS Bible Dictionary:
It is through the grace of the Lord Jesus, made possible by His atoning sacrifice, that mankind will be raised in immortality, every person receiving his body from the grave in a condition of everlasting life. It is likewise through the grace of the Lord that individuals, through faith in the Atonement of Jesus Christ and repentance of their sins, receive strength and assistance to do good works that they otherwise would not be able to maintain if left to their own means. This grace is an enabling power that allows men and women to lay hold on eternal life and exaltation after they have expended their own best efforts.
Divine grace is needed by every soul in consequence of the Fall of Adam and also because of man’s weaknesses and shortcomings. However, grace cannot suffice without total effort on the part of the recipient. Hence the explanation, “It is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do” (2 Ne. 25:23).
I am glad to see usage of this verse shifting to a more linguistically accurate interpretation that is also much more compatible with Christian orthodoxy and the grace of Christ.
But I find it very disturbing that this shift took so long. For over 100 years, the predominant understanding of this verse was that it taught that grace is only available to us after we exert our utmost efforts. It was used repeatedly to draw a contrast with the Protestant Christian understanding of grace taught in Ephesians. It was used to lay additional burdens on weary Latter-day Saints when they really needed grace, peace, and healing that comes from Jesus Christ.
What of the generations of Latter-day Saints who believed that grace would only kick in after they themselves learned to love God with all of their heart, might, mind, and strength on their own accord? What of the generations of Latter-day Saints who grow up learning false doctrine as if from the voice of God? What of those who were crushed under the weight of this impossible gospel?
And so I have to ask, what took so long? And what is the point of having “prophets and apostles” it they are making major doctrinal errors on major topics like this?