Moroni 10: Grace & Works Again, Joseph Smith's Triumph

My overall argument is The Book of Mormon tackles issues that directly applied to nineteenth-century readers. One could argue that these issues are universal and timeless. One could argue that Joseph Smith is working out his religious ideas in a single book. One could argue that a translator always translates from within his own understanding. 

Ultimately, I don't think it matters. The Book of Mormon has a job to do. One of those jobs is to resolve the problem of grace versus works. 

Some theologians and apologists like C.S. Lewis have argued that the tension between grace and works is rather pointless. As mortal, physical beings, we have no choice but to be the instigators and recipients of works, whether we like it or not. Grace is a given. So is action.

If one translates "works" as the early Protestants did, however, the tension or problem becomes a little more understandable. Do we earn our way into heaven? Do we earn our way to a certain point and then God bridges the gap? Or is the gap so large, we can never get to a specific give-me-hand-up rung? Or, even if we could, is trying to get to that rung rather missing the point?

And if works--performances of certain rituals--take over, what is the cost to internal progress and beliefs? Won't the works become prideful performances? Virtue-signaling run amuck? Empty dogma that signals belonging in a clique, not a relationship with deity?

On the other hand, being the human and mortal creatures that we are, don't we need certain rituals to help us acknowledge our internal progress and thoughts and beliefs, including our goals? Even Luther and other early Protestants were unwilling to throw out baptism, even as they threw out various other sacraments. And Luther, at least, never lost his positive attitude towards the confessional. 

I maintain that with The Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith successfully (as far as success is possible) melded grace and works by turning the matter on its head--and turning it on its head, moreover, in ways that later apologists like C.S. Lewis and George MacDonald worked out. For that matter, Joseph Smith is echoing Dante (whom he would not have read): in the afterlife, we gain what we love, what we invest in, what we have pursued.

In sum, grace is something that God extends--all the time, indefinitely, mercifully. It is up to humans to do something with it. 

That is, we are the dwarfs in C.S. Lewis's stable, willing or unwilling to hear and taste and touch. 

Take the following passages from Moroni 10:

remember how merciful the Lord hath been (verse 3).

ask of God..he will manifest the truth (verse 4).

nothing that is good denieth the Christ, but acknowledgeth that he is (6). 

deny not the gifts of God, for they are many (10). 

every good gift cometh of Christ (18). 

Wherefore, there must be faith; and if there must faith, there must also be hope; and if there must be hope, there must also be charity (20).

lay hold upon every good gift (30).

love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God (32). 

Despite the obligatory warnings regarding sin, Moroni 10--if combined with prior passages about treasure and grace and works and agency--describes a relationship between God and humans based on growth, progress, reaching, learning, and making choices. What we value becomes where we end up. God makes all things possible. Humans don't always want all things to be possible; we are fragile, incomplete, hampered by limitations. So God through Christ makes it possible for us to think bigger, to keep trying. 

In the end, despite the sad ending, The Book of Mormon is about hope. 

No wonder its early readers valued it so highly.