Surrender and Developing Disposition

On my way down to Phoenix, I listed to Robert Millet's book on CD, Grace Works.  I wish I had the book so I could look up some quotes.  What struck me were two things:

1) that to successfully put on the character of Christ, I need to yield and submit and surrender.  In our culture a male surrendering is usually not considered admirable- rather, independent master of a difficult skill or directing his own destiny is more approved.  However, I must "yield to the enticings of the Holy Spirit," surrender to Christ, submit to His laws, receive His atonement, and give my burdens to Him.  None of these actions denote mastery or control, but rather its relinquishment. 

2) It is by submitting and yielding that I can have my nature changed so that I have "no more disposition to do evil."  I often focus overmuch on the behavioral aspect of gospel living- and while I believe it is better to perform in compliance with God's command with an unwilling or resentful or apathetic heart than it is to breach those same commandments in violation of one's commitment to keep them, I also believe it is superior to want to keep them as well, and to obey out of that desire/disposition.  The sticky part is that I don't control my disposition with the completeness and immediacy as I do my behavior.  I can alter my conduct 180 degrees nearly instantly- my disposition/nature is not so malleable.  (sidenote: intermediate in malleability between conduct and disposition is habit).  Thus, to change my nature requires other, or at least more, than my executive control.  It likely requires patience, since the altering process is not as instant as behavioral change.  It also requires submission (picture offering my heart below at here's my heart) to God, who by some means can reach in and change my nature. 

O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.

From 0 to Exaltation: The Enabling Power of the Atonement

In the category of torts, we have shown how it might be that Christ can and does offer to us mercy: to the transgressor and the transgressed against, because of what He suffered and took upon himself. The application of mercy can restore us to our initial state- one of neutrality, with neither injuries scarring our souls nor sin staining them. However, a merely innocent condition (like that of Adam and Eve in the garden, or of each of us individually when we are born on this earth), is quite different from a condition of exaltation. Does the atonement help us bridge the gap?

We came to this earth with a primary purpose: to progress toward exaltation. The two-fold means of this progress can be generally categorized by learning through experience and choice-making away from God’s presence on the one hand, and gaining a body on the other. In that choice-making prong we all sin and fall, as did Adam: yet the Atonement can restore us, as we’ve shown, to a guiltless and uninjured condition. However, there is a gargantuan gap between exaltation (a life like God lives), which includes possession of attributes such as virtue, patience, charity, humility, knowledge, and power, each in their fullness, and the mere condition of being both whole and guiltless. God’s mercy bridges the gap between our sinful, injured state to a guiltless and whole state; God’s grace bridges the gap between a merely guiltless and whole state to an exalted state.

Although the scriptures do seem to connect grace with sanctification, forgiveness of sins, and other “tort-level” functions, it does more, as may be concluded from the Savior’s parable of the vine and branches found in John 15:1-11, which speaks of bearing fruit in addition to being clean. Ephesians 2: 5-10, which speaks of our salvation by grace, connects grace with the “good works, which God hath… ordained that we should walk,” supporting this construct of advancing the ball from 0 to exaltation through grace. We also observe several passages which distinguish mercy from grace, such as “O the wisdom of God, his mercy and his grace” (2 Nephi 9:8) or “because of grace and mercy… seed shall not be destroyed” (2 Nephi 9: 53). Progress along the pathway to exaltation (that state of doing and being very good), is substantiated further by John, quoted in D & C 93, who notes that he “received not of the fulness at first, but continued from grace to grace, until he received a fulness.” Moroni teaches of the connection between perfection and grace: “then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ” (10: 32). That most famous grace verse, “by grace we are saved, after all we can do,” (2 Nephi 25:23) also joins this set of canonical passages in connecting grace with either our best efforts, perfection, or fullness. Why is this an important association?

If this connection is a strong one, we may deduce that these efforts or “pressing forward” consist of good works and endeavors to be and do like God, beyond merely repenting of sin. Nephi seems to describe this concept in 2 Nephi 31, using the imagery of an initial gate followed by a strait and narrow path: “the gate by which ye should enter is repentance and baptism by water; and then cometh a remission of your sins by fire and by the Holy Ghost.” Only after this remission of sins “are ye in the strait and narrow path which leads to eternal life.” Nephi notes that to attain exaltation we must “press forward” and “endure” by “following the example of the Son of the living God,” who was clearly full of good works and substantive divine attributes.

How do we bridge this gap from mere innocence to become individuals of power, knowledge, wisdom, and benevolence, like unto God? Can we make this progress on our own? Elder David A. Bednar taught that grace connotes “a strengthening or enabling power: the main idea of the word is divine means of help or strength, given through the bounteous mercy and love of Jesus Christ” (Ibid.). Further, “the enabling and strengthening aspect of the Atonement helps us to see and to do and to become good in ways that we could never recognize or accomplish with our limited mortal capacity.” It seems that divine grace is the specific means constituting the “enabling power of the atonement,” specifically enabling of us to do and become good, far beyond what we could do and be without that grace.

Thus, it is indeed only through the grace of Christ afforded by the Atonement that we can “do and endure and overcome all things,” that crowning description of the exalted condition. The atonement does more that enable a full measure of mercy to each of us, for that would simply restore us to zero: rather, it “allows men and women to lay hold on eternal life and exaltation” (David Bednar, In the Strength of the Lord, Ensign, Nov. 2004, 76-78).

This post composed in September 2008

Endnote: I haven’t figured out the mechanism behind the application of grace, nor how the Atonement supplies the “infinite grace” (Moroni 8:3) that was “made possible by his atoning sacrifice (Bible Dictionary). I’d also like to learn how to “tap into” this grace more. Please send me any insight into these three matters.

Thank you, Heavenly Father

Without the constraint of the not-yet-explained (see God of the Gaps post) to limit the phenomena attributable to God, I credit Him with the following. 

Blessings/Tender Mercies I Am Grateful For:

Palm pilot

Mom

Growing up in Meridian, Idaho

Growing up in the church

Growing up in a free democratic republic

Voting

The internet

Email

Googledocs

Practically never having to worry about having enough to eat

Jolynne (my sister)

All my family members, immediate and extended

Roommates Joel, Josh, Taylor, Nathaniel, and James

Blogs

Pandora.com

Academia, that so many journals and original research are so breathtakingly accessible

Educational opportunity

Safe-ish roads (they could be in a lot worse condition)

A legal system which generally outlaws person A harming person B

A level of law enforcement close to the optimal level between overly intrusive/powerful and ineffective

Each of the standard works

Joseph Smith's fidelity to God and truth

The tradition of birthdays- it's a great opportunity to help people feel special and recognized

Being able to repent and change and experience true new beginnings. When I sin, because of the Atonement, I really can be restored and start anew.

One of my favorite songs: I Feel My Savior's Love (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1RCGhXjAtU)

Sports! Tennis and frisbee and soccer and basketball and innertube water polo and wallyball and running and triathlons and swimming, oh my! I love sports.

Writing and speaking and language and communication. Wow!

The universe, stars, and galaxies- the only wonder to compare with them is the nature around us.

Love (agape)

A whole host of efficient systems (e.g. markets, natural selection, email, discussion boards, google docs, dropbox, backpacks, libraries, and prayer)

Man-sized furniture that's not two inches off the ground

Refrigerators

Books

The fossil record

The advance of rational inquiry as evidenced by the organized common sense called "science"

Relative abundance of possessions, shelter, and health care in America

Longer life spans and lower infant mortality world wide

Rain forests

Cell phones

Shoes

Indoor plumbing, heating, and AC

Carpets

Ants

My windshield wiper fluid ejectors working suddenly when I needed them on a dangerous winter drive even though they'd been broken for months

Okay, that's it for the short list.

The tagging of these phenomena as blessings from God is arbitrary inasmuch as other phenomena, including
those conventionally considered negative, are from my perspective equally likely to be caused by God. 
Exceptions to arbitrary selection include tender mercies I detect not by their improbability or unexplainability, 
but rather because I claim that such blessings were revealed to me as interventions of God.  My purpose here
is to point out some phenomena I consider "good" and attribute at least that set to God's direct and/or 
indirect action.