Happiness awaits those that endure - 2 Nephi 22

1 ^aAnd in that day thou shalt say: O Lord, I will praise thee; though thou wast angry with me thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortedest me.

2 Behold, God is my salvation; I will ^atrust, and not be afraid; for the Lord ^bJehovah is my ^cstrength and my ^dsong; he also has become my salvation.

3 Therefore, with joy shall ye draw ^awater out of the wells of salvation.

The above verses come from 2 Nephi 22. This is such a great set of verses about someone's journey to be with the Savior:

1) He presumably made some mistakes as God was angry for a time with him

2) Now he is comforted though by the same God who was angry

3) Christ is who he leans on for help, strength, salvation, and is the source of joy

4) He has joy thanks to salvation that flows to him (it sounds like salvation is continual, not a one-time thing; process of learning/growing/happiness; it also means salvation may always involve work (drawing out water from a well), but it's happy work.)

I like that the person was not "perfect" and still ended up doing so well. It's a great lesson for us.

Who can be saved? Anyone who believes

Sometimes there's a question about who can be saved. Does God care about everyone? Can everyone receive salvation?

The answer is yes. The rules for salvation are generally the same for everyone, and at some point every person will be allowed to choose to follow those rules.

Paul speaks to this idea in Romans 10. Every person who accepts Christ will be saved.

9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

10 For with the ^aheart man ^bbelieveth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto ^csalvation.

11 For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.

12 For there is no ^adifference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is ^brich unto all that ^ccall upon him.

13 For whosoever shall ^acall upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not^abelieved? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a ^bpreacher?

15 And how shall they ^apreach, except they be ^bsent? as it is written, How beautiful are the ^cfeet of them that preach the^dgospel of ^epeace, and bring glad tidings of good things!

16 But they have not all ^aobeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath ^bbelieved our report?

Note that this emphasizes 2 things in verse 10: believing with the heart and confessing with the mouth. One fair question is, does this mean that works are not involved in salvation? It depends what believing with the heart means. Does it mean a feeling of belief (which is then confessed with the mouth) or does it mean your belief is deeply ingrained within you (like a heart is core to the life of the body) and affects everything you are and do?

I lean towards the latter explanation based on other scriptures, but also because it seems a more complete answer even in this chapter. Consider what calling on the Lord entails? It entails taking the time to think about what to say to him and what to ask for and why you want to confess belief in him. That's work. Also, consider the word believe. It would be helpful to know the initial word used when Paul wrote, and I have read some commentary on this (in the footnotes to the Articles of Faith by James Talmage). Briefly though, the word believe has at its root, "be" and "live". To believe is to "live" and "be" according to something an individual supposes to be true. What's assumed to be true affects the life of the individual. How can the life of the individual be affected without affecting works as well? Wouldn't the works expose what the individual believes? Thus, how can works, words, and belief be separated? Eventually they can't because they all contribute to the same thing, what a person is. They are all so highly correlated that it can be hard to distinguish one from the other over the long run (i.e., if you know all of someone's words and all of their works, it becomes obvious who they are and what they believe; it's true that people can hide portions of their words and works depending on the situation, but you can't fake everything always).

Therefore, I think to believe with the heart and confess with the mouth is to say and act in all ways, even to the deepest center of a person, that Jesus is the Savior. I want to live like that.

Paul also comments on the need to "obey the gospel" in verse 16. That speaks to following rules, which is an action. Also, on a side note, there's a need not only to hear the word of God, but to have a preacher who is sent to preach that word correctly. Who sends the preacher? Authorized servants send authorized preachers. What's the authority? The priesthood - See Hebrews 5 and 7.

Have a great day.