By grace we are saved

Carl Bloch, "His Grace is Sufficient"

A reader suggested a different top-ten list and I found it to be a better representation of familiar Bible passages than the previous one, so I’m going to use it instead. Thanks, Reader!

Most popular Bible passages, #9:

Romans 10:9, the New Testament

“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.”

The book of Romans is not a sermon, or a novel, or a history book – it’s actually a letter – written by one of the best-known Christian missionaries of all time, Paul (formerly Saul). Paul was a well-learned Jewish man who was actively trying to incarcerate Christians before he himself was converted personally by Jesus. Paul wrote this letter to the Christians in Rome where he hoped to visit later in his travels.

According to Paul, all a person must do to be saved is confess he believes in Jesus and that he was raised from the dead. This is true. We must also do our best to live righteously, like Jesus did.

Bruce R. McConkie, an apostle of Jesus Christ and member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said, “It is easy to understand that we must accept the mission of Jesus Christ. We must believe that it is through his grace that we are saved … and also that we are under the commandment and the necessity of performing the labors that are required of us as set forth in the commandments known as the gospel of Jesus Christ (Doctrines of Salvation, comp. Bruce R. McConkie, 3 vols., Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1954–56, 2:310–11.)”

We are saved by grace. Every man, woman, and child is saved by the grace of Jesus Christ and not by any good they might do. Christ never sinned, not even once. It is because Jesus only did good things his entire life that salvation is made possible. And if we will do our personal best to be like him (and he knows we’ll never be perfect), he promises to make up all the difference and save us.