My Farewell Talk on Grace.

Hello family and friends!

For those of you who missed my talk or didn't get to hear all of it because I had to shorten it, I thought I would post my original talk here. I hope you enjoy it. Most of it comes from a talk entitled "His Grace is Sufficient" by Brad Wilcox. The link has been posted as well, as long as the written talk. Love you all!
-RJ Risueno


http://speeches.byu.edu/?act=viewitem&id=1966&tid=7 (If you want the text of the talk.)

The Bible Dictionary states that it is 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.” The story of Christ raising Lazarus from the dead is a prime example of grace. The Savior went to the place where Lazarus had been dead for four days. He instructed those who were near to remove the stone cover that led to where Lazarus lay. It was then the Savior of the world commanded Lazarus to “come forth” and Lazarus came forward with his hands and feet bound with gravecloths and his face was bound with a napkin. Instead of unbinding Lazarus Himself, the Messiah commanded the people to unbind him. It is important to realize that Christ did all He had to do. Without Christ, Lazarus would not have had the opportunity to be resurrected. Christ gave individuals the opportunity to do all they could before he stepped in. While we may not have moments where we need Christ to raise someone we love from the dead, there have been, are, and will be moments where we will need Christ to make up what we can’t do ourselves. This is where, combined with the power of the Atonement, grace becomes something that changes our life.

In his unforgettable talk “His Grace is Sufficient,” Brad Wilcox said “Jesus doesn’t make up the difference. Jesus makes all the difference. Grace is not about filling gaps. It is about filling us.” So if Christ makes all the difference, it makes sense to question why we are asked to do so much. “We have plenty to do, but it is not to fill up that gap. We will all be resurrected… (and) go back to God’s presence. What is left to be determined by our obedience is…how comfortable we plan to be in God’s presence and how long we plan to stay there.” By following His commandments we are in no way paying the demands of justice; rather we are showing appreciation for what He did by using it to live a life like His.

Today, I invite you all to think of how you can be changed by the power of grace. Bro. Wilcox shared an analogy that fits perfectly in my personal life and I would like to share it with you. It centers on everyone’s favorite memory of growing up: piano lessons. Mom pays the piano teacher to provide music lessons for her child. Because she pays for those lessons, she asks her child to practice. While practicing does not repay Mom for paying the piano teacher, practicing is how the child shows appreciation for Mom’s incredible gift. Mom’s joy is found not in getting repaid, but in seeing her gift used—seeing her child improve. Sometimes Mom’s requirement of practice is too overbearing, possibly because the child does not see through the mom’s eyes. The child does not see how much better life is if he would choose to live on a higher plane. Because Christ has paid justice, he can now tell us to follow him, and keep his commandments. If we see His requirements as being too much to ask, maybe it is because we do not yet see through Christ’s eyes. We have no need to repay our Savior, rather repentance initiates a developmental process that leads us along the path to a saintly character. 

Grace is not just about being saved; it is about becoming like the Savior. The miracle of the Atonement is not just that we can be cleansed and consoled but that we can be transformed. Scriptures make it clear that no unclean thing can dwell with God, but no unchanged thing will even want to. Maybe at the final judgment, it won’t be us begging Jesus to stay in His presence, we will the ones wanting to leave and Christ will be begging us to stay and use his Atonement, not just to be cleansed but so that we will want to stay. We must long for that feeling not only to go home to our Savior, but to feel at home there.

If we are to understand grace, we must also understand that learning takes time. Change is a process. Missionaries—member or full time--have a purpose not only to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them have faith, repent, be baptized and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. Lastly, and most importantly, they must invite others to endure to the end. If Jesus didn’t require endurance to the end, then there would be no internalization of those changes over time…Put simply, if Jesus didn’t require practice, then we would never become pianists. When we understand grace, we understand that the blessings of Christ’s Atonement are continuous and his strength is perfect in our weakness.

As dark as our trials, sins, and mistakes may appear we can always have confidence in the grace of Jesus Christ. Do we have to be worthy of a chance to begin again? No. We just have to accept these blessings and take advantage of them.