But remember that he that persists in his own carnal nature, and goes on in the ways of sin and rebellion against God, remaineth in his fallen state and the devil hath all power over him. Therefore he is as though there was no redemption made, being an enemy to God; and also is the devil an enemy to God. (Mosiah 16:5)
Notice the verbs in this verse: “persists,” “goes on,” “remaineth.” Abinadi is not talking about good people going bad. He’s talking about people who, in their fallen state, are already carnal and rebellious, who are currently enemies to God. We cannot rescue ourselves from this fallen state; we need the grace of Jesus Christ. But receiving the gift takes effort on our part; it doesn’t happen automatically.
Put another way, we start this contest not just as underdogs, but with a losing score. We have access to all the help we will need to win, but we do need to score. We can’t adopt the attitude of a team that is already ahead and just needs to maintain the status quo. We need the urgency of a team that is behind and desperately needs to do better. Doing nothing is not a winning strategy in this contest.
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