32 Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God.
33 And again, if ye by the grace of God are perfect in Christ, and deny not his power, then are ye sanctified in Christ by the grace of God, through the shedding of the blood of Christ, which is in the covenant of the Father unto the remission of your sins, that ye become holy, without spot.
Notice the role of grace and works in these verses:
– We choose to come unto Christ, which enables us to be perfected in Him (not alone, but in Him!)
– We choose to deny ourselves of all ungodliness and to love God. As a result, His grace is sufficient to make us perfect in Christ.
– We choose not to deny the power of God. If we do this, then by His grace we are sanctified (made holy).
So every step of the way, we are making choices and every step of the way, we are being carried by grace. There is no way that we can accomplish this great transformation on our own. We need the grace of God through the atoning power of Jesus Christ. That power doesn’t just kick in at the end of the process; it blesses us throughout the process. We make good choices, and the atonement magnifies and sanctifies those choices so that we can accomplish God’s work.
Book of Mormon Study Notes 