- Signifies a covenant
- Found in and through Jesus Christ- Requires obedience, endurance
When Latter-day Saints are asked the question, "Have you been saved?" which is so common in the conversation of some Christians, it can be puzzling to members of the Church, said Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve.
"It is not our usual way of speaking," he said Sunday morning. "We tend to speak of `saved' or `salvation' as a future event rather than something that has already been realized."
He explained that members of other faiths who use these terms mean that "we are `saved' when we sincerely declare or confess that we have accepted Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior. This meaning relies on words of the Apostle Paul:
"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." (Rom. 10:9.)
Church members use the words "saved" and "salvation" to signify a present covenant relationship with Jesus Christ in which they are assured salvation from the consequences of sin if they are obedient.
Elder Oaks explained that as Latter-day Saints use the words, there are at least six different meanings. "According to some of these, our salvation is assured - we are already saved. In others, salvation must be spoken of as a future event (1 Cor. 5:5) or as conditioned upon a future event (Mark 13:13). But in all of these meanings or kinds of salvation, salvation is in and through Jesus Christ."
He said that one aspect of being saved is from the permanance of death through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. (1 Cor. 15:22.) Another is to be saved from the consequences of sin, which is conditional upon "obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel."
Many verses in the New Testament refer to salvation by grace, but there are also many specific commandments on personal behavior and many references to the importance of works. "In addition, the Savior taught that we must endure to the end in order to be saved," said Elder Oaks. (See Matt. 10:22; Mark 13:13.)
He said that being cleansed from sin through Christ's atonement is "conditioned upon the individual sinner's faith, which must be manifested by obedience to the Lord's command to repent, be baptized, and receive the Holy Ghost."
This does not mean that Latter-day Saints deny the grace of God, nor that they can earn their own salvation, affirmed Elder Oaks. Rather "we know it is by grace we are saved, after all we can do." (2 Ne. 25:23.)
He said the question whether a person has been saved is sometimes phrased in terms of whether that person has been "born again."
"As we understand these scriptures, our answer to whether we have been born again is clearly `yes,' " he said. "We were born again when we entered into a covenant relationship with our Savior by being born of the water and of the Spirit and by taking upon ourselves the name of Jesus Christ."
To realize the blessings of this, however, members must keep their covenants and endure to the end, he declared.
Being saved can also refer to being saved from the darkness of ignorance or being delivered from the second, or spiritual death. Finally, he said, to be "saved" is also used to denote exaltation or eternal life, which is sometimes referred to as "the fulness of salvation."