Continuing from Keeping the Commandments II Stephen Robinson wrote:
The Savior in turn agrees to cover our mistakes while we are learning and making progress. Although our private, individual perfection comes later, long after this life is over, our partnership, our perfection-in-Christ, is effective immediately. From the moment we enter into the covenant with Him, our mistakes are covered—we are perfected in him provided only that we continue the covenant relationship, that “we endure to the end.” As we are rendered innocent, clean and worthy in the faith, repentance and baptism, we are able to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, which God gives to us as “earnest money” (see Eph. 1:14; 2 Cor. 1:22; 5:5), a sort of guarantee and down payment on the wonderful blessings we will inherit. In the Gift of the Holy Ghost, Christ also provides his junior partners with a compass for better spiritual navigation, with the comfort of a testimony and with the assurance that they have indeed been justified through his covenant.
Like tithing, the terms of this covenant are in one sense the same for everyone, yet in another sense different for each according to individual ability. The terms of the law of tithing are universal—one tenth of our increase annually. (See Doctrine and Covenants 119:4.) Yet this same formula works out to a different dollar amount for each individual. The same is true of the gospel covenant. The Savior requires from each one of us a specific percentage: all that we have, or one hundred percent. Yet each individual’s one hundred percent will be a different quantity from everyone else’s, depending on the spiritual knowledge and maturity of the individual. What a marvelous flexibility—he never requires more than I am able to give, and what he does require of me is always appropriate to my knowledge and circumstances.
This is why I mustn’t be discouraged that I haven’t made as much progress as Brother X or Sister Y. My obligation is to give all I have, not all someone else has, to be as good as I can be, not as good as someone else is. In Doctrine and Covenants 10:4 the Lord warns against running faster than we are able: “Do not run faster or labor more than you have strength and means provided.” Have faith in Christ; do the best you can; don’t try to do more than you can.
The apostles and prophets are justified through faith in Christ on exactly the same terms as I am, and when I reach their level of growth and maturity in the gospel, their level of performance will be required of me—but not until then. So I should not despair just because I don’t seem to be doing as well as some others are doing, just as I should not expect the same quantity in tithing as some others pay. What God requires in both cases is fair and appropriate for each individual. ~Steven E. Robinson, Believing Christ, (Deseret Book, Salt Lake City, 1992) 90-93 Dwarsligger edition. (continued Keeping the Commandments IV. . .)
