From Brad Wilcox and his book Changed Through Grace, under the title ‘Transformed by Grace’:
Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the First Presidency taught that we are saved in at least six ways. If you are counting, the last chapter covered only five. Salvation also means obtaining eternal life or being exalted. Many Christians see immortality and eternal life as the same thing, but Latter-day saints understand they are different. The Lord said, “For this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man” (Moses 1:39). Immortality describes living forever, and eternal life describes the life lived by our Heavenly Parents. Elder Bruce C. Hafen wrote that eternal life refers not to the length of life but to the quality of life, which involves “the long term, difficult, gradual development of the capacity to live like Christ.”1
Elder Oaks has written, “This salvation requires more than repentance and baptism by appropriate priesthood authority. It also requires making sacred covenants, including eternal marriage, in the temples of God, and faithfulness to those covenants by enduring to the end.”2 Because of these expectations some people assume that we are saved by grace but exalted by our works. This is not the case. Exaltation is a gift of grace. It is grace at its finest. Grace cannot only get us to heaven, but it can give us the desire to stay. This type of salvation offers victory over our first estate (premortality) and our second estate (mortal life) and continues the opportunity to be changed and become like God. This transformation is not possible on our own. This salvation and the sense of mission it provides, reveals the true greatness of Christ’s Atonement as it opens both the gates and windows of heaven. ~Brad Wilcox, Changed Through His Grace (Salt Lake City, Deseret Book, 2017, 274-76, Dwarsligger edition)
