This article is part of a series on Contradictions between the Book of Mormon and the Bible. Click on the link to access a brief overview of the series. 

The Book of Mormon states, “we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all that we can do” (2 Nephi 25:23). The traditional LDS interpretation of this statement is that we must first do “all that we can do” and then God’s grace will make up the difference. Dallin H. Oaks, who became the LDS Church President in late 2025, stated in 1993: “He is our Savior, and when we have done all that we can, he will make up the difference, in his own way and in his own time. Of that I testify in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.”¹ Robert J. Matthews, a leading Mormon scholar on the relation between the Bible and the LDS scriptures, stated: “God does for human beings only what they cannot do for themselves. Man must do all he can for himself. The doctrine is that we are saved by grace, ‘after all we can do’ (2 Nephi 25:23).”² The official LDS doctrine concerning grace is summarized rather clearly in the article on “Grace” in the online Bible Dictionary on the LDS Church’s official website:

This grace is an enabling power that allows men and women to lay hold on eternal life and exaltation after they have expended their own best efforts…. However, grace cannot suffice without total effort on the part of the recipient. Hence the explanation, “It is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do” (2 Ne. 25:23).³

Many more examples could be given.⁴

The qualification that we are saved by grace “after all that we can do” is not found in Ephesians, 2:8, the biblical text from which the statement in 2 Nephi 25:23 clearly derives. Compare the two texts: 

For by grace are ye saved through faith (Ephesians 2:8a).
It is by grace that we are saved, after all that we can do (2 Nephi 25:23). 

The problem here is not merely that the Book of Mormon adds a clause (“after all that we can do”) to words derived from the Bible. The problem is that what 2 Nephi 25:23 says contradicts what Ephesians 2:8a says in its context. Here is a fuller quotation from Ephesians: 

For by grace are ye saved through faith;
and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Not of works, lest any man should boast.
For we are his workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus unto good works,
which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
(Ephesians 2:8–10 KJV)

According to Ephesians 2:8–10, we are not saved “of works” but rather are saved “unto good works.” That is, good works are the result—the “fruit,” to use a biblical metaphor—of salvation. They are not a precondition or qualification of salvation. In Paul, good works come after salvation (see also Romans 11:6; Titus 3:5–6); in the Book of Mormon, salvation comes after good works. The Book of Mormon thus clearly contradicts the Bible here.

2 Nephi 25:23 is not the only Book of Mormon passage that contradicts Paul’s teaching of salvation by grace alone. The Book of Mormon’s final chapter contains the following passage:

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 no wise deny the power of God. (Moroni 10:32)

Notice the order: we must deny ourselves all ungodliness, and love God fully; “then” God’s grace is “sufficient” to make us “perfect in Christ.” Here again, according to the Book of Mormon our efforts precede God’s grace, whereas in the gospel God’s grace precedes and precipitates our efforts. The point is not that we should not pursue godliness and love God with our whole being. Of course we should! The point is that we are saved by God’s grace alone, first and always, and this saving grace enables us to grow in godliness and in love for God.