Moroni 10:21

And except ye have charity ye can in nowise be saved in the kingdom of God; neither can ye be saved in the kingdom of God if ye have not faith; neither can ye if ye have no hope.

We cannot be saved without faith, hope, and charity because we will not be like God without these three attributes. The Savior can wipe away our sins, but he cannot change us against our wills. If we have not done the work to develop faith, hope, and charity, we will fall short of the full hope of Christ. He offers the gifts of the Spirit, but we must receive them for them to work in our lives.

Moroni 8:15

For awful is the wickedness to suppose that God saveth one child because of baptism, and the other must perish because he hath no baptism.

The principle of agency is behind this doctrine that teaches against infant baptism. Those who cannot choose, either because of maturity, capacity, or duress, cannot be held accountable. The whole plan of salvation is based on agency. Where agency does not exist, accountability cannot exist, nor guilt. Therefore, little children must be innocent. How merciful is God's plan, for how many little children never get to choose and are therefore saved immediately in the Father's kingdom!

Ether 12:41

And now, I would commend you to seek this Jesus of whom the prophets and apostles have written, that the grace of God the Father, and also the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost, which beareth record of them, may be and abide in you forever. Amen.

If we want to have God with us, we must seek him. He rarely sneaks up on us. We have to use our agency to search him out. The good news is that he is not hard to find. He is practically right out in the open for those who make the effort. He is a mystery only to those who do not want to know him. And when we find him, he gives us grace, which is the gift of enabling power. He enables us to stay with him so long as we keep seeking, keep trying, keeping choosing to believe.

Ether 2:25

And behold, I prepare you against these things; for ye cannot cross this great deep save I prepare you against the waves of the sea, and the winds which have gone forth, and the floods which shall come. Therefore what will ye that I should prepare for you that ye may have light when ye are swallowed up in the depths of the sea?

God would not stop the winds, waves, and floods that would make the Jaredites' voyage so perilous, because those very forces would propel them to the promised land, but he could prepare them to withstand the storms. God likewise will not remove every challenge, affliction, and trouble from our lives, for the opposition we face causes us to grow and propels us towards God, but he can prepare us and strengthen us not only to survive but to succeed.

Christ can still the storm around us, but usually he chooses to still the storm within us. We want instant answers, quick fixes, and immediate relief, but God wants us to become saints, and that is a process that takes time. He is there for us, cheers us on, and provides instruction and a helping hand through the roughest spots, but he will not do for us what we have to do for ourselves. He loves us too much to rob us of our ultimate victory by removing our temporary inconveniences.

Mormon 9:4

Behold, I say unto you that ye would be more miserable to dwell with a holy and just God, under a consciousness of your filthiness before him, than ye would to dwell with the damned souls in hell.

God's objective is our happiness -- however much happiness we are willing to receive.  If we want the kind of eternal joy he has, he will help us achieve it. But he will not force it on us. If we choose a lesser degree of happiness through living by lesser laws, he will grant it to us. The decision and end result are ultimately ours. God will be wonderfully merciful when mercy is warranted, and he will be just when we reject his mercy.

Mormon 7:6

And he bringeth to pass the resurrection of the dead, whereby man must be raised to stand before his judgment-seat.

Resurrection is a free gift given to all mortals. It is apparently not optional, anymore than death is optional. The Lord never violates our agency, but some aspects of life are not subject to agency. We made the choice to come to earth, but we do not get to choose whether we leave this life. We may, in some circumstances, choose how and when we leave this life, but not "if". Similarly, resurrection is an inescapable fact. We choose, by how we live and how we exercise our faith, to what degree of glory we are resurrected, but not "if" we are resurrected.

Mormon 5:11

For I know that such will sorrow for the calamity of the house of Israel; yea, they will sorrow for the destruction of this people; they will sorrow that this people had not repented that they might have been clasped in the arms of Jesus.

Because the Nephites willingly and intentionally turned away from Christ, he could do nothing for them. He cannot embrace those who do not want to be embraced. I do not understand why anyone would not want to be clasped in the arms of Jesus. To be warm and safe in his arms is the most comforting experience I can imagine. I make lots of mistakes and fail constantly to live up to the life I know I should live, but I repent when I realize my mistakes. And so I have hope in Christ.

Mormon 2:15

And it came to pass that my sorrow did return unto me again, and I saw that the day of grace was passed with them, both temporally and spiritually; for I saw thousands of them hewn down in open rebellion against their God, and heaped up as dung upon the face of the land. And thus three hundred and forty and four years had passed away.

The day of grace is never passed for those who sincerely wish to repent. No sin is so severe, so deep, and so frequently repeated that it is beyond the reach of Christ's Atonement. Nevertheless, if we do not avail ourselves of Christ's merciful gift through repentance, he will not force his mercy upon us. If the day of grace is passed, it is because we choose to deny grace, and we refuse to ask for forgiveness. If we refuse mercy, the only alternative is justice.

3 Nephi 9:20

And ye shall offer for a sacrifice unto me a broken heart and a contrite spirit. And whoso cometh unto me with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, him will I baptize with fire and with the Holy Ghost, even as the Lamanites, because of their faith in me at the time of their conversion, were baptized with fire and with the Holy Ghost, and they knew it not.

By offering a broken heart and a contrite spirit, we sacrifice our pride and our will. We give them to God. We burn them on the altar of repentance and covenants. We show the Lord that what he wants is more important to us than what we want. Our agency is the one possession that is truly ours, the one thing God will not take from us involuntarily, and therefore the one thing we can give him that is a genuine sacrifice.

Helaman 14:30

And now remember, remember, my brethren, that whosoever perisheth, perisheth unto himself; and whosoever doeth iniquity, doeth it unto himself; for behold, ye are free; ye are permitted to act for yourselves; for behold, God hath given unto you a knowledge and he hath made you free.

We can earn our punishment, but we cannot earn our redemption. Redemption comes as a gift for which we qualify through repentance. Justice, on the other hand, will come upon us if God does nothing to stop it. We choose justice or mercy. Mercy is the result of Christ's atonement, which we must choose to accept. If we do not choose mercy, we get justice by default.

Helaman 14:28-29

And the angel said unto me that many shall see greater things than these, to the intent that they might believe that these signs and these wonders should come to pass upon all the face of this land, to the intent that there should be no cause for unbelief among the children of men—And this to the intent that whosoever will believe might be saved, and that whosoever will not believe, a righteous judgment might come upon them; and also if they are condemned they bring upon themselves their own condemnation.

In the final day, everyone will have enough evidence that they cannot logically dispute the truth of God's existence. Nevertheless, they will still have the opportunity to choose to come to him in repentance or turn their backs on him in rebellion. He will leave no doubt of his reality, but he will never force us to follow him. Agency is absolutely fundamental to God's kingdom and an eternal principle he cannot and will not violate, even if it means losing some of his children.

Helaman 7:17-18

O repent ye, repent ye! Why will ye die? Turn ye, turn ye unto the Lord your God. Why has he forsaken you? It is because you have hardened your hearts; yea, ye will not hearken unto the voice of the good shepherd; yea, ye have provoked him to anger against you.

The theme is repeated many times: God forsakes us only when we first forsake him. He will never leave us as long as we do not leave him. But when we choose to turn our backs, he will not force us to turn back towards him. He can whisper, plead, and even afflict us to try to get our attention, but if we choose deafness and hardness of heart, the laws of agency and justice require that he let us go our way. It must be terribly frustrating and heart-rending for him, but the alternative -- to use force and rob us of agency -- is counter to his nature and the laws by which he lives. Our fate is literally in our own hands and hearts.

Helaman 6:35-36

And thus we see that the Spirit of the Lord began to withdraw from the Nephites, because of the wickedness and the hardness of their hearts. And thus we see that the Lord began to pour out his Spirit upon the Lamanites, because of their easiness and willingness to believe in his words.

Our agency determines our outcome. Bad choices will overcome all the good teachings of a lifetime, and good choices motivated by righteous desires can overcome a lifetime of bad habits and wicked traditions. We get what we truly want. "Easiness" and "willingness" are the keys. How easy we are to be influenced one way out the other, and our willingness to be enticed in one direction or another, are the determining factors. It is always our choice. We choose the path, but we inherit the consequences. As the saying goes, when you pick up one end of the stick, you pick up the other.

Helaman 6:30

And behold, it is he who is the author of all sin. And behold, he doth carry on his works of darkness and secret murder, and doth hand down their plots, and their oaths, and their covenants, and their plans of awful wickedness, from generation to generation according as he can get hold upon the hearts of the children of men.

Satan gets a hold of our hearts only to the degree that we grant him access. He has no power but what we give him. He wants to fully manipulate us but can do so only if we let him. God, on the other hand, has the power, but he will never use it to control us. He wants us to yield to him out of love, and he will expand our power as we do so.

Heleman 5:12

And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.

Satan cannot exercise control over those who are built on the Rock—Jesus Christ. This message is repeated many times. Having faith in Christ and building on his foundation does not exempt us from trials and storms. Faith enables us to withstand the storms and triumph over them. The formula for eternal success is E + R = O. It is not the Event but our Response to it that determines the Outcome.

Helaman 5:10

And remember also the words which Amulek spake unto Zeezrom, in the city of Ammonihah; for he said unto him that the Lord surely should come to redeem his people, but that he should not come to redeem them in their sins, but to redeem them from their sins.

To be redeemed, we have to leave our sins behind. We have to do all we can to put them away. We may not be able to do it perfectly by ourselves, but we have to turn ourselves in the right direction, which is the root of the word repentance. Only then can Christ redeem us. He can buy us back from the demands of justice only when we have made the effort to begin the transformation that he will finish. He is, after all, the Finisher of our faith. He will not save us against our will. We demonstrate our sincere desire for salvation by sincerely repenting. Every repentant sinner will be forgiven and rescued from justice. Those who knowingly turn their backs on God today with expectations that he will swoop in and save them at the last second will be sadly disappointed tomorrow when he doesn't show up. I reiterate, Christ will save every single person who truly and honestly wants to be saved in his kingdom. We cannot save ourselves, and we cannot buy a seat in heaven, but we have to prove our desires by our actions, however imperfect they may be.

Helaman 4:15

And it came to pass that they did repent, and inasmuch as they did repent they did begin to prosper.

Here is the good news: if we start keeping the commandments, our blessings can be restored to us! The prophecies of doom do not to come true if we repent. Both salvation and damnation are conditional. The condition always lies with us and our agency. No one is ever too far gone, and no one is ever too good.

Helaman 3:27-30

Thus we may see that the Lord is merciful unto all who will, in the sincerity of their hearts, call upon his holy name. Yea, thus we see that the gate of heaven is open unto all, even to those who will believe on the name of Jesus Christ, who is the Son of God. Yea, we see that whosoever will may lay hold upon the word of God, which is quick and powerful, which shall divide asunder all the cunning and the snares and the wiles of the devil, and lead the man of Christ in a strait and narrow course across that everlasting gulf of misery which is prepared to engulf the wicked—And land their souls, yea, their immortal souls, at the right hand of God in the kingdom of heaven, to sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and with Jacob, and with all our holy fathers, to go no more out.

If I were marooned on a desert island and could have only one small section of scripture to keep me company, I might choose these four short verses. Mormon sums up a series of lessons learned by the Nephites during a period of relative peace following many years of war. These are truths about how God works with his children in all ages of the world. This brief discourse sums up the whole Gospel of Christ:

1. God is merciful when we sincerely repent.
2. Everyone who repents is welcome in the church and kingdom of God.
3. True members of God's kingdom believe in Christ.
4. We choose belief and faith. 
5. The word of God is not just the written scriptures. It is also revelation, both through the prophet and personally to each of us.  We must choose to receive and obey revelation.
6. Revelation from God is life-giving and powerful to change our lives. 
7. When we live the gospel, we can avoid and overcome the temptations of Satan. The gospel leads on a strict path back to God.
8. To live with God permanently is our ultimate goal and destination.
9. We can look forward to the same exaltation as the patriarchs and prophets. 

Alma 62:49

But notwithstanding their riches, or their strength, or their prosperity, they were not lifted up in the pride of their eyes; neither were they slow to remember the Lord their God; but they did humble themselves exceedingly before him.

Just as we choose our attitude towards affliction, we also choose our attitude towards prosperity. It is often easier to stay faithful in times of trial than in times of peace and plenty. We must be ever watchful regarding pride, slothfulness and materialism.

Alma 62:41

But behold, because of the exceedingly great length of the war between the Nephites and the Lamanites many had become hardened, because of the exceedingly great length of the war; and many were softened because of their afflictions, insomuch that they did humble themselves before God, even in the depth of humility.

The same war and suffering that hardened some hearts softened others. The difference is not in the affliction but in the attitude. We choose how we respond to everything that happens to us.