Why Works?

At my job I chat with people from all over the world on mormon.org who have questions about the gospel. One of the most frequent questions I get from people (especially Evangelical Christians) is what we believe about grace and works. In times past I've kind of struggled to understand what I do believe about it and how the dichotomy of grace and works is resolved. I've heard it explained many ways, but it still wasn't entirely clear to me. Then one day I was reading in 2 Nephi 31 and it finally made sense.

In 2 Nephi 31 Nephi speaks of the path we must follow to gain eternal life, that of faith, repentance, baptism and the Holy Ghost and in verse 19 he says, 

" 19 And now, my beloved brethren, after ye have gotten into this strait and narrow path, I would ask if all is done? Behold, I say unto you, Nay; for ye have not come thus far save it were by the word of Christ with unshaken faith in him, relying wholly upon the merits of him who is mighty to save."

And I realized how the seeming opposition of grace and works really go hand in had. Yes we do need to follow that strait and narrow path and follow Christ to be saved. However as Nephi says in 2 Nephi 31:19, "Ye have not come thus far save it were by the word of Christ, with unshaken faith in him, relying wholly upon the merits of him who is mighty to save." 

We can't follow that path, we can't live the gospel on our own and with our own merits, the only way we can possibly do the works he has asked us to do is by relying wholly upon his grace. This is a reminder to me that as I seek to follow Christ, as I seek to read my scriptures and pray and go to church and repent, as I do all these things I can only truly follow this path by relying wholly on the merits of God.