2 Nephi 10:23-25

As Jacob ends his sermon, he turns to a subject that is common in the Book of Mormon.  Remember, he said, “ye are free to act for yourselves” (2 Nephi 10:23).  He is repeating something Lehi told him as a part of his blessing.  “Wherefore, the Lord God gave unto man that he should act for himself.  Wherefore, man could not act for himself save it should be that he was enticed by the one or the other” (2 Nephi 2:16). 

Acting for ourselves, we have two choices.  The first choice is to follow the devil and received “everlasting death.”  The second choice is to follow the Lord and find “the way to eternal life” (2 Nephi 10:23).  Hugh Nibley writes:

There is no more emphasized doctrine in the Apocrypha, especially the Christian Apocrypha, than the teaching of the Two Ways, the Way of Light and the Way of Darkness … Constantly the Book of Mormon people are told to choose between life and death, with emphasis on the fact that man is placed on this earth in the peculiar position of being able to choose either good or bad as long as he is here: "Remember that ye are free to act for yourselves—to choose the way of everlasting death or the way of eternal life" (2 Nephi 10:23; cf. Helaman 14:30—31; Alma 12:29, 31; Alma 13:3 ff.;²³; 1 Nephi 14:7).[1]

Jacob calls upon the people to “reconcile yourselves to the will of God and not to the will of the devil” (2 Nephi 10:24).  There is only one way we are saved, and that is through the grace of Christ.

Again, Jacob is supporting Lehi’s teachings.

All of this was, according to Lehi, part of the plan by which "there is an opposition in all things," allowing men to choose between good and evil (2 Nephi 2:11). The first of these choices was made in the garden of Eden, where the "forbidden fruit [was] in opposition to the tree of life; the one being sweet and the other bitter" (2 Nephi 2:15). Jacob reflected these concepts when he declared, "Reconcile yourselves to the will of God, and not to the will of the devil and the flesh" (2 Nephi 10:24).[2]

Jacob closes his sermon.  “[M]y God raise you from death by the power of the resurrection, and also from everlasting death by the power of the atonement” (2 Nephi 10:25).  John Tvedtnes observes:

Jacob's teachings on resurrection derive directly from what he learned from his father. Lehi had spoken of the "power of the Spirit . . . the resurrection" (2 Nephi 2:8), and told him that, without the resurrection, the body would "have been created for a thing of naught [and] there would have been no purpose in the end of its creation" and would have destroyed "the wisdom of God and his eternal purposes" (2 Nephi 2:12). Jacob, too, referred to the "power of the resurrection" (2 Nephi 9:6, 12; 10:25; Jacob 4:11; 6:9) and reflected other thoughts of Lehi in his discourse…[3]

Again, Jacob refers to the grace of God.  John Gee writes:

Nephi's brother Jacob extols the wisdom, mercy, and grace of God in providing the resurrection (2 Nephi 9:8, 53). Jacob, like his brother, notes that one must first be "reconciled unto God," and then, after that, one is saved "through the grace of God" (2 Nephi 10:24). At that point "grace divine" allows one to praise God (2 Nephi 10:25). Jacob also prefigures Jesus's own teaching by noting that "the Lord God showeth us our weakness that we may know that it is by his grace, and his great condescensions unto the children of men, that we have power to do these things" (Jacob 4:7).[4]

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[1] The Apocrypha and the Book of Mormon, Hugh W. Nibley, Provo, Utah: Maxwell Institute, accessed October 4, 2013.

[2] The Influence of Lehi's Admonitions on the Teachings of His Son Jacob, John A. Tvedtnes, Provo, Utah: Maxwell Institute, accessed October 4, 2013.

[3] Ibid.

[4] The Grace of Christ, John Gee, Provo, Utah: Maxwell Institute, accessed October 4, 2013.