There is a hard connect between keeping the commandments and eternal life:
Matthew 19:16-19---King James Version
16 And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?
17 And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.
18 He saith unto him, Which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness,
19 Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
I can understand why Mormons are unable to correctly understand teh above passage. Part of it is because (as usual) you rip it out of context (since it refutes your false theology).
Why didn't you quote the ENTIRE account?:
Matt. 19:20 The young man said to him, “All these I have kept. What do I still lack?” 21 Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” 22 When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
So according to this passage, even keeping the commandments isn't sufficient to have eternal life. One must also take a vow of poverty (something I don't remember reading in the Mosaic Law). Further, if you think a vow of poverty is a requirement for salvation, then welcome to Roman Catholicism!
But here is the correct understanding of Jesus' teaching. What is the purpose of the Law? Paul tells us:
Rom. 3:19 Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. 20 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
So Paul is basically teaching that the Law with its commandments doesn't give us salvation, it simply confirms our sin. We are INCAPABLE of keeping the Law, and so be saved by it.
Paul clarifies elsewhere:
Gal. 3:24 So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. 25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, 26 for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.
So the purpose of the Law is two-fold:
1) to convict us of our sin;
2) to lead us to Christ.
So did Jesus bring the Law to the rich young ruler with the expectation that he would keep it? Of course not! And in fact, the ruler actually believed he was keeping the law, when he wasn't. The purpose of the law is to try to keep it, and to fail and fail and continue failing, until you reach desperation, and are forced to appeal to God for mercy (in Christ). The RYR hadn't yet reached that point, so Christ simply kept pointing him to the Law.
Another LDS poster here used to love to quote C.S. Lewis' "Scissors" quote. And that quote comes from one of two chapters on "Faith" in Lewis' book, "Mere Christianity". Lewis (although an Anglican) understood the Law very well. And Mormons would do well to read both those chapters in their entirety.
Here are some excerpts:
"I am trying to talk about Faith in the second sense, the higher sense. I said last week that the question of Faith in this sense arises after a man has tried his level best to practise the Christian virtues, and found that he fails, and seen that even if he could he would only be giving back to God what was already God's own. In other words, he discovers his bankruptcy."
[...]
"He is misunderstanding what he is and what God is. And he cannot get into the right relation until he has discovered the fact of our bankruptcy."
[...]
"Now we cannot, in that sense, discover our failure to keep God's law except by trying our very hardest (and then failing).Unless we really try, whatever we say there will always be at the back of our minds the idea that if we try harder next time we shall succeed in being completely good. Thus, in one sense, the road back to God is a road of moral effort, of trying harder and harder. But in another sense it is not trying that is ever going to bring us home. All this trying leads up to the vital moment at which you turn to God and say, "You must do this. I can't."
-- Lewis, C. S.. Mere Christianity . CrossReach Publications. Kindle Edition.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints agree with the testimony of the scriptures.
No, it doesn't.
The LDS church theology contradicts Isa. 64:6, Eph. 2:8-9, 2 Tim. 1:9, Tit. 3:5, Rom. 4:1-6, Rom. 11:5-6, etc. etc. etc.
