Why does Nephi teach that we are saved by grace “after all we can do”?

Salvation and godly perfection through own merits is impossible. The phrase “all we can do” means being reconciled to God, having faith in Christ, sincerely repenting of our sins, entering into the Gospel covenant of baptism in his name. To those who follow this pattern the Lord promises the gift of the Holy Ghost and if they press forward, striving to keep his commandments in faith and endure to the end, eternal life. Later Nephite prophets recounted the example of Lamanite converts who, upon hearing the Gospel message, experienced a mighty change of heart after they believed in Christ, repented of all their sins and were baptized in his name (Alma 19:35). Echoing Nephi’s earlier teachings, one of these taught it had been, “all we could do, (as we were the most lost of all mankind) to repent of all our sins . . . for it was all we could do to repent sufficiently before God that he would take away out stain” (Alma 24:11)