Heres just a few excerpts from the Bible:
Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works. Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only. Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot bjustified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way? Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent. And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations: Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth. And let ours also learn to maintain good works for necessary uses, that they be not unfruitful. This is a faithful saying, and these things I will that thou affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable unto men. By this we know that we alove the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous. 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 blife, keep the commandments. And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition. If ye love me, keep my ccommandments. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love. That thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukeable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ: And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. And whatsoever we aask, we receive of him, because we keep his ccommandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus. And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments. O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children for ever! This day the Lord thy God hath commanded thee to do these statutes and judgments: thou shalt therefore keep and do them with all thine heart, and with all thy soul. Therefore thou shalt keep the commandments of the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, and to fear him. For if ye shall diligently keep all these commandments which I command you, to do them, to love the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, and to cleave unto him; When thou shalt hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, to keep all his commandments which I command thee this day, to do that which is right in the eyes of the Lord thy God. Therefore shall ye keep my commandments, and do them: I am the Lord. My son, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments: Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.
Well, the prophets in the scriptures are always going on about it. The prophets of today are always going on about it. Many times the issue of Grace seems to make people think that they're forgiven in their sins and not from their sins. Thats why the Book of Mormon is so helpful in understanding that Grace is given "after all we can do." We are saved and Christ's when we accept His will over ours. If we do that then we are under His protection, He has overcome all sin, so death and hell have no hold on us. He is our shield and our sword against evil. When we turn to Him, He turns to us and breaks the chains of our sins. If we decide to put those chains on again then He will be there when we repent and want them off again. But, if we no longer want Him as our Savior and reject His commandments then we will be left to fend for ourselves against the power of the Destroyer, Satan because we are left vulnerable and unprotected.
Probably one of the top 10 most quoted scriptures in the LDS church is Helaman 5:12:
And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the arock 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.
So much imagery is used in the scriptures to talk about spiritual things in a physical sense. Chains, rocks, bread, water, bodies, temples, paths, darkness, fruit, waves, snakes, doves, etc. The imagery should cause you to think of it in real terms. Thats the point of the scriptures is to have you think of the doctrines of God in real terms by relating to the people or the imagery. It might be confusing at times (Isaiah) but the Lord always is giving symbols and references to very real things and keeping the commandments is one of the few things God never minces words about. The summary of the scriptures might be this:
God created man, man sinned, God called prophets to tell man not to sin, a Savior was sent pay for the sins of man with His own life, God calls prophets to tell man not to sin, man is resurrected and judged based on if he accepted the Savior and repented of his sins, the end.
As I've already talked about, there are blessings to keeping the commandments. Many, many blessings, even unseen blessings. The Lord doesn't give a commandment without the basis on fulfillment of it being a blessing to the recipient. Nothing the Lord would command would be digression. Its all an uplifting, help on the path back to God. All the scriptures testify of God being good and loving, so keeping His commandment shouldn't make us cringe or be angry. We should rejoice on hearing a commandment. We should be thankful that we have the light of the Lord to instruct us. We should mourn that we aren't keeping the commandments more fully and ask God to help us in our weaknesses.
The snakes that bit the Moses' people were sent by God. The people were bitten so as to remember their God and stop going on in foolishness. The way to being healed was simple, all they had to do was look to the snake uplifted on a stick. Some still wouldn't look. They didn't think it would work. Its simplicity was too much. Well, the same is with us today in looking to Christ to be healed. Its very simple. Have faith in Christ and keep the commandments and be healed.
