Perfection in the Gospel

Members of the Church often talk about perfection, and I sometimes hear it suggested that when children are baptized they are “perfect.”  We joke about how long they will remain perfect (i.e. how long can you go without committing sin?).  But the scriptures don’t say anywhere that we are perfect when we are baptized; rather, we are promised to receive a “remission of [our] sins” (2 Nephi 31:17).  We become clean in the sense that we are forgiven of our sins, but that does not mean that we are perfect or that somehow the eight-year-old who just entered the waters of baptism is in a better spiritual state than the disciple who has been laboring and repenting for decades to become sanctified through the atonement of Jesus Christ and the ordinances of the gospel.  Mormon taught us not that little children are perfect, but rather that they are “whole” because of the atonement of Christ (Moroni 8:8).  We similarly can be made whole through the ordinances of baptism and the Sacrament, but being baptized or partaking of the Sacrament doesn’t make us perfect. 

               Several years ago President Nelson gave a talk about perfection that helps us understand what it really is from a gospel perspective.  He suggested that there are “two categories” of perfection: “The first could pertain uniquely to this life—mortal perfection. The second category could pertain uniquely to the next life—immortal or eternal perfection.”  The former is the kind we normally speak about, the “no mistakes” kind of perfection: “A baseball pitcher can throw a no-hit, no-run ball game. A surgeon can perform an operation without an error. A musician can render a selection without a mistake.”  We can perfect certain aspects of our lives such as in paying our tithing, but we will simply be frustrated if we think we can live life without any mistakes.  Christ’s command to us to “be ye therefore perfect, even as your father in heaven is perfect” was an invitation to become complete and whole, not to live without any mistakes from that time forth (Matt. 5:48).  We are to rather focus on obtaining through Christ the eternal perfection that God seeks for us to develop.  This is what Moroni invited us to do “Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ” (Moroni 10:32).  This kind of perfection is becoming whole or complete through Christ’s help, and it will only fully be achieved after this life: “The perfection that the Savior envisions for us is much more than errorless performance. It is the eternal expectation as expressed by the Lord in his great intercessory prayer to his Father—that we might be made perfect and be able to dwell with them in the eternities ahead.”  This is why Christ did not consider Himself “perfect” until after He was resurrected, even though on earth He made no mistakes.  In this life we can seek to have “perfect uprightness,” a “perfect brightness of hope,” a “perfect understanding,” and “perfect love,” but the complete perfection to become like our Father in Heaven will come only after our mortal journey is completed (Alma 50:37, 2 Nephi 31:20, Alma 48:11, Moroni 8:17).