By: Karen Rose Trifiletti

Karen Rose Trifiletti — Thu, 06 Mar 2014 02:12:00 +0000

I like your question. I think sometimes we misunderstand the word, “perfect” and the sense in which it’s used in scripture. Often the phrase which goes with it, is omitted… We are to be perfect “in Christ.” As Gramps’ said, we’re not expected to be able to achieve perfection on our own but through the transforming power of grace which we apply through faith in the atonement. Some of us think we have to do things by our own bootstraps. We can’t purify ourselves on our own completely; we can use our agency wisely, but we cannot become perfect without a Savior. I think thinking that we have to be perfect in all things on our own is one of the thought-plagues of our day–as it was in tower of Babel times; people sometimes get the sense that they can climb to heaven on their own merit, or, on the other hand, that they will never get to heaven because they ‘can’t’ climb there on their own–Neither view is correct, but it creeps in everywhere…. because of a misunderstanding of the doctrine of grace and the misunderstanding of the use of the word “perfection.”

Just one more thing… I’d say that there are two parts to how the atonement works–one includes the remission of sins (the wiping out of our errors and mistakes, the cleaning the slate, the canceling the sin-penalty for the event that was sinful (though not always every immediate natural consequence of that)) and the second part is the changed nature. So one part is the removal of the stain of sin and the second is the removal of the desire to sin. I think reconciliation has two parts, and encompasses both.

Comments on: Do we need to be perfect and completely sin free?

By: Karen Rose Trifiletti