When we think of Jesus Christ, we naturally think of His perfect nature—His sinless life, His flawless example, His divine mission. Yet the scriptures invite us to see something deeper about our Savior’s mortal experience and what it means to become perfect. By carefully comparing His teachings before and after His resurrection, we discover profound truths about His own journey—and ours—toward divine completion. This understanding doesn’t diminish Christ’s divinity; rather, it magnifies the beauty of His mortal ministry and helps us better appreciate why He truly is our perfect example.
During His mortal ministry, Jesus taught, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). Notice that He points only to the Father as the perfect example. Even more telling, Jesus spoke of His own coming perfection when He declared that He “shall be perfected” (Luke 13:32).
This understanding deepens when we turn to His post-resurrection ministry. Speaking to the Nephites, Jesus made a profound addition to His earlier teaching: “Therefore I would that ye should be perfect even as I, or your Father who is in heaven is perfect” (3 Nephi 12:48). The difference is subtle but significant—only after completing His mortal mission and receiving a fulness could Christ include Himself alongside the Father as an example of perfection.
The Greek word translated as “perfect” in these passages is “teleios,” which means complete, finished, or fully developed. This understanding transforms our view of perfection from an impossible standard of flawlessness to a process of becoming whole. We see this process exemplified in Christ Himself, who “received not of the fulness at first, but continued from grace to grace, until he received a fulness” (D&C 93:13).
Christ’s mortal journey toward completion reveals the true nature of perfection. It wasn’t about overcoming sin—He was always sinless. Rather, it was about fulfilling His divine purpose and receiving a fulness of glory through mortal experience. His declaration from the cross, “It is finished” (John 19:30), marked not just the completion of His atoning sacrifice, but the culmination of His mortal path to perfection.
Christ’s path shows us a better way to view our own progress. We need not be discouraged by our current state, for even Jesus—though sinless—walked a path of development and growth. While we struggle with mortal weaknesses and sins, His example teaches us that perfection is about moving forward with faith until we become complete in Him.
This perspective aligns perfectly with Elder Jeffrey R. Holland’s wise counsel: “Be ye therefore perfect—eventually.” Like Christ, we progress “line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little” (2 Nephi 28:30). This divine pattern of growth—the very pattern by which our Savior progressed—becomes our pathway to perfection.
Our mortal journey, like Christ’s, isn’t about achieving immediate perfection but about steady progression toward our divine potential. Just as He grew “grace to grace,” we too can progress in light and truth, for “he that receiveth light, and continueth in God, receiveth more light; and that light groweth brighter and brighter until the perfect day” (D&C 50:24).
I testify that understanding Christ’s path to perfection transforms our mortal journey from a frustrating pursuit of flawlessness into a sacred path of becoming. Our Savior doesn’t stand at some distant finish line demanding immediate perfection—He walks beside us, having walked this path Himself, guiding us through His perfect example of growth, development, and ultimate completion in the Father.
Elder Linder 