In Moroni’s parting words, just before he bids his readers farewell, he quotes one last time from the writings of Isaiah (Moroni 10:31; cf. Isaiah 52:1–2; 54:2, 4), then exhorts the house of Israel to “come unto Christ, and be perfected in him” (Moroni 10:32). With this, he provides guidelines towards becoming perfected in Christ, namely, to “deny yourselves of all ungodliness,” to “love God with all your might, mind and strength,” to “in nowise deny the power of God,” to be “sanctified in Christ by the grace of God, through the shedding of [his] blood,” thus becoming “holy, without spot” (Moroni 10:32–33).
Since the beginning of time, men had achieved this perfection. Seth was “a perfect man,” in his appearance the “express likeness of his father” Adam (D&C 107:43). “Noah was a just man, perfect in his generation,” who “walked with God” (Genesis 6:9; Moses 8:27). The Lord commanded Abraham to “walk before me, and be thou perfect” (Genesis 17:1). Job was a man “perfect and upright,” who “feared God, and eschewed evil” (Job 1:1, 8; 2:3).
Alma teaches that many such persons of old, being ordained “after the order of his Son,” chose to “repent and work righteousness rather than to perish” (Alma 13:7–10). He says, “Therefore they were called after this holy order, and were sanctified, and their garments were washed white through the blood of the Lamb. Now they, after being sanctified by the Holy Ghost, having their garments made white, being pure and spotless before God, could not look upon sin save it were with abhorrence; and there were many, exceedingly great many, who were made pure and entered into the rest of the Lord their God” (Alma 13:11–12).
While the ancients who were “called after the holy order of God” thus attained perfection (Ether 12:10), to Israel God gave the (lesser) Law of Moses. Abinadi explains, “It was expedient that there should be a law given to the children of Israel, yea, even a very strict law; for they were a stiff-necked people, quick to do iniquity, and slow to remember the Lord their God; Therefore there was a law given them, yea, a law of performances and of ordinances, a law which they were to observe strictly from day to day, to keep them in remembrance of God and their duty towards him” (Mosiah 13:29–30).
The law of Moses, however, was for them but a “preparatory gospel” (D&C 84:26) and a “type of things to come” (cf. Mosiah 13:31). In another sense, considering that many persons anciently observed a higher law “after the order of his Son” (Alma 13:7), the law of Moses could also be regarded as a “shadow of things that had been.” In either case—before, during, or after Israelite times—“in the gift of his Son hath God prepared a more excellent way” (Ether 12:11).
Paul thus exhorts the Jewish saints to “go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works” (Hebrews 6:1). He says, “For the law [of Moses] made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto God” (Hebrews 7:19). Through God’s Son, in other words, we come “unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13), in all ages of the world.
While Jesus desired that his people “be perfect even as I, or your Father who is in heaven is perfect” (3 Nephi 12:48; cf. Matthew 5:48), he himself underwent a perfection process. Paul teaches that Jesus was made “perfect through sufferings” (Hebrew 2:10). For, “though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him” (Hebrew 5:8–9; cf. Luke 13:32).
Just as Jesus “received not of the fulness at first, but continued from grace to grace, until he received a fulness”—thus being “called the Son of God”—so, by keeping his commandments, we too may continue from “grace for grace” until we “receive of his [Father’s] fulness, and be glorified in me as I am in the Father” (D&C 93:13–14, 20). Though we may endure trials and afflictions, if we love God with all our might, mind, and strength, “then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ” (Moroni 10:32).
As Peter reminded the saints of his day, “After that ye have suffered a while” the Lord will “make you perfect” (1 Peter 5:10). Enduring afflictions “for Christ’s sake” (Alma 4:13; cf. 2 Timothy 3:12) thus purifies and sanctifies us. Though the righteous Nephites were at times made “to suffer great persecutions, and to wade through much affliction… nevertheless they did fast and pray oft, and did wax stronger and stronger in their humility, and firmer and firmer in the faith of Christ, unto the filling their souls with joy and consolation, yea, even to the purifying and the sanctification of their hearts, which sanctification cometh because of their yielding their hearts unto God” (Helaman 3:34–35).
In addition to the many persecutions Paul suffered, “there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong [in Christ]” (2 Corinthians 12:7–10).
Through being perfected in Christ, we are received into his presence. For just as the Brother of Jared’s “perfect knowledge of God” enabled him to rend the veil and “see Jesus” (cf. Ether 3:20), so may we “become clean before the Lord” and “sanctified in [Christ]” and see what the Brother of Jared saw (Ether 4:6–7). Jesus’ great intercessory prayer—“that they may be one” (John 17:21; cf. 3 Nephi 19:23, 29)—is thus fulfilled as we become perfect in Christ: “I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me” (John 17:23).
While “just men made perfect” see God (cf. Hebrews 12:22–24; 3 Nephi 12:8; D&C 76:62–70; 84:22; 97:16; Moses 1:2), many of us “are not able to abide the presence of God now, neither the ministering of angels” (D&C 67:13). Such, therefore, are to “continue in patience until ye are perfected” (D&C 67:13). For as “that which is governed by law is also preserved by law and perfected and sanctified by the same” (D&C 88:34), if we would be perfect in Christ we must “abide the law of a celestial kingdom” (D&C 88:22); otherwise we must “inherit another kingdom, even that of a terrestrial kingdom, or that of a telestial kingdom” (D&C 88:21).