If perfection could be accomplished with just an absence of sin, we all could have accomplished it by simply not coming to Earth.
2 Nephi 2:11 explains, "For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. If not so...righteousness could not be brought to pass..."
There can be no perfection without active righteousness and that righteousness cannot be accomplished without opposition.
In truth, Satan could defeat the Plan of Salvation anytime by simply walking away; leaving the residents of the Earth with no opposition and thereby no choice between good and evil and no opportunity to live righteously by choice. Satan came here vowing to destroy the Plan, but ironically his presence here creates the environment of "opposition" that makes the Plan possible.
A relevant example of the absolute necessity of opposition is the City of Enoch. Why was the whole city removed from the Earth; rather than allowing it to be a shining example for us and a place we could all go to get away from the world? Perhaps the City of Enoch had to be removed because their accomplishment of perfection as a society would have adversely affected anyone who moved there because there were no temptations there anymore. They defeated Satan.
If we lose the "opposition" we simultaneously lose the ability to be perfected. Yet, even saturated as we are in Satan's influence, that alone must not be enough to accomplish our purpose here because the Lord tells us in Ether 12:6 that he has also given us individual weaknesses to overcome.
This life is an individual battle and who you become is all you get from this life. Thus, Satan doesn't need to convert you to his side in order to win; he just needs to keep you distracted with worldly ideas long enough that you don't become who you have come here to become. As Nephi put it, "others will he pacify, and lull them away into carnal security, that they will say: All is well in Zion; yea, Zion prospereth, all is well—and thus the devil cheateth their souls, and leadeth them away carefully down to hell." (2 Nephi 28:21). A modern example of this could be believing in "faith without works."
Quenten L. Cook said in the most recent conference that self control is like a muscle. The more you use it the stronger it gets. The opposite would also be true.
Quenten L. Cook said in the most recent conference that self control is like a muscle. The more you use it the stronger it gets. The opposite would also be true.
Self-control is the reason we are here. Why else would we have bodies that are programmed to want things we are commanded not to participate in? Why else would we be commanded to share what we have with the poor and needy when the Lord could irradiate their needs without our help? Because works don't save us they change us. You become a different person when you participate in this self-sacrificing activities.
It is a very simplistic definition, but we came here for the freedom and opportunity to choose between good and evil and perfection is accomplished when we get to a point where we always choose good.
Jesus died to erase the mistakes we all make along that path of active individual perfection. A person who is simply relieved of his/her sins, without the requirement of self-improvement, accomplishes no more than if he hadn't come to Earth at all. We must strive to perfect ourselves through active discipleship, having our "garments washed white" each week (Alma 13:11) through the atonement of Jesus Christ, until the day that we stand triumphant, like the occupants of the City of Enoch, and then we can return home as sons and daughters of God to inherit the kingdom of our Father (Mathew 25:34).
Moses 6:68
Behold, Thou are one in me, a son of God; and thus may all become my sons. Amen.
