Been Made Perfect
Daily Reading: (Hebrews 10:14): “For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.”
You have been Made perfect (teleioō): to make perfect, complete. This means that you are holy not by what you do but because of what you became through Christ sacrifice.
Christ has already perfected his people, it is complete. I know the text reads “those who are being made holy” and it sounds like an ongoing process but we will explore what is really being said in the original Greek text.
If we believe that our holiness is tied into our performance then when we sin, we can mistakenly believe that we are no longer holy. I am just in process. I am being made; I have not yet become. While it is true none of us are perfect in our behavior and attitudes, what is also true is that all who are in Christ are perfect and are holy. The very people who "have been perfected" are the ones who "are being sanctified." Christ's people are perfected now in the sense that God puts away all our sin and never brings them to mind again as a ground of condemnation. In this sense God sees us as we stand before Him in Christ that we are perfect or blameless. Christ has fully perfected those who are now being sanctified. We are holy or better yet, we are God’s holy people. Practical holiness is learning to walk in the reality that Jesus made you whole and has given you everything you need for life and godliness.
Up to this verse (14) in chapter 10 the point has been that Christ's death for sin replaces the provision for sin in the Old Testament Law. The point is straightforward. The law prescribed repeated animal sacrifices for sin. And the very repetition of the sacrifices that were made for the people’s sins showed that the Old Testament sacrifice did not perfect the sinners. Nothing decisive and once-for-all happened to deal with sin. Because if they had perfected the people once and for all, the sacrifices would have stopped being offered. Why did God have His people do these ritualistic animal sacrifices over and over again? The reason is because it testified to their inadequacy. They did not perfect the people. They did not deal with sin decisively, finally, once for all. This was shown in the first verse of this chapter in Hebrews 10:1: “The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship.” The plan was always Christ.
If you continue to look at yourself and your track record you will never see yourself as you truly are, a holy saint- one who has been made perfect. The atonement was utterly complete; the Father was completely satisfied with the Son and all the enemies will fall before the reigning Christ in heaven.