Perfect & Holy

Hebrews 10:14 - For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.

Our precious Savior Jesus, by His sacrifice, has forever made perfect those people who are also in the process of being made holy – Christ-followers. When I read this scripture, I wondered what the differences were between being perfect and being holy and why believers are already perfect but in the process of being made holy. The following is what I learned:

Already Perfect

God requires perfection in order to live eternally with Him in heaven. There is no sin in heaven…no illness…no strife…no imperfection. So in our sinful humanity, we are not qualified to reside with Him upon our death. God tells us that the payment for sin is death. Well, in the Hebrews 10 verse, we understand that Jesus sacrificed His life on our behalf. He died in our place so that we could live forever with Him and the Father. If we accept Jesus as our Savior, our Redeemer, our Lord, we then are “qualified” to enter into heaven. His sacrifice has made us perfect forever. Upon Christ’s death, every believer was (past-tense) made perfect in the spiritual sense; not yet in the physical sense.

“Only in death, when our earthly bodies will be dissolved and we receive the promised glorious new bodies like the Lord (1 John 3:1-3), will we be actually made perfect.  However, as Christians, the Holy Spirit dwells in us and if we abide by the spirit of His law (Romans 8), we are in the process of being perfected.  Through Jesus’ sacrifice, and His love working through us, and not by our own works, we can be ‘perfect.’”¹

In the Process of Becoming Holy

Leviticus 11:44a - I am the Lord your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy.

This word holy has the connotation of being set apart, sanctified, and dedicated. Perfection is a spiritual state to be experienced after death. In contrast, holiness is a spiritual posture that we take in this lifetime, whereby we decide that we will consecrate ourselves; we will set ourselves apart for God’s purposes in our lives. And the “heavy lifting” in this process is not even actually done by us – it is done by our Savior Jesus.

Holiness is not an elusive concept that Christians talk about but can never experience. I think that we confuse holiness with perfection. We believe holiness means infallibility and we all know that we can’t achieve that, so we almost dismiss the concept all together. Holiness, however, is not an unattainable state. God did not tell us to be holy knowing that we could never do it. We are fallible. That is fact. We are flawed. And even with the best of intentions, we still mess up. But with the Holy Spirit living and working inside of us, we are inspired and empowered to live lives that are set apart for God’s purposes. We present ourselves to God as living sacrifices – doing our best to deny our flesh and live according to His spirit.

Romans 8:5&9a - Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit…

When we set our minds on the things of the Spirit, Jesus does the work of making us holy, just as God is holy. And by the mercy of this same God, Christ has given His life to cover our sins – past, present, and future since we will not execute holiness perfectly. J

So we can rejoice because we, right now, in the Spirit-realm, are perfect! When we pass from this life to the next, we will experience that perfection.

We can also rejoice, right now, because Christ is working in us so that we may set ourselves apart for God and walk in true holiness here on earth.

Amazing.