Perfection. To become a perfect man is generally seen as something attainable only in the next age as though it is not yet but must become later after a 2nd coming but scripture says otherwise.
Hebrews 7.11 Therefore, if perfection were through the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people received the law), what further need was there that another priest should rise.
You see perfection has always been the objective of God in our lives. Hebrews 6.1 Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection”. So we do. It was the law and the priesthood that believers were to learn by contrast. What they did in the desert over and over, Taking the tent down and packing the articles to set it all back up again, wax on, wax off. God did once. They were to do the laws and services to engrave on their hearts what is forever in the spirit. The new covenant says that “I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; Paul says that we are living epistles of Gods laws written on our hearts known and read by all men. This is the New Covenant. Not tablets of stone but your invisible part. That is what God is interested in.
God does nothing twice as though the first time He made a mistake. The repetition serves us as reminders. The law was our “guardians and tutors till faith comes” (Gal 4) and not a 2nd coming Jesus. “When that which is perfect comes, that which is in part is done away with”, the repetition stops. We receive the completion.
We can say “Oh! I get it. Thank you God”. The services were not the thing that pleases God. Like He said in Isaiah 1 “When you come to appear before Me, Who has required this from your hand, To trample My courts? Bring no more futile sacrifices; I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting.” The learning of the lesson is what pleases Him. To do them and not learn from them disturbs the heavenly Father.
This is what happens in many religious settings. They know Gods works but they don’t know His ways”. His ways are invisible and His true works are your salvation. For you to be complete. And “we are complete in Him who is the head over all”. If you can see this with your eyes of understanding than it can be said of you too.”That you have come to the light to clearly see that what is required by you is done in God. (John 3.21) It is a gift that God gives. Something He did for us. And you cannot add to make it better or take away from it to make it worse. But you can reject it. You can ignore it like many do. You can even do like the Israelite’s whose corpses died in the wilderness and just refuse to believe what we are saying. And if you are working for it? You may not know the working of faith of the one who said “follow Me that where I am you may be also”. That is what the Jews did.
And the purpose of all the law, priesthood and prophets? For us to learn by their similes. To go onto perfection by what we learn. We are not perfected some silly man riding on a white horsey coming to rapture you. That was a simile, a parable. “For without a parable spake he not to them. It is for you to see heavenly, invisible, holy things that are accomplished “in Christ” for us to receive the gift of eternal life and all its benefits by what is revealed to us by His Word. By receiving in the heart, or in our soul. Our invisible part that remains after the body returns to dust.
19 for the law made nothing perfect; on the other hand, there is the bringing in of a better hope, through which we draw near to God. And this better hope is a living hope. It is the power of God unto salvation and salvation completed in us is perfection of the Fathers Word in us who have faith.
12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”
Yes. This all happens in our invisible part. The place of our transformation. To what end? Our perfection. “Till we come to a perfect man. To the fullness and stature of the Son of God”. And we can do this because we wait for the promise to come at a 2nd coming? No! The law made nothing perfect and neither does the 2nd coming, that is judgement. But the bringing of a new hope does. It brings in us perfection. The new priesthood does. The new covenant does. There is no 3rd covenant for the next Jesus for “He is seated waiting for His enemies to become His footstool. And He is waiting for this to happen because His word alive in you and applied by faith conquers. We have this New covenant that is in force when? When there is a death of the testator. And Christ died, the blood was shed for the redemption, the restitution. For the resusitation and resurrection of as many as will follow. The price was paid. “It is finished” He need not come back to fight or work. He came to do the work of salvation and the proof is that is what His name means. He is salvation. He is the savior. He is the performer of salvation. The author and finisher of our faith not our physicality. Our physicality declines but our inward man is renewed. It is not a constant renewal of just getting better. It is always brand new and does not decline or decay. Our inheritance reserved in heaven which is where our heart is
So we speak of just 2 covenants. There is no mid point between covenants. And the New Covenant just restores to the pre-law order anyway for “the law was added till faith comes”. Do you have that? The only thing new about it is new souls. A renewed invisible part. A new heart with the genetic code given to us to be applied by the spirit through the baptism and trial of fire to transform us back to the likeness of the glory of God. This is what we were created for saying “go forth and have dominion”. Man had this in the beginning when God said of His creation “it is good, very good”. And so we are.
There is an account of the priesthood that “brought in perfection” that is generally misunderstood. It was in Gethsemane that the Son and the Father talked saying “Father if there is any other way, let this cup pass”. This passage is abused to create false humility and keeps people stuck in their sins at the base of the cross. If you remember the Israelite’s were suppose to eat the Passover in haste, why? God did not send His Son for you to wallow in endless confessions over personal failures as though the cross is ineffective to save and transform you. That would be no better than the law in repetitions. God does things once and the Son does the works of the Father. In this way the two are one. In this way we are too.
Christ is our Passover we are to eat in haste. And we are called to “o on to perfection not laying the dead works of repentance and baptisms” and such. The conversation the Father and Son had that night was not about sins as a focus, but the taking away the sin stained conscience for you to move on to perfection in the here and now. When Christ said “Father if there is any other way?” The Father could have easily replied “Yes! Why don’t you do half the job now and finish it at a 2nd coming” but He didn’t. No where is it mentioned in scripture that there is a 2nd coming. It is non-scriptural. The phrase “2nd coming does not exist in scripture.
The”bringing in of a better hope by which we draw close to God” to bring us to perfection has happened and can be activated by faith.
What the 2nd coming seekers look for will never be for they want a visual. But we are receiving a Kingdom that cannot be shaken”. (Heb 12.28) One that “cometh not with observation” meaning visible to the canal eyes.
8 Now this is the main point of the things we are saying: We have such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, 2 a Minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected, and not man.”
And may I add this is in the eternal. It is not a structure like we see but invisible components of the eternal almighty. He beacons us “come up hither”
Here is your non visual. What are you waiting for? A visual? Do you despise the precious blood of the lamb of God. His Son who offered himself with out spot or blemish acceptable to the Father.
Allow “the blood of Christ through the eternal spirit to wash your conscience from dead works to serve the living God” From Hebrews 10.2 For the worshipers, once (purged) purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins”. So we don’t. And like it says in 1st John “he who sins has neither seen Him or known Him. Do you know Him like this?
And this is to be like Him. To receive this gift. He is the gift. “He comes and His reward is with Him”. It is Him. He gave Himself. He was broken down in word form from the beginning. All the law and the prophets, feasts and sacrifices were Him. He is the “Lo I have come in the volume of the book. It is written of Me”. This is Gods genetic code was replicated in this way for us to put Him on one word at a time, one revelation at a time for HIs coming are many. And He comes as a theif because you cannot see Him. But He comes continually or us to become godly, god-like, like Him. Not piously or religiously but God-Like for that is what Godly means. The Word became flesh for us to see that we can become godly while we are in the flesh. Jesus was. And “as He is so are we in the world”. This is perfection and this is the gift. For He comes and His reward is with Him” if you receive Him. But you must receive Him as He is in truth, as He is eternally “the same yesterday, today and forever. Not in human form which He used temporarily to show us the way.
So “follow those who through faith and patience inherit the promises”? The 2nd coming message says the fulfillment of the promises is when Jesus comes back to finish the work. He said ‘it is finished”. But you must believe it. If you are waiting for god like ness you are like the slothful steward who says; my lord delays His coming”. Slothful because that is a lazy posture. If we press on to lay hold of why Christ laid hold of us, we strive for the prize. We compete according to the rules. The rules of faith. That without faith it is impossible to please God. But if We seek Him in the spirit of our mind, “He is a rewarder of those that diligently seek Him”. And “eternal life for those who in patient continence in doing good seek for glory honor and immortality”. So this immortality we seek and He rewards us. And of this immortality? It is not mortally understood because it is not visible. That is why the Lord said “Seeing with their eyes they see not, and hearing with their ears they hear not. For one must see and hear with the heart to understand the things of God. So we do.
We will discuss further what the perfect man does. Like Jesus said. “I do the works of my Father. So we do. We do the works of salvation.
“It is good that a student become like his teacher” So we do. We become lie Him. This is a perfect man.
THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS AT HAND AND ACTIVE EVEN TODAY.