Scripture uses perfect in more than one sense. First is in the sense of mature, or complete:
James 1:4 And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
James 3:2 For we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body as well.
Then, unbiased (or possibly selfless). Matt 5:
43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?
47 If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?
48 Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
But there is a perfection that comes through the blood of Jesus Christ:
Hebrews 7:
18 For, on the one hand, there is a setting aside of a former commandment because of its weakness and uselessness
19 (for the Law made nothing perfect), and on the other hand there is a bringing in of a better hope, through which we draw near to God.
Look at the promise from Ezekiel 36:
26 Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
27 I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.
And also Jeremiah 31:
31 “Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah,
32 not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord.
33 “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the Lord, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
Demonstrated in Hebrews 8:10
“For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel After those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their minds, And I will write them on their hearts. And I will be their God, And they shall be My people.
and Heb 10:16
“This is the covenant that I will make with them
After those days, says the Lord:
I will put My laws upon their heart,
And on their mind I will write them,”
And fulfilled in Christ - Heb 9:
15 For this reason He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that, since a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were committed under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.
16 For where a covenant is, there must of necessity be the death of the one who made it.
17 For a covenant is valid only when men are dead, for it is never in force while the one who made it lives. 18 Therefore even the first covenant was not inaugurated without blood.
But look at one other aspect of the promised New Covenant:
Ezekiel 36:25 Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols.
Fulfilled also in Christ, per Hebrews 10:
1 For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near.
2 Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sins?
10 By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
11 Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins;
14 For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.
Hebrews clearly shows that the one who has been sanctified has also been perfected. Also clear is that this perfection is a cleansing, or removal of sin - forever perfected.
One of the greatest failings of Protestant theology is the notion that our righteousness stops at justification and imputation
But what is missed is that OT saints were justified and imputed righteousness even before Jesus even came and died.
So how does the Protestant figure that Jesus came with a better ministry, if His blood didn't accomplish anything better than that of bulls and goats ???
Protestants believe that our sis are "covered" by the blood of Jesus. But the blood of bulls and goats already did that. Why did He have to die if He couldn't provide anything better than a covering?
His blood removes the sin from our inner being. We are literally a new creation. Not "viewed" as righteous, but actually righteous - on the inside.
All this work that people propose in order to become righteous, has already been done by Christ. Those who draw near in faith are cleansed of all filth
AMEN BROTHER:jesus:
