Often, when we look at our deeds, we think: “Well… I’m still a long way from Christ and His perfection. I still have to grow and grow.” But what is interesting is that Christ also went through a process of being made perfect. In the letter to the Hebrews it is written: “For it was fitting for Him…to make the captain of their salvation perfect.” [Heb.2:10] But why was it fitting for God to make Christ perfect? Is He not the Son of God, and was He not perfect? It is written that there was no sin in Him and that He is the very righteousness of God. Why then did Christ need to be made perfect?

Christ Is Our Representative

Christ’s being made perfect is written about only in the letter to the Hebrews, in the context of His High Priesthood.

though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him, called by God as High Priest “according to the order of Melchizedek,”
—Hebrews 5:8-10

In the Old Testament, when God gave the Law at Mount Sinai, He also established the high priesthood. The essence of the high priesthood was representing the people before God. In the same chapter of Hebrews it is written: “For every high priest taken from among men is appointed for men…” [Heb.5:1] The high priest was chosen by God to represent the people before Him. What was the essence of his representation? That God judged the whole people of Israel according to what their high priest was like. The high priest had to be blameless before God; that is why he offered sacrifices for himself. [Heb.5:3] And whatever the high priest was like, so was the whole people of Israel in God’s eyes.

Christ, however, became a far better high priest and our representative. He had no need to cleanse Himself, for He is the very Holiness and Righteousness of God. But taking the form of a servant, He became our representative. Often, when we look at the sufferings of Christ, we think: “The Lord suffered for me and for my sins. Thank You, Jesus.” But in fact He suffered as our representative. This means that when Jesus suffered, in God’s eyes you and I suffered. When Jesus bore our infirmities and sicknesses, in God’s eyes you and I went through all the sicknesses, and there is no need to suffer them a second time. When Jesus struggled with the flesh and said: “Not My will, but Yours”, in God’s eyes you and I were there in the garden struggling with the flesh and saying to the Father: “Daddy, not my will, but Yours.” That is why Paul writes: “By one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.” [Rom.5:19] Why are we righteous before God? Because we obeyed God in the body of our Representative and High Priest.

When Jesus became poor on the cross, God saw us poor there, and we died in poverty and rose again in riches and God’s endless blessings. When Jesus died on the cross, it is written: “that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone.” [Heb.2:9] When we think: “Yes, I know Jesus died for me,” it is somehow vague and unclear — what does “died for me” mean? That is why it is so important, when we look at His sufferings, to look at them as our own. When we see Him breathe His last breath, to see that in fact it was we who breathed our last breath there. Why is it so necessary to look at it this way? Because that is how God looks at all of it. That is why Jesus said: “Have faith in God” (literally, “have the faith of God”). [Mar.11:22-23] In other words, look at everything the way God looks at it, for faith is a reality invisible to ordinary eyes. So, as Paul wrote, we walk by faith, not by what we see or what our feelings tell us, for the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. [2 Cor.4:18]

Paul writes to the Philippians: “Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.” [Phl.3:12] Notice that Paul uses the words attained and perfected interchangeably. What Paul is really writing is: “I have not yet come to know how perfect Christ has made me.” That is why further on he continues: “Therefore let us, as many as are mature [literally: perfect], have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you.” [Phl.3:15] Our perfection lies not in our works and efforts, but in our Representative and High Priest Jesus Christ. That is why He took on human form, so that through our sufferings, which He bore in His body, He could make us perfect. [Heb.2:14]

Grace That Fills All in All

In Hebrew, to finish or to complete is kalah [H3615]. Hebrew is wonderful in that wonderful truths are hidden in each of its words. The word kalah consists of three letters: KAPH, LAMED and HE. Hebrew is read from right to left.

The first two letters form the word kol [H3605], which means all, every, each, and the letter HE stands for the grace of God. So it turns out that completion, or being made perfect, is in fact being filled with God’s grace.

In the Old Testament there is a wonderful story about Gideon, who asked the Lord for a sign: “If You will save Israel by my hand as You have said; look, I shall put a fleece of wool on the threshing floor; if there is dew on the fleece only, and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that You will save Israel by my hand, as You have said. And it was so.” [Jdg.6:36-38] Dew in Scripture symbolizes the grace of God. [Pro.19:12] The first sign the Lord gave Gideon symbolized the birth of Christ — the manna from heaven which the Father sent down from heaven. John writes: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” [Jhn.1:14] When Christ was born, the whole world was living in drought, but the grace [dew] of God came down from heaven.

Then Gideon asked the Lord for one more sign: “Do not be angry with me, but let me speak just once more: Let me test, I pray, just once more with the fleece; let it now be dry only on the fleece, but on all the ground let there be dew. And God did so that night. It was dry on the fleece only, but there was dew on all the ground.” [Jdg.6:39-40] The next time, the fleece, which symbolizes the Lamb of God, became dry on the cross, but because of that the whole earth was filled with the grace of God. And the Lord poured out this grace on all mankind: “And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.” [1 Jhn.2:2] That is why in the previous verse John writes: “My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” [1 Jhn.2:1] If you look at yourself and see some imperfections, remember your Advocate, your High Priest and Representative, who is righteous and perfect, and let your mind be filled with the knowledge of His righteousness and His perfection. Because God sees you and me as He is. He sees us in Christ, and the truth is in Jesus, not in your deeds, behavior or circumstances. Rely on the truth and on Christ, not on what is seen and on circumstances.

That is why Paul writes: “For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him” [Col.2:9-10] In Christ dwells the fullness of the Godhead, the fullness of love and the fullness of God’s grace. And this love and grace now flows in an endless stream from the moment God tore the veil in the temple and removed the separation between God and man. The work of our justification, sanctification and perfection was finished by Christ on the cross, and He said: “It is finished!” When we come to know Christ, we come to know our own perfection and attain it, as Paul wrote.

I once asked the Lord: “Is there any point in all this knowing?”, since Paul writes that knowledge will vanish away. [1 Cor.13:8] The Lord showed me that this knowledge matters for our earthly life. In the same place Paul writes: “For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.” [1 Cor.13:12] There is no difference between a believer who knows Christ a little and one who knows Him as Paul did, for when we meet Him we will know Him as He has known us, and the knowledge we have accumulated will cease. We come to know Christ now only in order to fill our mind with His grace and perfection. Peter writes: “Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord” [2 Pet.1:2] By knowing Christ we come to know our new self, and as a result we fill our heart with grace and peace and live in rest, knowing that the work has already been finished by Christ Jesus.

All the Israelites in Egypt were saved not because of their good works and merits, but because they put the blood of the lamb on their doorposts. And regardless of their behavior inside the house, they were saved because of the blood on the doors. The only difference was that some were nervous and worried: “What if the destroyer gets into our house and destroys us, because we sin?”, while others were at rest, trusting the word of the Lord and the blood of the lamb. So today we may doubt our eternal salvation, justification, sanctification and our complete perfection, but the truth remains the truth — the blood of Christ has done its work!!!