Was Jesus "Perfected" as Opposed to "Perfect"?

 

 I feel that I need to be very careful with what I am going to be presenting here today. I want to make it very clear that what I am writing is not a commonly accepted theological doctrine, but is a continuation of a thought experiment that I started writing about on December 10. If you have not read that or would like a refresher on what was written, you can access that article by clicking here. What follows exists because after I wrote that article, I came across another verse, which lead to a couple more, that may open up that theory a little more.

It was maybe two days after I wrote the above mentioned article that my wife and I read Hebrews 5 as part of our shared devotional time. In verses 7-10 of that chapter, we read, "In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety. ⁸ Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. ⁹ And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation, ¹⁰ being designated by God as a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek." This passage is talking about Jesus praying and pleading with God that the future that Jesus faced, not only His crucifixion but also the spiritual battle that He alone could face, could be removed from Him if at all possible, as we also read about in Matthew 26. But what really grabbed my attention was what comes next. "Although He was a Son (God's Son), He learned obedience from the things which He suffered."

I have written previously about how a muscle grows through being strained slightly beyond what it can currently handle, and how the same is true of our faith. We grow in faith, we learn more about faith, through our struggles. Here we read that Jesus learned obedience through His struggles, just as we do.

But that's not all. We read in verse nine that Jesus, "having been made perfect", presumably through His struggles, "He became...the source of eternal salvation,". This sure seems to tell us that this was a process through which Jesus had to walk. That He was not always perfect in His life and that He had to learn the obedience through which He attained His perfection.

This is Scripture, and we are called to believe it, because "All Scripture is inspired by God [God-breathed] and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; ¹⁷ so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work." 2 Timothy 3:16-17. But is there any other Scripture that speaks to this? As it turns out there is, earlier in the book to the Hebrews.

In chapter 2 verse 10 we read, "For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings." So God, for and through are all things, in order to bring many people to glory, had to perfect, or bring to perfection, the author of that salvation, Jesus, and to do so through the sufferings of Jesus. The original Greek word used here for "perfect" is G5048, "teleioo tel-i-o'-o from 5046; to complete, i.e. (literally) accomplish, or (figuratively) consummate (in character):--consecrate, finish, fulfil, make) perfect"[a]. This is a word depicting an action, and to consummate means to bring to completion. Something cannot be brought to completion if it is already completed, and one does not need to act to bring something to completion if it is already completed. This adds to the proofs that Jesus had to strive towards His perfection through the struggles that He faced throughout His life on earth.

But there's more! In Hebrews 2:14-15 we read, "Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, ¹⁵ and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives." This further indicates that it is due to the flesh nature of Jesus that He had to go through the same trials as we do, in the same ways that we do. So He could not have done so as God-in-man or He would have had supernatural power to overcome. Jesus did, however have an advantage over us in that He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and not of the will of man. This means that Jesus was not subject to the law of sin and punishment that man is born into.

Jesus had to go through the process of being perfected in order to endure the things that we, as humans, have to endure in the way that we, as humans, have to endure them. Jesus had to succeed where Adam failed. Jesus attained this perfection through regular and repeated prayer in order to gain the needed submission. If Jesus had come as a perfect person, then He would not be an example of an attainable goal. It is not that Jesus was perfect all His life, but He was sinless sacrifice, not by His own inherent supernatural ability, but by the ability given to Him supernaturally by the Holy Spirit, and He tells us how He accomplished that; "And He who sent Me is with Me; He has not left Me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him.” (John 8:29)

This is the road map for us to walk a sinless life as well. Our hindrance is that we are burdened by the law of sin and punishment as a result of our fully human nature, so we struggle to always do the things that are pleasing to God. God knows that this is the major weakness that we struggle with and does not expect that we will be able to attain to perfection in this life, but He does want us to fight towards attaining that goal. He wants us to be as Paul, who tells us in 1 Cor. 9:24-27, " Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win. ²⁵ Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. ²⁶ Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; ²⁷ but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified."

I have not gone into this with the intent of just trying to prove my theory correct. In fact, I have not yet considered the ramifications of this theory, which I probably need to work on next. I have, however, done some research into the basis of the doctrine of Jesus' perfection. I found the following verses that are purported to speak to the sinless nature of Jesus; but I have not found that any of these verses preclude the possibility that Jesus became perfect through His sufferings; only that He was the perfect and sinless sacrifice.

1 Pet. 2:21-22  For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps, ²² who committed no sin[G266], nor was any deceit found in His mouth;

2 Cor. 5:21      He made Him who knew no sin[G266] to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

Heb. 1:3         And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,

Heb. 4:15         For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin[G266].

Heb. 7:26         For it was fitting for us to have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens;

Heb. 9:14       how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

Rom. 5:19       For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous.

1 John 3:5       You know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin[G266].

1 Pet. 1:19       but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.

Matt. 5:17      “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.

I have also marked the word "sin" with the Greek word that was used, as there are several words used in the Greek to indicate what we refer to as sin, but many of those have specific meanings as to the type of sin. G266 refers back to G264 and can be both a noun and a verb, depending on it's form; hamartia is a noun and hamartan is a verb. These words seem to indicate a simple offence or to have simply erred, so they can be used in the sense of any act of sin. In reading the above verses, I don't see a direct conflict with the theory that Jesus became perfect as opposed to His having been perfect through His entire life.

Again, I want to emphasize that this is a thought experiment. It is not my wish to cause anybody to stumble in their faith walk or question what you believe to be true. As I mentioned earlier, I think I will have to spend some more time considering the ramifications of this realization if it is true. If it is true, then we need to adjust our views, but I expect that this will merely require a tweak to our thinking and not an entire upheaval in our theology. As always, our theology needs to be based on and supported by Scripture.

As always, please let me know what you think in the comments section below. I know that it says that you have to sign in to comment, but I don't think that is actually necessary, and you may even be able to post anonymously if you prefer.

[a]  https://www.eliyah.com/cgi-bin/strongs.cgi?file=greeklexicon&isindex=5048