Here's briefly how I've tracked "perfect" through the Text using the Greek it's being translated from:
- Beginning in Hebrews:
- {God's] Son was heard [by our Father] because of His godly fear 5:7
- God's Son learned obedience from what He suffered 5:8 (think of the cross - "nevertheless Father, Your will be done")
- God's Son after He was perfected, became the cause/source/reason for Salvation for all who obey Him 5:9
- The verbs here show this sequence:
- Jesus learned obedience
- Jesus became perfected
- Jesus became the source of Salvation for those who obey Him
- Because I see the Jesus learning obedience as ultimately the cross, I see "perfect" here primarily as the resurrection.
- To see if there is a second witness for this (so to speak), I see this in Philippians:
- Above all things Paul desires to gain Christ and be found in Christ with the righteousness from God based upon faith Phil3:8-9
- Paul's goal in this is to know Christ & the power of Christ's resurrection & the sharing of Christ's sufferings by conforming to Christ's death (note the correlation to the cross) Phil3:10
- If somehow Paul might arrive at the resurrection from the dead Phil3:11
- Then Paul parallels the arriving at the resurrection to being perfected in Phil3:12 and says he presses onward to lay hold of what Christ laid hold of him for.
- So, the reason Jesus Christ - the Savior of men who obey Him (Heb5:9) - laid hold of such men is to perfect them = to resurrect them.
- Now Paul will proceed to explain more of this advance to perfection for Christians = arriving at the resurrection:
- Paul has not reached this goal - perfection/resurrection - yet so he forgets all things that are past and strive forward to what is ahead Phil3:13
- Paul calls this the pressing toward the goal - perfection/resurrection - for the prize of the upward call in Christ Jesus Phil3:14
- In Phil3:15 Paul includes "mature" Christians in this pursuit and commands them to have the same mindset he has in pursuing this goal - perfection/resurrection/the prize of the upward call in Christ Jesus.
- Interestingly here, "mature" is the from the same word that is translated "perfect"
- So, in essence Paul is commanding the perfect [Christians] to above all else pursue "perfection".
- So, what does Paul mean? Back to Hebrews5:
- Continuing in the context of Heb5 and the perfection/resurrection of Jesus Christ, the writer now chides Christians for their lack of advance in the Faith - he says they all should be teachers by now but they have come to need milk and not solid food Heb5:12
- They are infants - milk drinkers - unskilled in the Word of Righteousness Heb5:13
- In contrast, solid food belongs to the "mature" - same Greek word = the "perfect" - described as those whose faculties have become well-exercised (Greek "gymnazo") in judging both good & bad [context = according to the Word of Righteous]
- Christians are then commanded to leave the elementaries (the basics per Heb6:1-2) and move on to "perfection" (same Greek word) Heb6:1
- Then a sobering warning = This we will do IF GOD PERMITS. In other words you better take this seriously.
- And with this in mind back to Philippians 3:
- Paul says those who don't have this mindset are "enemies of the cross of Christ" Phil3:17-19.
- Then Paul instructs that we are citizens of Heaven awaiting Jesus Christ our Savior - who will transform our bodies to be like His (perfection/resurrection).
There is so much here to be understood and obedient to in Faith in Spirit.
There is perfection for the perfected - completion for the completed - Perfection I & Perfection II.
There is also the warning about not pursuing this and there is being labeled as enemies of Christ's Cross - enemies of the ultimate reason Jesus lived, died, was buried, was resurrected. God is perfecting His children as He did their first-born brother (Rom8:29) and Lord Jesus Christ.
Faith. Obedience, Godly Fear, Maturity/Perfection I, Resurrection/Perfection II - vs. Enemies of why Jesus died.
Let us (Apostolic command) move on to Perfection (I & ultimately II) and this we will do if God permits.