Be Ye Therefore Perfect

In the last couple of weeks, I’ve started wandering back to Answerbag again. In so doing, I have once again gotten sucked into some interesting Gospel discussions. I thought I’d share my response to a particular question, posed by a friend of mine that’s somewhat antagonistic toward the Church of Jesus Christ. His question:

Matt 5:48: “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” Heb 10:14: “by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.” Doesn’t that mean that Heavenly Father sees us as perfect despite our flaws & sins?

My response was as follows:

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Not at all. Each of these passages must be looked at in context.

Matthew 5:48 is the last verse of the paragraph begun in v.43, which is itself the last paragraph of the entire chapter. Throughout this section, the Lord is comparing the Mosaic priests and their teachings to the Christian disciples and His own, greater teachings. Thus we find v.13 referring to Christ’s disciples as “the salt of the earth,” in stark contrast to “the salt [that] has lost his savour.” This brings us to the dichotomies found in vv.21-48, which culminate in vv.46-48 (as I will now summarize):

The publicans only love whoever loves them back; you’ve got to be better.

The publicans don’t salute anyone but their brethren; you’ve got to better.

The publicans are living the law of Moses; you’ve got to live the law of God, and that requires perfection.

Now, does this mean we’ll be damned if we’re not perfect? Sort of, yes. But there’s a catch: the Lord has paid the price for our sins, so His grace atones for them. All He asks in return is that we keep striving to improve ourselves, so that once He’s paid for all those sins, we won’t backslide and make the whole thing worthless anyway.

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Now let’s move on to Hebrews 10:14. Again, we need to note the context: Paul is discussing the blood sacrifices/offerings performed by the Mosaic priests: specifically, the fact that no matter how often they make these offerings, they still have to be made again, and again, and again, and again, and… ad infinitum. No matter how many times the priests perform their sacrifices, they’ll still never be enough to atone for our sins.

In vv.10-14, Paul contrasts this with the literally infinite Atonement of the Savior. While the priests would have to perform an infinite number of sacrifices to even scratch the surface of our sins (if even that much), Christ sacrificed Himself once, and covered everything. Period. Thus, through this one, singular sacrifice, “[H]e hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified” (v.14).

So let’s analyze v.14, since this is the crux of the question. Whether we use the KJV or the NIV [which my friend referenced elsewhere], it seems quite obvious that there is yet another dichotomy here: there is a distinct difference between perfection and sanctification. It is the failure to recognize this simple distinction that trips so many people up, when it comes to the relationship between faith and works. I thus refer the reader to the Encyclopedia of Mormonism, which has a wonderfully clear and concise article on sanctification.

In short, the article states that there are three parts to sanctification: Christ’s atoning sacrifice for sin, the Holy Ghost’s purification that leaves the sanctified with hatred for sin, and the individual’s own personal progression towards that lofty goal of perfection. Thus, the influence of the Holy Ghost combines with the individual’s own meager efforts to produce a person completely free of sinful desires. As we do all we can to follow the Lord’s injunction in Matthew 5:48, we allow the influence of the Holy Ghost to more fully overcome our own, natural desires. Eventually, this influence makes us so perfect that we would never even think of sinning (à la 1 John 3:9). In fact, we’d be absolutely perfect, if it weren’t for two inconvenient facts: first, our bodies are still imperfect and mortal; and second, our past sins make it impossible for us to atone for ourselves.

So this brings us back to the third point of sanctification: the infinite and Eternal Atonement of Christ spoken of in Hebrews 10:10. Through Christ’s resurrection, so will we be resurrected; and through His free gift of payment for our sins, so will God forgive them. Thus we see what Nephi means when he says that “it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do” (2 Nephi 25:26): our efforts are required to effectuate true repentance, but if Christ’s atonement didn’t perfect us (as stated in Hebrews 10:14), it wouldn’t matter anyway.

Conversely, even though Christ has atoned for our sins, that atonement doesn’t do us any good if we refuse to forsake them. Thus, the commandment in Matthew 5:48.

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So what do you think? How’d I do? Does this line up with your understanding of these two passages?