I take Christ’s being
perfected to designate his process of qualification to become the one who can
confer perfection. That is, the process of Christ’s perfection consists in the
whole course of prerequisites to Christ becoming the all-sufficient, preeminient
high priest. Christ’s entrance into perfection in his acquisition of all he
needed to become this high priest. But just what was necessary, and when did
Christ obtain it?
First, Christ had to
suffer in order to be perfected (2:10; 5:8). His faithful endurance of
suffering was an essential element in his becoming “a merciful and faithful
high priest” who could “help those who are being tempted” (2:17-18). Christ had
to suffer in order to become a high priest who could “sympathize with our
weakness” (4:15). Prerequisite to Christ becoming high priest was not only his
physical solidarity with his human siblings, but his perfect perseverance
through the whole desperate course of human life.
In 5:7-8, Jesus cried
out to God for deliverance, learned obedience through what he suffered, and
then, “being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation” (5:9).
Since Jesus’ learning obedience is coordinate with his suffering, his being
made perfect necessarily follows his whole course of earthly obedience. Only
after his sufferings were completed was Jesus perfected; only when perfected
did Jesus become the source of eternal salvation.
If Jesus’ perfection
in his qualification for high priesthood, the contrast between Christ and the
Levitical priests in Hebrews 7 sheds further light on what his perfection
consists in. The Levitical priests needed constantly to be replaced because
death removed each from office (7:23). By contrast, Christ “holds his
priesthood permanently, because he continues forever” (7:24). So Christ’s
immortality is key to his superiority to the Levitical priests. But when did he
obtain this immortality? The Levitical priests died, and so did he. Hence when
Hebrews says that Jesus “has become a priest . . . by the power of an
indestructible life” (7:16). I take this “Life” to be the glorified
eschatological life he obtained at his resurrection.
Hebrews’ discussion
of Jesus’ perfecting maps consistently onto a grid of humiliation-then-exaltation.
Jesus suffered death and then was crowned with glory and honor (2:9); so, also
he suffered in order to be perfected (2:10). Jesus learned obedience through
what he suffered, which culminated in his death (5:7-8); when delivered from
death he was made perfect (5:9). “For the law appoints men in their weakness as
high priests, but the word of the oath . . . appoints a Son who has been made
perfect forever” (7:28). Having been perfected includes not just his completed
course of faithfulness and his painfully purchased sympathy with human
weakness, but also his transcendence of what weakness and mortality, which he
overcame in his triumph over death. Since Jesus’ perfection includes his
transcendence of mortality, he was, and could only have been, perfected as his
resurrection.
Understanding
perfection as the eschatological fulfillment of God’s saving purposes informs
what it means for Jesus to be perfected. Jesus’ perfection is his fitness to
become the mediator, the conduit, the source of this eschatological fullness.
Only the perfected Christ can perfect others. (R.B. Jamieson, The Paradox of
Sonship: Christology in the Epistle to the Hebrews [Studies in Christian
Doctrine and Scripture; Downers Grove, Ill.: IVP Academic, 2021], 90-91)
