"Pursuing Perfection"

Hebrews 2:11- "For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren..."
In this verse we see believers being referred to as, "those who are being sanctified," The word "sanctified" means, "set apart, to make holy." Notice that God is the One who sanctifies. We are not cleaning ourselves up but letting Him work in us to clean us up. The fact that we are BEING SANCTIFIED (present tense) shows that we are currently going through a process of growing to be more like the Lord. Regardless of how long someone has been following the Lord, they will always find that there is some way in which they have fallen short of perfection. None of us have "arrived" spiritually (and we will only when we are in heaven). The apostle Paul realized this and wrote, "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 laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 3:12-14)
Comparing his life to a race, Paul painted a picture of a runner who knew his race wasn't over yet and kept running, giving it everything he had to finish the race. Paul's passion was to know Jesus and be like Him (see Philippians 3:8-11), and he passionately pursued that goal, always aware that while he may have made progress he still had not fully realized that goal. There is another important fact revealed here about Paul's pursuit: his decision to forget "those things which are behind." This simply means Paul refused to let his past keep him from going forward. Paul apparently learned that he was a new creature in Christ Jesus and refused to let his past mistakes slow him down. In this life we must press on in this passionate pursuit of the Lord.

I find it amazing that in Hebrews 2:11 it says that the Lord is not ashamed to call us His "brethren." I really love this: the Lord sees our weaknesses and He works with us on those points, but He is not ashamed of us. God is far more patient with us than we are with ourselves-and He sees this process differently than many of us do:
Hebrews 10:10- "By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all."
While in Hebrews 2:11 it says we are "being sanctified [present tense]" it says here that we "have been sanctified[past tense]." So which is correct, past tense or present tense? They both are. Colossians 2:10 tells us that we are "complete in Him [Jesus]," and Hebrews 10:14 says, "For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified." God sees our perfection as something that happened at the cross. The process we now experience is simply one of us growing into who we already are. Both Hebrews 10:10 and 10:14 speak of "one sacrifice" with reference to Jesus' death on the cross. Jesus did the work and finished it, actually declaring, "It is finished!" (John 19:30) We know that we will grow into this perfection because Jesus already did it when He died and rose again! Now we can look to Jesus not just to forgive us but to also perfect us and bring deliverance, freedom, and healing. Jesus did the work completely and He has laid hold of us (Philippians 3:12) to help us press on to be all He wants us to be.