Yesterday our brother in Christ Alex, brought us great exhortation from the book of Jude. This week I'll be spending time in this portion of Scripture, as I will in 2Tim. 3:16-17 which our brother Jim brought to us last evening.
Here are my observations of the precious Word of God in Jude...
The called are beloved in God. This is God's effectual call AND effectual love. Nothing potential, nothing Self-activated, nothing earned. God's call and love to those whom He chose to love and save are all-powerful because HE is all-powerful.
God's love, like His grace, is not without effect.
1Co 15:10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace which was toward me has not been without fruit, but I labored more abundantly than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me.
We are called and are beloved IN God the Father, kept FOR Christ Jesus.
Who keeps us?
Jud 1:24 Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, 5 to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.
1Pe 1:5 who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
Eph 1:13 In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation--having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14 who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God's own possession, to the praise of His glory.
Why does God keep us? Another way to say it is, why does God save us to the END of our salvation?
What is the PURPOSE OF SALVATION? What's the goal of it?
Simply this: God's sole glory.
Therefore His plan and purpose and choice in deciding whom He wants to save, He makes it happen. His plan bears His fruit, His power, and His glory.
Therefore His plan and purpose and choice in deciding whom He wants to save, He makes it happen. His plan bears His fruit, His power, and His glory.
Eph 1:5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.
Eph 1:11 also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, 12 to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory.
Eph 1:13 In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation--having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14 who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God's own possession, to the praise of His glory.
Eph 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.
Rom 8:29 For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; 30 and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.
Joh 15:4 "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. 5 "I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. ...16 "You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.
Col 3:4 When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.
Joh 3:30 "He must increase, but I must decrease.
Php 2:13 for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.
John MacArthur's notes on this verse are worth reading. As you can see, God's call and love are not powerless but rather absolutely effectual, bearing His fruit by His power, according to His plan and purpose, for His glory. He doesn't merely save us from His righteous wrath and Hell, but gives abundant love and goodness to us, all of which we are ill-deserving of:
called. As always in the epistles, this refers not to a general invitation to salvation, but to God’s irresistible, elective call to salvation (cf. Rom. 1:7; 1 Cor. 1:23,24; 1 Thess. 5:24; 2 Thess. 2:13,14). This call yields: 1) fellowship with Christ (1 Cor. 1:9); 2) peace (1 Cor. 7:15); 3) freedom (Gal. 5:13); 4) a worthy walk (Eph. 4:1); 5) hope (Eph. 4:4); 6) holiness (1 Pet. 1:15); 7) blessing (1 Pet. 3:9); and 8) eternal glory (1 Pet. 5:10). Cf. “grace of our God” (v. 4).
sanctified. The better Gr. texts have “beloved” (see marginal note). Cf. John 13:1; 14:23; 16:27; 17:20,23; Rom. 5:8; 1 John 3:1, which expand on the idea of unconditional, thus unending, love from God to the believer in Christ. It is certainly because of that love that believers are “sanctified,” set apart from sin to God by the transformation of conversion. God the Father. The plan of salvation and its fulfillment come from God, who is not only Father in the sense of creation and origin of all that exists, but is also “God our Savior” (v. 25; cf. 1 Tim. 2:4; Titus 1:3; 2:10; 3:4). See note on 1 Tim. 4:10.
preserved. See note on v. 24. God not only initiates salvation but He also completes it through Christ, thus preserving or keeping the believer secure for eternal life (cf. John 6:37–44; 10:28–30; 17:11,15; Rom. 8:31–39; 2 Tim. 4:18; Heb. 7:25; 9:24; 1 Pet. 1:3–5).
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