October 18, 2022 - Jude

“To those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ” (1). Just a portion of Jude’s greeting and easily passed over. But, wow, what encouragement and assurance! We are called by God; he has intentionally and deliberately come after us and brought us to himself. We are beloved in God the Father; he loves us and we are his dear children. And we are kept for Jesus Christ. Jesus paid such a great price to redeem us. The Father will never allow us to fall away. We are kept for Jesus, and one day, we will all be presented as trophies of his grace.

Now, Jude has some other things about which he is writing. He is particularly concerned about false teachers who have crept in and ungodly people and scoffers. He warns about these. But he comes back, in the closing, to this wonderful truth of God’s preserving keeping grace: “Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy . . .” (24). We are his, and he will keep us, and he will present us in heaven, one day, blameless and holy for all eternity!

Day of judgment! Day of wonders!

. . . to those who have confessed,

loved and served the Lord below,

he will say, “Come near, ye blessed,

see the kingdom I bestow;

you forever

shall my love and glory know.” --John Newton (1774)