“To Him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before His glorious presence without fault and with great joy – to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen!” (Jude 24-25)

 

Lesson 4 – Jude

Verse 4 NIV – For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.

     “Secretly slipped in” the Greek here is pareisduein. This word is used of an outlaw that slips back into the town that he was expelled from. It is used of a slow and subtle entry of ideas that undermine and break down laws. It indicates an intentional stealthiness.

     Then Jude gives us two characteristics of these perpetrators. Most people try to hide their sin; they have some respect for common decency. But Jude uses a word here that actually means they do shameless things in public because they have ceased to care for decency at all. This is not even an arrogant, rebellion or proud flaunting of sin, it is a deadness to what is right – period! Is there anything in my life that I’ve been doing that in the beginning felt wrong but as I continued in it, no longer does it prick my conscience?

     It is believed that these infiltrators were Gnostics. That being the case they would have believed that since the grace of God was big enough to cover any sin, then sin big! Grace was being perverted into a justification for sin. If I look at my own life are there any sins I have justified? If so what needs to happen here?

     These folks denied Jesus. There are many ways a person can deny Christ. They can deny Him when being persecuted. They can deny him for the sake of convenience. They can deny him by their life and conduct. They can deny him by developing false ideas about him. There are many people who are trying to live their lives denying Christ. They want a Santa Clause god, or a nice grandpa god. Not a God who loves so much that He would leave heaven, become flesh, live a human existence, die a brutal death, conquer death itself and now become King. A God like that would deserve my full allegiance, worship, and my life…

     If these infiltrators were indeed Gnostics (and that was a very real threat in the church during this time period) then they would have believed Jesus was only spirit, never human flesh. They would have believed that Jesus was only one of many stages between the evil matter of this world and perfect spirit which is God. As I talk with people around me I have come to realize that maybe the Gnostics haven’t died out! I constantly talk with people who just can’t seem to grasp that Jesus really does know what they are going through because He really was human. And on many occasions I have discussions with folks who believe we’re all going to heaven, just by different roads. Now, I’m not God (thank goodness) but those things just don’t make sense when I look at Jesus.

    When I think about Jesus, and His sacrificial love that took Him to a whipping post then a cross; the sacrificial love that had him born in a barn and raised in the town of Nazareth (which was the arm pit of the nation at that time); the sacrificial love that had Him on a collision course with the religion and culture of his day, how can I help but fall on my face before Him. Jesus could have done it so different… but then He wouldn’t have been redeemer, He wouldn’t have known suffering, or hate, or any of the things we deal with. Now, that kind of love forces me to look at Jesus different… to look at Him as Savior, as fully divine, yet fully human, not as one way to God but as the only way to God, to a God who really loves me.

    When I put all these things together I begin to understand why Jude became so upset that these people were denying Jesus. The very one who had loved Jude enough to die for him, to transform his life and give him hope. The very one who loves me, died for me, transformed me and gives me hope. Who is Jesus to you?

 Information from “Beacon Bible Commentary - Jude” by Delbert Rose and “The Letters of John and Jude” by William Barclay