“Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and for ever. Amen.” (Jude 1:24-25)
Let us join God’s servant Jude in extolling our great God and Savior who is able both to keep us from falling and to present us faultless before the presence of his glory.
Remember the circumstances influencing Jude’s mind when he wrote these words. In writing his short, but very full and instructive Epistle, Jude was led by God the Holy Spirit to discuss the very grievous falls and faults of many. While contemplating the failures of others and the judgments of God upon them, Jude writes to encourage God’s elect, saying, our great and gracious God and Savior is “able to keep you from falling.”
Israel was destroyed in the wilderness (v. 5). The angels who followed Satan’s revolt are forever fallen and condemned (v. 6). Those who follow the way of Cain, Balaam, and Core (v. 11), the self-righteous, self-serving, proud religious rebels who will not bow to the truth of God, surrender to the rule of Christ, or yield themselves to the will of God, stand as glaring beacons to warn us.
It is against this gloomy, dismal background of apostasy and rebellion that Jude writes out this instructive doxology, both to encourage true believers and to extol, magnify, and praise the Lord our God, the God of all grace, by whom we are saved and kept safe unto eternity! In the midst of great adversity, opposition, and danger, all who trust Christ are completely safe and secure in grace, because God our Savior is “able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy.”
He will make you persevere to the end, because he has loved you with an everlasting love. He chose you in Christ unto eternal salvation before the world was made. He made a covenant with you in him in his Son, a covenant of grace, peace, salvation and life, ordered in all things and sure. He put you into the Surety’s hands, making you his care and responsibility. Christ has redeemed you by his blood. He intercedes for you, and is making preparations for you in heaven. You are united to him and built on him, the Rock, the sure Foundation Stone. And the Spirit of God has begun that good work in you, which shall be performed until the day of Christ.
God your Savior, the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit will make stand in the day of judgment with intrepidity and without shame, being clothed with the righteousness of Christ. Yes, my brother, yes, my sister, Christ shall have you as diadems and jewels in his crown. He shall give you the crown of righteousness in that day and take you with himself into his kingdom and glory. I don’t know about you, but that’s what I call grace!