Take Five with Jude, Lesson 27

 

Take Five with Jude

Lesson 27

 

“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 . . . .”  

 

Last time we looked at the first clause in verse 24. Let’s now dive into the second clause which promises the believer that God is able to make us stand in the presence of His glory, blameless and with great joy.

 

Can you imagine that? God can make treasonous, guilty, and vile sinners as we most surely are – He can make us stand BLAMELESS in His holy and utterly righteous presence.

 

Some synonyms are ‘Innocent,’ and ‘Righteous.’ The New Testament uses yet another adjective: ‘Justified.’ For example, St. Paul tells us: “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1). Here also is his letter to the Christians at Corinth: “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.” (1 Corinthians 6:9-11)

 

I hope you caught that last sentence. Regardless of their sin, deep as it might have been, God declared them ‘justified’ (righteous) in His sight.

 

How could the Holy God declare such sinners to be righteous? That’s an easy question to answer. It’s because they placed their sins under the blood of Jesus. They were washed clean with that Holy Blood.

 

I love the lyrics of the old hymn, Man of Sorrows. Here is a short excerpt, but it makes the point of Jude’s words in today’s text:

 

“Man of Sorrows,” what a name

For the Son of God who came
Ruined sinners to reclaim!
Hallelujah! what a Savior!

 

Bearing shame and scoffing rude,
In my place condemned He stood;
Sealed my pardon with His blood;
Hallelujah! what a Savior!

 

Guilty, vile, and helpless, we,
Spotless Lamb of God was He;
Full redemption—can it be?
Hallelujah! what a Savior!

 

On that Calvary cross, Christ BECAME sin, so that through their faith and subsequent obedience to Christ, God made them as righteous as His Son. (See 2 Corinthians 5:21).

 

That is no insignificant text in Jude 24. Think about the WORST sin you have ever committed. Did you confess that sin to God? Did you repent and ask Him to wash you with the sacrificial blood of the Savior?

 

When you did that, Scripture tells us God transferred the punishment you deserved onto Jesus – who became your SUBSTITUTE.

 

That was the whole message of the Mosaic sacrificial system, especially when the High Priest laid his hands on the sacrificial animal, transferring the people’s sins to the animal. It became their substitutionary sacrifice. (For example, see Leviticus 16 and Isaiah 53).

 

THAT is how – and why – the holy and righteous God of creation can make every follower of Christ “stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy.”

 

No wonder Jude warned his readers earlier in this short letter to be aware of ungodly false teachers “[who] crept in unnoticed” into their fellowship, and who “have gone the way” of Cain, Balaam, and Korah. Jude warned them these false teachers – likely some in their own church leadership – who were “hidden reefs” causing shipwreck to the faith of God’s true children. (verses 4, 11, and 12).

 

Our loving Father is able to make any sinner blameless, righteous, and justified through their faith in the sacrificial and atoning blood of Jesus.

 

ANY sinner. For any sin. And for every sin. Which is why, I am sure, Jude justly concludes his letter with words that should mark our daily walk with the Lord: “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.” (verse 25)

 

Amen.