"To those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ: May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you." — Jude 1-2
Sometimes it is easier to believe that God forgives us than it is to believe that His grace changes us. Jude wrote his letter because certain people had slipped into the church and had begun twisting grace into something it was never meant to be. They kept the pardon and threw out the call to holiness, treating the mercy of God as permission to live however they pleased. Jude will not allow it. He calls that a distortion of grace, and even a denial of the Lord Himself.
Notice where Jude begins, though, before a single word of warning. He reminds these Christians who they already are. God has called them. They are loved by the Father, and they are being guarded in Jesus Christ so that not one of them slips away. None of that is something a person earns. You did not call yourself, and you cannot make God love you any more than He already does. That is the ground Jude stands on, and it shapes every command he is about to give.
Jude holds together two things we tend to pull apart. He assures these believers they are secure in God's love, and he calls them upward into holiness. The security of His love was never meant to make us complacent. It was meant to drive us upward. Grace is not just a clean slate. It is power.
The deepest error of those who twist grace is theological. What we believe about God determines how we live for Him. To say that grace frees you from obeying Christ is to say that Christ has no right to be obeyed. It is a refusal to let Him be Lord. But grace was never meant to free you from His commands. It was meant to empower you to keep them.
So Jude ends by turning his eyes toward God, the One who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before His glory with great joy. He keeps you, and He transforms you by His own Spirit at work within you. The grace that forgave you will not stop until it has made you like Christ.
Reflection Question
How have you seen God's grace change you? And what area of your life still needs to be submitted to Christ, so His grace can keep transforming you there?
Further Reflection
📖 Jude 1-25
📖 Romans 6:1-18
📖 Philippians 1:3-11
📖 Titus 2:11-14
Prayer
Father, thank You for forgiving me, and for loving me when I could never earn it. I don't want to stop at being forgiven. I want to be changed. So take the parts of my life I tend to hold back, and keep making me more like Jesus, by Your Spirit and not by my own strength. When I forget that You are the one holding me, remind me, and don't let me go. Thank You that You are still working on me, and that You will not stop until You are done. In Jesus' name, amen.
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3 comments
So beautifully said! Thank you!
Praise be unto Him!
Amen