Jude 1:24
"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,"
The language of Scripture is very precise, and therefore we read it prayerfully and carefully. Does it say, "The Lord bless you to keep yourself from falling?" No! It reads, "Now unto HIM that is able to keep you from falling." All of the glory and power belong to the LORD, and the blessed truth is that those He has redeemed through the precious blood of His Son, He does indeed keep. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:" (Ephesians 1:3).
How many times do we fall daily in our minds and hearts? By the Spirit of God, we are cognizant of the ever-present sinful nature of our hearts. We fall because we are fallen creatures as the descendants of our father Adam (Romans 5:12). But the sense here is not to be kept from falling into sin, because that we do by nature. Rather, it is to be kept by the Power of God in Christ from falling away from HIM and His saving work on our behalf, accomplished for His own at the cross. Those here described by Jude fell away from Christ, never having had His work of Grace begun in them, and therefore did not persevere. It has to do with being kept in Christ and resting in His finished work—wholly accomplished through His life and death, declared in the Gospel, and revealed in the hearts of saved sinners by the Spirit of God. This Faith gives the LORD Jesus all the glory. He stands as an invincible restraint against being drawn away, as so many were during this time, following the way of Cain, who ran greedily after the error of Balaam and the gainsayings of Korah.
But here is that blessing: to the God who is able to keep you from falling away, following the error of men, or following a leavened, perverted message that does not give Christ all the glory in creation, providence, salvation, and condemnation. And certainly, that is how the LORD’s people are described—they are kept. "Now the just shall live by Faith: But if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul" (Hebrews 10:38-39). "Who are kept by the Power of God through Faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time" (1 Peter 1:5). If God has chosen us and the Son has paid our complete sin debt, we are kept by the Power of God through Faith unto salvation—the Faith in connection with Christ and His sacrificial death. This Faith, revealed in time through His Word in the Gospel, is how the LORD opens the heart and mind to Christ. "Wherefore He is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them" (Hebrews 7:25).
How does God present any sinner faultless "before the Presence of His Glory?" This is not even talking about the fading glory of the Old Testament, the Shekinah Glory that even caused Moses to tremble. Even that was a veiled and temporal glory. But here, it has to do with the very Presence of God's glory and entering in with exceeding joy. If we are the LORD's and He has chosen us, it is certain that He is keeping us from falling away and that He will present us faultless. Therein we rejoice in Him and His Power that keeps us from falling away into perdition. How so? Through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Here is described the work of Christ, so full and so satisfactory that His shed blood unto death put away all the sin of each elect sinner. That is the only way any of us could ever hope to be presented faultless before the Presence of His Glory.
The apostle Paul described it as the love between a husband and wife, whereby, being married to the husband, all of the wife’s previous debts, no matter how many, are absorbed by the husband in the marriage relationship, and the husband stands as the wife’s surety and advocate. "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave Himself for it; that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish" (Ephesians 5:25-27).
To Him who has so wisely purposed the salvation of His people, through the redeeming, justifying, and sanctifying work of His Son, and will faithfully and perfectly accomplish it, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen.
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