The Only Wise God, Our Savior

“Now to Him being able to keep you without stumbling, and to set you before His glory without blemish, with unspeakable joy; to the only wise God, our Savior, be glory and majesty and might and authority, even now and forever. Amen.” (Jude 1:24-25)

Jude also known as Judas Thaddeus, was one of the twelve apostles of Jesus. He was the brother of James and half-brother of Jesus although He never states it. “Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to the ones called in God the Father, having been set apart, and having been kept by Jesus Christ:” (Jude 1:1). In our Scripture of study, we see that he has embraced his half-brother as God, the Savior. But when Jesus was preaching, his brothers didn’t believe Him. While Jesus was preaching in Galilee his brothers tell him to go to Judea. “Therefore, His brothers said to Him, Move away from here and go into Judea, so that Your disciples also may see the works that You do. For no one does anything in secret, while he himself seeks to be in public. If you do these things, reveal yourself to the world. For His brothers did not believe in Him.” (John 7:3-5) But they followed Him along with their mother Mary. Later in Jerusalem when Jesus was teaching, Judas again urges Jesus to reveal Himself to the world. “Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, Lord, how is it that You will reveal Yourself to us and not to the world?” (John 14:22) It sounds like Jude wants Jesus to prove that He is Who he says He is because after all this is Jesus his older brother who was raised with him. If He is Who He says He is, He needs to prove it or else He’s crazy and let’s let everyone know. When Jesus died on the cross, I’m sure their thoughts were confirming what they feared, that Jesus was crazy. But I’m sure seeing Him after the resurrection changed their minds.

In our Scripture Jude exalts Jesus for Who He is. “... to the only wise God, our Savior, be glory and majesty and might and authority, even now and forever.” What makes us change our mind about Jesus? He’s known by everyone as a great spiritual teacher, a holy man and a prophet. But what makes us know Him as God our Savior?  The Bible teaches that we cannot come to the Truth unless God draws us. “No one can come to Me unless the Father who has sent Me draw him, and I will raise him up at the last day.” (John 6:44) It’s all a work of God. We can’t boast that we came to God because that was our furthest thought. Yes, we had an inkling that God has the answers we needed, that God has the power to help us and that God can help us. But to come to the Lord and surrender never entered our minds when we were in the world.

When we hear the Gospel and the Holy Spirit opens our eyes and ears of understanding, He draws us to the Lord and like the disciples we believe and want to follow Him and surrender to Him. It’s a work of God. But we must be willing to surrender. Paul urged the Roman believers. “I beseech you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, in order to prove by you what is that good and pleasing and perfect will of God.” (Romans 12:1-2) Some believe and accept the fact the Jesus is God but are unwilling to surrender. Are these saved? Only their lives, the fruit they bear will witness to the sincerity of their commitment. We can’t judge them. But we can judge their fruit. “You shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles?... Therefore, by their fruit you shall know them.” (Matthew 7:16, 20)

In our Scripture, Jude says that Jesus is able to bring us unblemished before His glory. This is because if we belong to Jesus and love and obey Him (John 14:15) His sacrifice is enough. The shed Blood of the Lamb is sufficient. It is greater than our sin, our stumbling and blemishes. It is based on God’s grace and not our effort. “For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are sanctified.” (Hebrews 10:14) Yes, we stumble because we are in this fallen world and in this unredeemed flesh. But Jesus is able to bring us into His glory. “...being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ,” (Philippians 1:6). Many think erroneously that this gives us a license to sin. But this is not true. In fact, the opposite is true. When we have truly surrendered to the Lord, many things happen in the spiritual that prevent us from falling away. We are translated from the kingdom of sin and darkness to the kingdom of God. The Holy Spirit indwells. We are born again a new creation with a new nature, the nature of God. We no longer relish sin but loathe it. When we do fall into sin, our new nature cannot endure it. So, I doubt that someone who says they are Christian and continually sins are saved. “...by their fruit you shall know them.”

So, because the Blood of the Lamb is sufficient and greater than our sin, He is able to present us without blemish before the Father. We are able to stand in His glory. What that means is that because we have no sin, His holy glory cannot consume us. Jude adds with unspeakable joy. In other translations it says exceeding joy. It’s a joy unknown here on earth that makes the sufferings of this world tiny and insignificant. Paul in writing to the Romans states, “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the coming glory to be revealed in us.” (Romans 8:18) This is exactly what Jude was saying.

In a nutshell, we can see that Jude the half-brother of Jesus believed that Jesus is Who He said He is. He took the same outlook that Paul had about our eternity with the Lord. Jesus will present us free of all sin in eternity in the presence of the Father and in His glory. The difficulties of this world, no matter how devastating they may be, will be inconsequential in the glory we will encounter with Jesus.

Let us pray:

Father God, Your plan for our eternity is something we cannot imagine. It’s too wonderful for us to even imagine. We have words that we use to describe it, but we actually don’t understand this joy that we will experience. Thank You Father for the Your salvation through our Lord Jesus.  Help me to remember that there is a joy coming that will make my difficulties trivial when I’m in the midst of them.  Help me to look at my life in terms of eternity. I thank You my Lord and my God for the Blood of the Lamb. It is sufficient to cover all my defects and weaknesses. Help me to learn from my failings and to lean on the Holy Spirit for wisdom and understanding. I need Your strength my Lord. I need Your help here in this world, to maneuver myself, my actions, my words and thought so that they are pleasing to You. I lean on the Holy Spirit for that help. Thank You Father. I love You, my God. In Jesus’ Name I pray, amen.