Ἰούδας Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ δοῦλος, ἀδελφὸς δὲ Ἰακώβου,
τοῖς ἐν θεῷ πατρὶ ἠγαπημένοις καὶ Ἰησοῦ Χριστῷ τετηρημένοις κλητοῖς· (Jude 1:1)
The great proliferation of news has deepened our corporate sense of dread about the future. Hi-jacked planes and random shootings sit fixed within the public consciousness, and everywhere the ever-present possibility of unpredicted death is keenly felt. And death can come to anyone at any moment. A number of friends of mine have died recently, by car accident and cancer, so I feel this truth more sharply than ever. Moreover, the constant reminders of moral failings spread distrust in others and in one’s self when we realize that the germs of all these sins lie latent within us. Finally, the periodic echo of personal scandal by an acclaimed minister can engender a crippling fear of moral failure and even of falling away.
Jude does not assuage these fears by saying things like, “If you trust in Jesus, nothing bad will happen to you.” Instead, he gives us a timeless truth that transcends all of our temporal concerns by anchoring us in a rock-solid eternal reality: we are “kept.” The beauty of this verb is that we are not its subject. We’re not the ones keeping but the ones being kept, and kept by God, who holds us with omnipotent resolve for His Son, Jesus the Messiah (John 10:28–29).
This theology arises out of the Old Testament, which anticipates a coming Messiah, a Davidic King, who will bring deliverance for God’s people, rule the nations, and usher in an era of righteousness. There are a number of Messianic texts in the Psalms, and one theme from these texts is that the Messiah gets what He prays for (Ps 2:6–8; Ps 21:1–7[1]; cf. Jn 11:21–27). If the Son prays for the nations as an inheritance, the Father gives it to Him (Ps 2:8). So when Jesus tells Peter that He has prayed for him so that his “faith may not fail,” we can rest assured that he will “turn again” after denying Jesus (Lk 22:32). And we can also take heart when we hear Jesus pray for us that we’d be kept from the evil one that it will be so (Jn 17:15, 20).[2] Our salvation is secure not only in Christ’s death, but also because in Heaven Jesus “always lives to make intercession” for His own (Heb 7:25), and Jesus doesn’t offer unanswered prayer.
This is a steadfast anchor for our souls. We can rest because Jesus has not only borne our judgment (Heb 2:12; 1 Pet 3:18), but He prays for us and continues to protect us from everything that can ultimately harm us (Rom 8:34). We may stumble like Peter, but Jesus, our advocate (1 Jn 2:1), has laid claim on us, and He will not let us perish by our weakness. Like Asaph the Psalmist, we may for a time become “embittered,” “brutish and ignorant,” even “like a beast” toward God, and yet He is “continually with” us, holding us by the hand, guiding us with His counsel, promising to ultimately receive us to glory” (Ps 73:22–24). We may run like Jonah, but Christ’s prayers will prevail, and He will bring us back, by force of discipline, if necessary. As Paul writes, ultimately the Lord “will rescue [us] from every evil deed and bring [us] safely into His heavenly kingdom” (2 Tim 4:18). We can rest in this promise because we follow a sovereign God, Who has not only accomplished our salvation in Christ, but Who is able even to keep us from falling away (Jd 24; see 1 Cor 1:8; Phil 1:6; 1 Th 5:23–24).
So can we sin because grace will surely abound? By no means (Rom 6:1)! The other side of God’s sovereignty is human responsibility. God’s keeping does not negate our need to persevere but demands and empowers it (Phil 2:12-13). Jude even says, “keep (τηρήσατε) yourselves in the love of God” (Jd 21)!
Wait. Who does the keeping? Does God, or do we?
Well, yes…
But God’s work and ours are not in a zero-sum game, with each party putting forward 50% of the work. Nor does God do 99% of the work and wait for us to put forward that last 1%, with our salvation hanging in the balance. Rather, God infallibly works to ensure that we will ultimately persevere. Thus, while both we and God work in our perseverance, our work is not the same. God works in and through us, and our good working is entirely dependent upon His own. Or as Paul put it, “I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me” (1 Cor 15:10). Although we truly and actively participate in the work of perseverance, we only do so through the moment-by-moment empowerment of His Spirit. We can keep ourselves only because He is always already keeping us.[3]
This truth empowers us to action. We must act, and God works in and through our actions. This is why Jude prefaces the command to “keep ourselves” with two participles that tell us how: by “building [ourselves] up in [our] most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit” (Jd 20). We can do this because, unlike the false teachers who don’t believe (Jd 19), we have the Holy Spirit. He works, however, through scripture (the books of our faith) and prayer (Lk 11:13; Jn 17:17; Rom 15:16–19; Phil 1:19–21).
In a word, you need not fear. Your salvation does not depend on your own strength, inner-resolve, circumstances, or mental state; it depends ultimately upon God. So look outside yourself. Set your eyes to His word and promises and lift your heart in prayer. God is able even to “keep you from stumbling” (Jd 24). He lovingly ushers you into His Triune life and promises to keep you there forever.
These truths are wonderful. They undermine our fears by reminding us that God is bigger than all of them. They uproot our laziness through their urgent call to action. But most of all, they demand that we break forth in praise of “Him who is able to keep[4] [us] from stumbling and present [us] blameless before the presence of His glory with great joy.” So, “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.” (Jd 24–25).
[1] I think Psalm 21:1–7 is best understood in relation to Psalm 22. Both are Davidic, and the latter pre-figures Christ’s eventual death and His resurrection (see 22:21ff). In both instances, the deliverance is an answer to prayer. The idea that Jesus’ resurrection is an answer to prayer is also supported by Hebrews 5:7 (which is kingly, too; cf. Gen 14; Ps 110; Heb 5:7-10).
[2] If you have repented and trusted in Jesus, this passage means He’s praying for you. He doesn’t make these prayers for “the world” (Jn 17:9). He has a special love for those whom the Father has given to Him.
[3] Similarly, we “work out” (κατεργάζεσθε: kata + ergon) our salvation only because God “works in” (ἐνεργῶν; en + ergon) us even to will to do so (Phil 2:12–13; I got this parallelism from Matthew Harmon’s Mentor commentary on Philippians). John Murray expressed this truth as follows: “God’s working in us is not suspended because we work, nor our working suspended because God works. Neither is the relation strictly one of co-operation as if God did his part we did ours… God works in us and we also work. But the relation is that because God works we work.”
[4] The word here for “keep” (φυλάξαι) is different from the word used elsewhere in the letter, but it’s a synonym. Jesus uses the words interchangeably in John 17:12: “While I was with them, I kept (ἐτήρουν) them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded (ἐφύλαξα) them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.” Jude likely chose φυλάξαι for its sound in this beautiful doxology. As for Judas, it is best to say that he was never really a believer; Jesus only mentions him because he was part of the twelve about whom he prayed (excepting Judas).
