Now to Him who is
able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the
presence of His glory with exceeding joy,
Jude 24
Dear Heavenly
Father, as I write today, I pray that You will work in me through Your Holy
Spirit. Please continue to encourage me
in my studies. Help me to use it to
fulfill Your will in my life. Please
place Your healing hand on my family.
Protect them, keep them from injury and illness, and direct them to
serve You. Thank you Lord for all that
You've provided. Help me to stay humble
and never forget that you have given me everything that I have and am. In Jesus name I pray, Amen.
With these next two
verses, Jude praises God to close out the letter. This section is sometimes called the "doxology" which means
"Praise God." To bring deeper
understanding to today's text, let's examine some key words and their companion
or similar verses.
There are two
companion verses that also start with "Now to Him." Similarly to today's text, these verses also
close out letters. Romans 16:25 states
"Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the
preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept
secret since the world began."
Ephesians 3:20 states "Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly
abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in
us." Clearly, "Him" is
referring to God the Father.
"Able" in
the Greek is dunamai which means I am
powerful, to show ability (power), enabled by God, strong, powerful, to be able
to do something. From this word, we get
the English word, "dynamite."
"Keep" in
the Greek is phulasso which means guard,
observe, protect, preserve by having an eye on, exercising unbroken vigilance
as a military guard, vigilance to keep what was entrusted, guard that they may
remain saved. John 17:12 states "While
I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me
I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the
Scripture might be fulfilled."
Jesus exercised unbroken vigilance to protect the believers entrusted to
Him.
"Stumbling"
in the Greek is aptaisos which means
sure footed, standing firm, exempt from falling, without stumbling or falling,
without sin. This word only appears in
Jude. Understanding this and the previous two words, God the
Father has the dynamite power to vigilantly protect us from falling back into
sin.
"Present"
in the Greek is histemi which means
stand, place, set up, establish, appoint, stand firm, steadfast, cause one to
make an appearance faultless before, designate a place for one to occupy. Colossians 1:22 states "In the body of
His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach
in His sight—" 1 Peter 4:13 states
"but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that
when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy." As believers, we have been designated to
occupy a place with Christ.
"Faultless"
in the Greek is amomos which means
without blemish, blameless, without one single fault, without spot or blot,
unblemished from the marring affects of sin, unblamable. Ephesians 1:4 states "just as He chose
us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and
without blame before Him in love."
Ephesians 5:27 states "that He might present her to Himself a
glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she
should be holy and without blemish."
Philippians 2:15 states "that you may become blameless and
harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse
generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world." Revelation 14:5 states "And in their
mouth was found no deceit, for they are without fault before the throne of
God." Before the world began, the
believer is without fault, without deceit, having no spot or wrinkle on their
character, unblemished from the marring affects of sin. The believer will be
found holy and therefore able to be in God's holy presence. The believer is to
shine as a light guiding the world to Christ.
"Before
presence" in the Greek is katenopion
which means before the face of, over against, in the sight of, in the presence
of God who always act in conjunction with all He knows. "Glory" in the Greek is doxa which means honor, renown, splendor, an
especially divine quality, the unspoken manifestation of God, that which
belongs to God, God's infinite - intrinsic worth, what evokes good
opinion. Glory corresponds to the Hebrew
word, kabo, which means to be
heavy. "Exceeding joy" in the
Greek is agalliasis which means
exultation, exhilaration, ecstatic delight, wild joy, exuberant joy, intense
joy and gladness, exultant joy, extreme joy, gladness alluding to inaugural
ceremony of anointing, uses as an emblem of the divine power and majesty to
which the Son of God has been exulted.
At God's throne, the believer will see God's presence that exudes
splendor that fills the believer with ecstatic, wild, exuberant, intense,
exultant, extreme gladness. The believer
will fully understand and bow to God's infinite, intrinsic value and greatness.
We don't have the
ability or character to be perfect, without blemish. Therefore, we can't be in God's
presence as demonstrated in our study above. We must be without fault, without deceit, having no spot or wrinkle on our character, unblemished from the marring affects of sin.
But there is Good News! "For by grace you have been saved
through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works,
lest anyone should boast." What
have we been "saved" from?
"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life
in Christ Jesus our Lord." What
"faith" have we been saved?
"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son,
that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting
life." Believe in Jesus'
sacrifice. Believe in Jesus "who
Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to
sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed." This way, we can be without fault before the
throne of God and occupy a place with Christ.
Now to Him who is
able to keep you from stumbling or falling into sin, and to present you
unblemished [blameless and faultless] in the presence of His glory with
triumphant joy and unspeakable delight,
Amplified Bible
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