sanctification: the best defense

But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.

Jude 20-21

The command here is straightforward: keep yourselves in the love of God. This is Jude’s way of talking about the personal responsibility to live holy lives. The false teachers he is combating will have none of that. They indulge in sexual immorality (Jude 7), they blaspheme doctrine they do not understand (Jude 10), and they are ultimately not holy but ungodly and destined for God’s justice as a result (Jude 15). The book ends with a call for Christians to defend against apostasy by guarding the way they live their lives. It is the best way to combat false doctrine and practice.

There are three things we do to keep ourselves in the love of God. The first is to build ourselves up in our most holy faith. I believe it is a call to knowing doctrine AND the sanctifying work that true doctrinal commitments bring to us. That is why it is called a holy faith. It is not purely about simple propositions, statements of fact, or doctrinal vocabulary. It is about the truth of biblical teaching changing us into the holy, different, and called out people that God has always wanted for His glory. The second thing we do is called “praying in the Holy Spirit.” Nothing mystical here either… this is just prayer that stems from a relationship with God that can know and follow the promptings of His Spirit. That only really comes as we understand and follow the Word of God. The first thus is necessary to understand the second. The final piece is also important. We must be waiting for the mercy of Jesus. I believe that is an understanding that our growth in holy living is a process that is not complete UNTIL WE MEET JESUS! We are saved when we come to Christ, we are being saved by Him now, and we will be saved forever in His presence in eternity. I am just not all the way there yet. But I know my journey is headed to His destination.

One final thing to point out: we are called to keep ourselves, but God also does the keeping. Jude has already pointed this out (Jude 1 says we are beloved in God and kept for Jesus Christ). The book ends with a reminder and a prayer to the One who is “able to keep you from stumbling and present you blameless before the presence of his glory” (Jude 24). Sanctification is God’s big work in saving me and keeping me. It is my lifestyle in living like the man He has made me to be.

Technorati Tags: Jude,Sanctification,Holiness,Apostasy

In your face, apostate!

Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.

Jude 3

The faith is worth defending. In an age when secularism defines social agendas, does Christianity stand a chance of presenting an acceptable worldview? I say, YES! But it will take lots of work. And it MUST start in the church.

The faith (the body of teachings beginning and rooted in the gospel that comes from the work of the apostles themselves) has been in decline for over a century. Liberal theology and its neo-liberal proponents among emergent thinkers have emasculated most of the power of the gospel in mainline Protestant denominations. People may accidentally come to faith in these groups, but it is usually because they were affected outside the dead liberalism of their church. Apostasy is winning the day in Christian circles.

From outside the church, naturalism and total secularism have seen the universe itself as the shaping force for human evolution. God is no longer necessary for most philosophical considerations in 21st century Western thinking. We have now the most secularized culture ever, and in America, we seem to have embraced the most secularized administration of government and education ever in our history. Evangelicalism is on the decline, at least in terms of popular thinking. And many futurists see it declining even as militant Islam, New Age paganism, and Eastern religions are on the rise worldwide. The time has come to contend for the faith. Too long we have been content in a lobotomized form of it.

It is time for Christians to be discerning and dedicated to defending the gospel. I am NOT for reviving the old fighting fundamentalism of my youth. That militant Christianity was a form of apostasy itself. No, I believe we should preach and defend the gospel. We should teach and defend the doctrines of essential Christianity. We should develop and defend a robust Christian worldview. And we don’t have to mock others to do it. We do have to understand the opposition and gently and vividly instruct, yes…even confront, those deceived by false teaching. Without these commitments, Christianity will not stand another generation.

Technorati Tags: Jude,Apostasy,Apologetics,Defending the Faith