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The Epistle of Jude develops the history of the apostasy of Christendom,
from the earliest elements that crept into the assembly to corrupt it,
down to its judgment at the appearing of our Lord, but as moral apostasy
by turning the grace of God into lasciviousness. In John they are gone
out; here they have crept in, corrupting. It is a very short epistle, and
containing instruction presented with much brevity, and with the
energetic rapidity of the prophetic style, but of immense weight and
extensive bearing.
The evil which had stolen in among Christians would not cease until
destroyed by judgment.
We have already noticed this difference between the Epistle of Jude and
the Second of Peter, that Peter speaks of sin, Jude of apostasy, the
departure of the assembly from its primitive state before God. Departure
from the holiness of faith is the subject that Jude treats. He does not
speak of outward separation. He views Christians as a number persons
professing a religion on the earth, and originally true to that which
they professed. Certain persons had crept in among them unawares. They
fed themselves without fear at the love-feasts of the Christians; and
although the Lord would come attended by all His saints (so that the
faithful will have been already caught up), yet in the judgment these
persons are still accounted to be in the same class-"to convince," he
says, "all that are ungodly among them." They may indeed be in open
rebellion at the moment of judgment, but they were individuals who had
formed a part of the company of Christians; they wee really apostates,
enemies left behind.
When it is said, "These be they who separate themselves," it does not
mean openly from the visible assembly, for he speaks of them as in the
midst of it; but they set themselves apart, being in it, as more
excellent than others, like the Pharisees among the Jews. Jude points
them out as being in the midst of the Christians, and presenting
themselves as such. The judgment falls upon this class of persons; the
taking up of the saints has left them behind for judgment.
Jude begins by declaring the faithfulness of God and the character of
His care for the saints, which answers to the prayer of Jesus in John 17.
They were called ones, sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in
Jesus Christ. Happy testimony! which magnifies the grace of God. "Holy
Father", our Lord said, "keep them:" and these were sanctified by God the
Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ. The apostle speaks with a view to
the forsaking by many of the holy faith; he addresses those who were
kept.
He had purposed writing to them of the salvation common to all
Christians; but he found it needful to exhort them to stand fast, to
contend for the faith once given to the saints. For already was that
faith being corrupted by the denial of the rights of Christ to be Lord
and Master; and thus also, by giving the reins to self-will, they abused
grace, and turned it into a principle of dissoluteness. These are the two
elements of the evil which the instruments of Satan introduced, the
rejection of the authority of Christ (not His name): and the abuse of
grace, in order to indulge their own lusts. In both cases it was the will
of man, which they set free from everything that bridled it. The
expression "Lord God" points our this character of God. "Lord" here is
not the word generally used; it is "despotes", that is "master".
Having pointed out the evil which had secretly crept in, the epistle
goes on to shew them that the judgment of God is executed upon those who
do not walk according to the position in which God had originally placed
them.
The evil was, not only that certain men had crept in among them-in itself
an immense evil, because the action of the Holy Ghost is thereby hindered
among Christians-but that, definitely, the entire testimony before God,
the vessel which held this testimony, would become (as had been already
the case with the Jews) corrupt to such a degree that it would bring down
upon itself the judgment of God. And it has become thus corrupt.
This is the great principle of the downfall of the testimony established
by God in the world by means of the corruption of the vessel which
contains it, and which bears its name. In pointing out moral corruption
as characterizing the stated of professors, Jude cites, as example of
this downfall and of its judgment the case of Israel, who fell in the
wilderness (with the exception of two, Joshua and Caleb), and that of the
angels who, not having kept their first estate, are reserved in chains of
darkness unto the judgment of the great day.
This last example suggests to him another case, that of Sodom and
Gomorrha which resents immorality and corruption as the cause of
judgment. Their condition is a perpetual testimony here on earth to their
judgment.
These ungodly men, with the name of Christians, are but dreamers; for
the truth is not in them. The two principles which we have noticed are
developed in the; filthiness of the flesh, and contempt for authority.
The latter manifests itself in a second from, namely, the license of the
tongue, the self-will that manifests itself by speaking evil of
dignities. Whereas, the text says, the archangel Michael durst not rail
even against the devil, but with the gravity of one who acts according to
God, appealed to the judgment of God Himself.
Jude then sums up the three kinds or characters of the evil and or
estrangement from God; first, that of nature, the opposition of the flesh
to the testimony of God, and His true people, the impetus which this
enmity gives to the will of the flesh; in the second place,
ecclesiastical evil, teaching error for reward, knowing all the while
that it is contrary to the truth and against the people of God; thirdly,
open opposition, rebellion, against the authority of God in His true King
and Priest.
At the time when Jude wrote his epistle, those persons whom Satan
introduced into the church in order to stifle its spiritual life and to
bring on the result which the Spirit views prophetically, were dwelling
in the midst of the saints, took part in those pious feasts at which they
gathered together in token of their brotherly love. They were "spots" in
those "feasts of charity," feeding without fear in the pastures of the
faithful. The Holy Ghost denounces them energetically. They were doubly
dead, by nature and by their apostasy; without fruit, bearing fruit that
perished, as out of season; plucked up by the roots; foaming out
everywhere their own shame; wandering stars, reserved for darkness. Of
old the judgment that should be executed upon them, This presents a very
important aspect of the instruction here given; namely, that this evil
which had crept in among the Christians would continue and still be found
when the Lord should return for judgment. He would come with the myriads
of His saints to execute judgment upon all the ungodly among them for
their acts of iniquity and their ungodly words which they have spoken
against Him. There would be a continuos system of evil from those in the
apostles' time till the Lord came. This is a solemn witness to what would
go on among Christians.
It is quite remarkable to see the inspired writer identifying the
favorers of licentiousness with the rebels who will be the object of
judgment in the last day. It is the same spirit, the same work of the
enemy, although restrained for the moment, which will ripen for the
judgment of God, Alas for the assembly! It is, however, but the universal
progression of man. Only that, grace having fully revealed God and
delivered from the law, there must now be either holiness of heart and
soul, and the delights of obedience under the perfect law of liberty, or
else license and open rebellion. In this the proverb is true, that the
corruption of that which is the most excellent is the worst of
corruptions. We must add here, that the admiration of men, in order to
gain advantage by them, is another characteristic feature of these
apostates. It is not to God that they look.
Now apostles had already warned the saints that these mockers would
come, walking after their own lusts, exalting themselves, not having the
Spirit, but being in the state of nature.
Practical exhortation follows for those who were preserved. According to
the energy of spiritual life, and the power of the Spirit of God, they
were by grace to build themselves up, and to keep themselves in the
communion of God. The faith is, to the believer, a most holy faith; he
loves it, because it is so; it puts him into relationship and communion
with God Himself. That which he has to do in the painful circumstances of
which the apostle speaks (whatever may be the measure of their
development), is to build himself up in this most holy faith. He
cultivates communion with God, and profits through grace by the
revelations of His love. The Christian has his own proper sphere of
thought, in which he hides himself from the evil that surrounds him, and
grows in the knowledge of God from whom nothing can separate him. His own
portion is always the more evident to him, the more the evil increases.
His communion with God is in the Holy Ghost, in whose power he prays, and
who is the link between God and his soul; and his prayers are according
to the intimacy of this relationship, and animated by the intelligence
and energy of the Spirit of God.
Thus they kept themselves in the consciousness, the communion, and the
enjoyment of the love of God. They abode in His love while sojourning
here below, but as their end, they were waiting for the mercy of the Lord
Jesus Christ unto eternal life. In effect when one sees what are the
fruits of the heart of man, one feels that it must be His mercy which
presents us without spot before His face in that day for eternal life
with a God of holiness. No doubt it is His unchangeable faithfulness,
but, in the presence of so much evil, one thinks rather of the mercy.
Compare in the same circumstances, what Paul says in 2 Timothy 1:16. It
is mercy which has made the difference between those that fall and those
that stand. (Compare Ex. 33:19) We must also distinguish between those
who are led away. There are some who are only drawn aside by others,
others in whom the lusts of a corrupt heart are working; and where we see
the latter we must manifest hatred to everything that testifies this
corruption, as a thing that is unbearable.
The Spirit of God in this epistle does not bring forward the efficacy of
this redemption. He is occupied with the crafty devices of the enemy,
with his efforts to connect the actings of the human will with the
profession of the grace of God, and thus to bring about the corruption of
the assembly, and the downfall of Christians, by putting them on the road
to apostasy and judgment. Confidence is in God; to Him the sacred writer
addresses himself in closing his epistle, as he thinks of the faithful
to whom he was writing. Unto Him, he says, who is able to keep us from
falling, and to present us unspotted before the presence of His glory
with exceeding joy.
It is important to observe the way in which the Spirit of God speaks in
the Epistles of a power that can keep us from every fall, and unblamable;
so that a thought only of sin is never excusable. It is not that the
flesh is not in us, but that, with the Holy Ghost acting in the new man,
it is never necessary that the flesh should act or influence our life.
(Compare 1 Thess. 5:22) We are united to Jesus: He represents us before
God, He is our righteousness. But at the same time He who in His
perfection is our righteousness is also our life; so that the Spirit
aims at the manifestation of this same perfection, practical perfection,
in the daily life. He who says "I abide in Him." ought to walk as He
walked. The Lord also says, "Be ye therefore perfect, as your Father
which is in heaven is perfect."
There is progress in this. It is Christ risen who is the source of this
life in us, which ascends again towards its source, and which views the
risen and glorified Christ, to whom we shall be conformed in glory, as
its end and aim. (See Phil 3) But the effect of this is, that we have no
other aim: "this one thing I do." Thus, whatever may be the degree of
realization, the motive is always perfect. The flesh does not come in at
all as a motive, and in this sense we are blameless.
The Spirit then-since Christ who is our righteousness is our life-links
our life to the final result of an unblamable condition before God. The
conscience knows by grace that absolute perfection is ours, because
Christ is our righteousness; but the soul which rejoices in this before
God is conscious of union with Him, and seeks the realization of that
perfection according to the power of the Spirit, by whom we are thus
united to the Head.
To Him who can accomplish this, preserving us from every kind of fall,
our epistle ascribes all glory and dominion throughout all ages.
That which is peculiarly striking in the Epistle of Jude is that he
pursues the corruption of the assembly from the creeping in of some
unawares on to its final judgment, shewing withal that it is not arrested
but passes through its various phases to that day.
