April 10, 2011
Background Scripture: Jude 17-25
Devotional Reading: 2 Corinthians 4:1-12

Last Sunday, while teaching an adult Sunday School class, I asked on what grounds we could determine who is a Christian. Most agreed it would depend upon “whether or not they believed in Jesus Christ.”

Then, I asked: “So, if on a census, 10,000  identify themselves as ‘Christian,’ does that mean there are that number of Christians in that location?”
There was a lull, before someone said, “No, believing in Jesus Christ is not enough, if we do not live by his teachings.”

What is “belief?” I believe that travel to the moon has been demonstrated to be possible, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to volunteer to make a lunar flight. So it is possible for us to accept an idea with our minds, but not necessarily act upon it. Similarly, just because someone accepts with his or her mind that Jesus is Lord, doesn’t mean that he or she is likely to follow Jesus with a life based upon his teachings.

Christian discipleship involves both belief with the mind and action appropriate to that belief. The same is true of the word “faith.” It denotes not only Jesus’ Lordship over our minds, but also over our lives.

A Christian, then, is really someone who both believes in Jesus and lives by that belief. And that has much to do with our response to Jude.

Who is Jude?

“The Letter of Jude?” many might ask. How many of you recall that Jude is a book of the New Testament or know what his letter is about? (If you have to admit that Jude and his letter are mostly unknown to you, you at least may have the satisfaction of knowing that you are in the majority.)

Jude, found between the Third Letter of John and the Book of Revelation, is an epistle of only 26 verses, most of which – with one great exception – are unknown to most Christians.

The great exception are verses 24 and 25 containing a benediction (“good word”) most of us have heard, perhaps with some frequency: “Now to him who is able to keep you from falling and present you without blemish before the presence of his glory with rejoicing, to the only God our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and for ever. Amen.”

Familiar? One reason we are not familiar with the other 23 verses is that the writer, Jude/Judas (but not the Judas Iscariot), is dealing with a situation that does not seem relevant to our own time. There are people who Jude attacks as dangerous to the Christian faith.

These heretics we can identify as antinomians (you will not find that term in Jude). Although you may not have heard that term previously, antinomians have existed in every age of the Church – even today.

Antinomians – us?

Simply stated, Antinomians are those who believe and act as if moral law doesn’t apply to them – and you don’t even have to know that name to be one.

They believe that moral laws are good for other people, but they personally are above the law because they are “covered” by the immeasurable, supreme grace of God. That grace, they are confident, can forgive any sin. So, as William Barclay puts it, “Jude’s heretics turn the grace of God into an excuse for flagrant immorality.”

Jude’s concern is not simply an ancient concern, but one of our own times. It is not because God’s grace is not sufficient for any sin, but because if we sin because we assume we are covered by it, we are abusing that grace.

Jude speaks of “ungodly persons who pervert the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ” (v. 4b). Grace reaches beyond the moral laws, but if we ignore these, we may place ourselves outside the grace of God.

“But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ; they said to you, ‘In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions.’ It is these who set up divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit” (17-19).

Is it possible that “these people” are not only “them,” but also “us?” The Antinomian, the person who knows the truth but does not live it – could that be you?

The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of Farm World. Readers with questions or comments for Rev. Althouse may write to him in care of this publication.