Jude 3-4
vs. 3 Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you concerning 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.
- “common salvation” – Everyone who is saved is saved the same way – through Christ alone.
- “contend for the faith” – fight for, struggle for, contend
- “once for all delivered” – (Gr. “hapax paradotheise”) – literally this means “once for all (and no more – because it was already done) transmitted (or locked up, delivered, intrust, commit, delivered up).
Vs. 3 is indeed interesting. The idea here is that the revelation of God to man concerning salvation has been once for all times (at the time of Jude and the apostolic ministry) delivered to the people of God. This means that extra biblical sources such as “Book of Mormon”, “Pearl of Great Price”, church tradition, church decrees, etc. mean NOTHING to the doctrines of God’s grace as delivered in the scriptures. Jude is effectively saying, “What you know to be true today – there is NO OTHER truth to be known. DO NOT go down the road of the gnostics!”
Wow. What application this is. This is a statement saying that this faith is complete and total – and all found within the canon of Scripture.
vs. 4 For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
- certain (Gr. “tines” Stng: 5100): means “certain, specific”
- designated (Gr. “progegrammenoi” Stng: 4270): write previously, to announce, prescribe, before ordain, evidently set forth.
- condemnation (Gr. “krima” Stng: 2917): condemnation, damnation, judgement
- sensuality (Gr. “aselgeian” Stng: 768): wantonness, filthiness, immoderation, arrogance, debauchery, perversion
Verse 4 is difficult for our “western minds” to understand. The verse is literally saying that there are certain, specific people, who were ordained and set apart by God from long before they were even born, to “creep in” to the fellowship of believers, and twist the grace of God into sensuality (or perverted doctrine), to be “tares among the wheat”, and by their teaching against the grace of God – they deny the only one who is Lord of all Lords. These certain people are condemned already, by virtue of them being “designated”.
I’ve been on the fence for some time concerning infra-lapsarianism and supra-lapsarianism. This scripture seems to indicate that our predestination is a “supralapsarianism” model. This is indeed a hard teaching to bear with our “rights driven” society.
I’m wondering how those who disagree with God’s predestinating prerogative and the doctrine of election can explain this verse. If man’s freewill trumps God’s “election”, the following questions MUST be answered in regards to this verse.
- Does the one that God marked out for “this condemnation” – does his free will supercede God’s judgement against him? (Can he choose not to pervert the Gospel?)
- Does the one that is in this way condemned have the ABILITY to choose to love God?
- Is man’s free will so powerful as to SEE the glory and worth of Christ - and therefore turn to Christ without God’s help in revealing that?
Wow….let God be God, and let man shut his mouth!
This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 30th, 2008 at 9:29 am and is filed under Devotional. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
