Jude 1:24, commentary and pictures

God in Christ is able to keep His trusting people from falling and to bring them faultless into the presence of His glory with exceeding joy at Christ's coming.

The keeping belongs to God and Christ alone, for no man can keep another from falling and no one can keep himself, even the experienced failing when left to himself.

This keeping saves from all sin and temptation and Satan's power, giving grace sufficient to obey and reflect Christ's holy life and to overcome enslaving habit.

It is accomplished through Christ's atoning death and living intercession, His righteousness imparted and the Holy Spirit sanctifying through belief of the truth and the cleansing Word of life.

It is received by living, constant, undoubting faith with thorough consecration and continual prayer, as believers submit to be led, obey His commandments, build up in most holy faith, and cooperate with Him rather than resist.

Only those thus made faultless can stand before God in glory, every moral defect remedied and stain removed by Christ's blood, made pure and complete in Him by partaking of the divine nature and escaping the world's corruption.

Epistle Setting and Context

The letter belongs to Jude, servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, addressed to those sanctified by God the Father and preserved in Jesus Christ and called, with mercy and peace and love multiplied. It urges them to remain consistent in their profession and to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints over the common salvation. That contending means bringing men back from transgression of the commandments of God, proclaiming the gospel to arouse commandment-breakers to prepare to meet God, and raising the standard of truth by magnifying the law and making it honorable because sin is transgression of the law.

The closing assurance comes after the call to remember the apostles' warning about mockers in the last time who walk after their own ungodly lusts, separate themselves, are sensual and have not the Spirit. Against them the beloved are to build themselves up in most holy faith, pray in the Holy Ghost, keep themselves in the love of God, look for the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life, have compassion making a difference, and save others with fear pulling them out of the fire while hating the garment spotted by the flesh. Spoken in this setting, the verse encourages God's faithful people in this period of earth's history that the Lord is their helper and sufficiency and will give success to those who trust in Him, being able to keep them from falling and to present them faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to whom as the only wise God our Saviour belong glory and majesty, dominion and power both now and ever.

The instruction from verse 20 to the close makes Christian work a complete whole and teaches how to conduct warfare in the service of Christ. Kept with that instruction it guards against one-sided extravagance, indolence and shiftlessness, ignoring any man's individuality, and cold-hearted criticism or selfish practice. The epistle speaks of conditions arising in its day, including departure from the faith and danger of deception. It guards against the seductive influences of false teachers, men who have a form of godliness but are not safe leaders, who in the last days become actively zealous presenting all kinds of theories to divert minds from the very truth that defines the position that can be occupied with safety, at a time when Satan works with power upon religionists to lead them to make a pretense of being righteous while failing to place themselves under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

The warnings in verses 16-25 bear on dishonest conduct and the need for repentance and restitution, and are not heeded.

Able to Keep from Falling

Jude 1:24 teaches that God and Christ are able to keep believers from falling and to present them faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, preserving His faithful people at Christ's coming. This keeping gives success to those who trust in Him in this period of earth's history. It is to be trusted with living faith while resisting temptation and evil and holding fast to truth and to what is good.

The Keeper is One alone, Christ alone, and God alone. Men have no power to keep anyone from falling, so no one should depend on the mind of one man or of two or three men as certain to be safe for all to follow. All should instead look to God, trust in Him, believe fully in His power, and yoke up with Christ and not with men. Christ alone can keep people from the tempter's power and prevent them from falling, so children should be brought to Christ early with unceasing watchfulness and prayer to overcome the foe. One alone has power to hold believers so they will not fall short, and even those who know the truth and are established in present truth will fall short unless they take hold of that power by a sanctified will and intense obedience to the Word, working on the plan of addition while God works on the plan of multiplication, because the devil lives and works with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish. God alone can keep people from falling under the hellish powers of darkness, guarding them and working on human minds as they follow Him humbly and meekly and pray.

People cannot keep themselves from falling but are kept by God's power. Everyone needs constant grace to keep from falling. Even experienced and faithful servants can fail when left to themselves, and Christ's grace is needed every day and alone can preserve them from falling. Christ is able to save and keep saved those who recognize their dependence on Him, and all human influence draws its efficacy from Him. Jesus has all power in heaven and on earth and is able to keep every soul that trusts in Him, keeping safe in His love those who follow His instructions.

This keeping saves from all sin, temptation, apostasy, the tempter's power, hellish powers of darkness, Satan's snares, and enslaving habit. God gives grace in measure sufficient to save from all sin and to enable Christians to live in obedience to His commandments reflecting Christ's holy life, making a wicked person a Christian and equipping believers to show through their lives that Christ can keep people from sin. He asks them to trust His power and bring into their lives the grace that keeps them from sin, for His help has no limit, and the cross gives liberty, hope, and strength to carry them through hardship and make the way light. God directs the believer's steps and keeps the believer from falling, and He sanctifies and elevates the believer's energies. Christ stands beside those who faithfully serve Him and is able to keep them from falling into temptation. As the believer's Keeper He gives help and strength to resist temptation and overcome habit, keeping His children from yielding and falling.

Only being kept by the power of God keeps a person from falling under the enemy's temptation. Satan comes to people as he came to Jesus and besets them with various forms of temptation, and if his representations are accepted he gladly leads in false paths away from God. Once he obtains a foothold in the mind he works upon it with all his deceptive power. Therefore those conscious that they are not fully doing the will of the Lord must not delay to make peace with Him, and the heart must be kept pure and holy, free from every vestige of selfishness.

The promise is personal and specific: Christ is able to keep Corliss from falling even when he is hasty and makes mistakes. God's power to keep and sustain is the source of strength and freedom despite infirmities and the reason for gratitude for His preservation and help. God is able to keep His commandment-keeping people from falling by heavenly angels constantly working to keep them and by Christ making every provision for them to be partakers of the divine nature so they overcome the corruption in the world through lust. To be kept from falling means to be kept from selfishness, dissension, strife, wounding words, unholy ambition, and laying stumbling blocks that discourage others, and to be restored to benevolence, unity, and the perfection of Christ's character.

Presented Faultless in Glory

Christ presents the redeemed faultless before the Father in the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, and they are the purchase of His blood and the result of His work, for His blood has redeemed them and His life has taught them. In seeing that multitude He beholds the recompense of His suffering and is satisfied. The Father sees His own image restored in them, with sin's discord banished and humanity once more in harmony with the divine.

Presentation as faultless comes through Christ's divine merits for all who believe in Him as the way, the truth, and the life. He bore sin and died to redeem from its bondage and to secure eternal happiness, and those who return to loyalty to God are precious to Him. Only those made faultless can stand before God in glory, so before being taken to heaven every moral defect must be remedied, every stain removed by Christ's cleansing blood, and unloving traits overcome. No one will enter heaven while carrying discord, strife, or censoriousness that would disturb its peace and harmony, and standing faultless requires a character without sin or defects, with no spot or wrinkle. Overcoming must be made a life's work by beholding and studying Christ to seek His character while resisting Satan's efforts to gain victory. Soul, body, and spirit must be clean and the heart pure, for uncleanness and untidiness are incompatible with being presented blameless to God.

Christ's blood removes every sinful tendency and imperfection so that His glory and moral perfection shine through the redeemed. They stand without fault before the great white throne and share the dignity and privileges of angels. At His coming He will gather the redeemed, wipe away their tears, and bring them home to share the joy of His return. This promised presentation is certain though long delayed, and it assures believers nearing the end of their wait that they will reach their heavenly home.

Faultlessness bears on the character one will have in the day of God and judgment, so choices should follow duty rather than inclination, because wasted time and neglected opportunities will bring regret. The record of sin shows the need to be found spotless and justified in His sight. The precious truth that prepares people to stand blameless before God on the day of judgment must be shared. God's people are to occupy a position without fault before Him by firm trust in God and by carefully guarding conduct and influence while serving as instruments in His work.

Christ will finish the work He has begun in the plan of redemption by restoring in man the moral image of God and presenting him before God clothed in His righteousness. This belongs to the obedient, the genuine, in contrast to the disobedient, the counterfeit, the two classes ever before the world, and comes as each remains loyal to all of God's commandments amid all the temptations and deceptions of Satan. Through Christ's self-denial and suffering, those who receive Him as Saviour can be presented without fault before God's throne, sharing His divine nature, living out His character, and receiving an inheritance in His kingdom and a share in His glory. Those who receive and acknowledge Christ, seek His righteousness, and obey the truth may look forward to eternal life in God's kingdom, where sin, pain, and suffering are absent, while those who refuse the light and do not purify their souls through obedience to the truth will lose that life. Praising God and speaking of His power and glory lifts up the Saviour and drives the enemy away in this hope of being found faultless before God. Those Christ presents with joy must have pure, holy characters and be complete in Him by becoming partakers of the divine nature, giving up their own way, following Christ's path, and escaping the world's corruption.

Christ's Means of Keeping

Christ waits to pardon the sinner and to present him faultless to God, with God welcoming every soul through Christ so that not one in the world needs to perish. That faultless presentation comes by Christ imparting His great love and His righteousness, and by the Holy Spirit sanctifying the soul through belief of the truth. It is received by simple faith in Jesus, by resisting the devil's suggestions until he flees, by drawing nigh to God so that He draws nigh, by cooperating with God, and by making straight paths for the feet so the lame are not turned out of the way by example, while the Lord lifts up a standard against the enemy.

Infinite power prevents falling, and all the resources of heaven are placed at the demand of those to whom God has given Christ. This keeping is grasped by living faith, giving a right to claim God's blessing and to ask for needed things, and committing the keeping of the soul to Him as a faithful Creator honors Him. Freedom in Christ is a privilege because He gave His life to make free. His power to keep rests on His death as the atonement for sin and the payment of the redemption price, without which none could be saved. He lives to intercede, now standing at the Father's right hand pleading for those who receive Him, with power to take away their sins and give them power to become sons of God, so that those obedient to His will shall live through Him and be kept from falling.

The Word of life cleanses from defilement and gives spiritual life and faith by which the victory Christ gained is realized. God gives the Word of life for Christians to live by, to receive continually increasing knowledge of truth, and to gain light, purity, goodness, and a faith which works by love and purifies the soul. Thus they are redeemed and presented faultless before the throne of divine glory through the wondrous victory Christ gained in man's behalf.

Christ keeps by taking believers' names into His lips and presenting them to the Father with His hands where their names are written and graven on the palms of His hands, asking that they be kept from Satan's snares. Angels of God are sent to keep them from falling. A lukewarm professor who claims to be a child of God but is uninfluenced by His Spirit and has no warm love of God in the heart cannot be so taken in His mouth and kept, but is insensible to mercy and kindness and love and is endured no longer because of selfishness while the world perishes in sin.

Having undertaken to save sinners, Christ will accomplish it if they accept Him as personal Saviour, commit the keeping of their souls into His hands and care, and cooperate with Him instead of resisting and refusing salvation. He will then elevate them and cleanse them from all moral defilement and bring them blameless into God's glorious presence with great joy. There He says to the Father that here are those the Father gave Him and that He wills them to be with Him where He is to behold His glory.

One mighty to save has hold upon the believer, and as long as a person submits to be led by Him, learns of Him, and confides in Him with living, constant, undoubting faith and reliance, He will keep that person from falling. When God engages to keep, He is a sure defense and a strong fortress, and those who confide in Him are perfectly secure because His Word is pledged in their defense, bringing salvation by Christ's merits and intercession to those who simply trust God and obey His commandments. The power and efficacy of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ to keep is made effective through earnest, growing faith in the blood of Jesus and greater knowledge of God. This keeping is found by constantly seeking the strongholds of a healthful and well-balanced Christian experience, taught by keeping the Word of God ever before the youth in living principles and keeping Bible precepts as the textbook, carrying with it qualifications for future usefulness, intelligence, and piety. By faith the soul weakened by sin can be cleansed and healed, and when a person is ready to work with Christ their resolutions have value, for Christ gives strength and victory to become whole and can remove every mean and wicked trait of character because He has purchased that person as His own.

Received Through Faith and Prayer

The keeping promised belongs to those who labor together with God in thorough consecration in humility, giving body, mind and soul to Him and asking earnestly for help despite known infirmities, while they build themselves up on most holy faith, pray in the Holy Spirit, keep themselves in the love of God, look for the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life, and work for others with compassion that makes a difference, saving with fear, pulling them out of the fire and hating even the garment spotted by the flesh. It is given with assurance to those who put away judging, faultfinding, envy, jealousy and evil-speaking and who live in unity and brotherly love, with Christ by His intercession working to prevent their fall and to restore healthful love for one another. To the only wise God our Saviour belong glory and majesty and dominion and power both now and ever.

The keeping is connected with living faith and the transforming work of God in the heart, for merely hearing or agreeing with the word is not enough. The promise of being presented faultless applies to those who aim for the highest Christian standard and advance continually through daily growth in divine life. Faith grows as doubts and obstacles are overcome, and sanctification is progressive, requiring the use of each opportunity to know Christ's life and character better and to grow in grace and knowledge of Him.

Jesus is mighty to save and able to keep and save from falling everyone who with living, constant, undoubting faith and reliance submits to be led by Him, learns of Him and confides in Him. When God engages to keep He is a sure defense and a strong fortress, and those who confide in Him are perfectly secure, with His Word pledged in their defense if they believe in Him. Simply trusting in God and obeying His commandments brings salvation by the merits and intercession of Jesus Christ, yet watching and praying lest entering into temptation is required because peril is very great, with the great adversary watching to take souls when off guard.

Faith must be sufficient to trust that Christ can keep believers from sinning and present them faultless in God's glory, for without such faith a person has no entrance into God's kingdom. Those who are saved grow in humility and in Christ's wisdom and righteousness, receiving correction and counsel as blessings and pressing onward rather than resting in progress. At the judgment a life that retains human frailty and the imperfection of natural humanity cannot be vindicated and cannot enjoy heaven's perfection and the perfection of the saints in light.

Keeping is laid hold of day by day by looking to God and laying hold of His promises by living faith, taking Christ at His word and believing He will do exactly as promised and fulfill His promises when sought in faith. Faith itself is the gift of God, the living fire of His own kindling for use in prayer. Those thus kept become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world through lust, with a faith that works by love and purifies the soul and constantly cleanses away every moral impurity from the being.

The One able to keep from falling is the three holiest beings in heaven, the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, under whose sanction and power those baptized in their name and raised to newness of life stand to remain dead to sin and to reveal a life hid with Christ in God. Those who cannot work in their own strength must claim this keeping power in prayer, asking that the three great Worthies will work in and by and through them. That working sanctifies tongue, spirit and words and brings mind and character into susceptibility to the movings of the Holy Spirit.

Keeping is received through sincere, continual prayer in every place and activity, at daily work, at business, wherever one is, and there is no genuine repentance without such prayer. Safety comes only by connection with the Source of all power, purity and elevation of character, by daily communion with God, by keeping the Lord ever before the mind, and by keeping the mind constantly under the influence of the Spirit of God. The Spirit shields from all evil and gives appreciation of the reality and importance of spiritual things, and the grace of Christ barricades the soul so that one tempted toward coarseness, sensuality and profligacy can be pure, holy and undefiled. Being kept faultless comes when the multiplicity of cares drives a person to the throne of God in prayer, asking the Lord Jesus Christ for strength and grace, keeping the eyes fixed on Christ, doing faithful work in every place where duty calls, and practicing mercy and righteousness, so that Christ's mold is seen on the person and on all the work of the hands, making the life an honor to God in positions of trust and a true representation of Christ.

In times of trial believers are to trust God, rely on His promises and commit themselves to His care, believing He will preserve them until the day of salvation. Christ came as humanity's surety and substitute and overcame so that believers may overcome through His strength and merits. His keeping power is to be recognized and trusted instead of looking to men, worrying about slights or suspected envy, or cherishing discouraging thoughts, for with the eye single to the glory of God the Lord is Helper and God and the work is the Lord's, not man's, and His servant keeps the way of the Lord by doing justice and mercy blended together. The promise holds even for those who have no strength or wisdom of their own and do not understand their own necessities, and when joy and hope are lost to weeping the remedy is to open the door of the heart and let Him in as an abiding guest. Received as a friend closer than a brother, He receives every trial, sorrow and need told to Him, teaches things above the price of gold or silver, and gives peace and joy under His control.

After baptism in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit into new life, believers stand under the power of the three holy beings in heaven to show they are dead to sin with life hidden with Christ in God, and may ask God to work in and through them, sanctify words and spirit, and make them receptive to the Holy Spirit. Those baptized can claim the help of the three great Worthies to keep them from falling and to reveal through them a character after the divine similitude, molded and fashioned in accordance with the divine pattern. If Christlikeness is lost, communion with God cannot be regained until there is reconversion and rebaptism, with repentance and entrance into the love and communion and harmony of Christ. Those thus kept receive spiritual discernment to see things above where Christ sits at the right hand of God, and are filled with rejoicing and praise and thanksgiving, a condition in which sinners are converted, while those claiming great light and spiritual knowledge must be careful that garments are not defiled by the flesh, trusting Him who keeps them.

Jesus is able to keep believers from falling into Satan's snare when they pray with faith to be kept and grasp His hand to guide them over all perilous and difficult places. That keeping goes with communing with God as they walk by the way and as they associate with others, looking heavenward and living as in the sight of the Lord. It is lived as sons of God and heirs of the kingdom with cheerful, kind, courteous, sober and dignified character, responsible for the influence exerted over others because a self-indulging course stimulates others to go still further.

Lived Out in Character

The keeping promised is for those who trust in Christ, so repeated failure is no cause for despair and inherited or cultivated sinful habits and tendencies need not enslave, because overcoming comes through power God is ready to give and not through finite human strength. That keeping calls for purifying the soul through obedience to the truth in order to be prepared to stand without fault before God when Christ comes. Standing faultless before His glory depends on a complete change of attitude and conformity to His will, and this is the condition of eternal life.

Those who are saved grow in humility and in Christ's wisdom and righteousness, receiving correction and counsel as blessings and pressing onward instead of resting in progress. Without faith that trusts Christ's power to keep from sinning there is no entrance into the kingdom, and a life retaining natural frailty and imperfection cannot be vindicated or share the perfection of heaven's light. Faultlessness of character requires continual striving, humility, and a sense of dependence, with daily representing Christ in character here in order to be fitted for the world to come, until His merits of character appear in those presented with exceeding joy before His presence and before the sinless universe. Being kept from falling and presented faultless is decided when the judgment sits and the books are opened and every person is judged and sentenced according to what is written in the books, according to deeds. Those who are saved must form characters without fault, and to this end every person has been given a work, cooperating with Christ by wearing His yoke rather than a yoke of human manufacture and learning His meekness and lowliness, taught daily in the meaning of the divine beatitudes while angels welcome and minister in every phase of life.

Christians prove the promise true by living out their profession, conforming life to His pure, beautiful, holy life and obeying His commandments, which brings practical godliness. Trust in Him as the pardoning Saviour rests on God's promises to preserve the soul and its vital powers in purity, and this faith is active, expressed in prayer and obedience and shown in loving works that purify life from selfishness. The same keeping leads believers in His footsteps and holds them from sin. As Keeper He gives His children help and strength to resist temptation and to overcome habit, keeping them from yielding and falling.