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“…that every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord”

The Epistle of Jude - Contending for the Faith

Posted on July 11, 2010
      1. Background and Review
  1. Written BY Jude; the brother of James, the brother of Jesus, TO the church in general FOR the purpose of refuting certain heretics, or schismatic individuals who were ripping the church apart with both heterodoxy and heteropraxy.
  2. Last week, we saw how God chose to inspire a book THROUGH fallen, redeemed men, to communicate His salvation. The Living God, COULD have righteously and irrevocably condemned the entire creation when Man sinned, instead, He SERVED us, not only in maintaining His creation, but redeeming it through His Son, Jesus
      1. Exegetical Comments on the Text: “Beloved while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered the saints.”
  1. Jude appeals the church to “contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.” First, what WAS this “faith”
    1. The heart of the “gospel” is not primarily about individual salvation (though a necessary implication). The gospel is the proclamation that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, and that one day, all men WILL acknowledge Him as Lord (Phil 2:11ff).
    2. The human problem began in the Garden, with a rebellious act of Man, believing the Adversary’s lies and attempting to become God. God then condemns Man’s rebellion by cursing both His vicegerents AND the creation they were made to rule as His ambassadors.
    3. However, because of His love and mercy, He promises to redeem BOTH from His curse; the entire history of the Old Testament is the outworking of God’s promise of a coming Redeemer through the line of Seth, Adam’s Son, through Noah, Abraham, David, etc.
    4. This Redeemer would have two specific roles; one as the King of Kings and Lord of Lord’s, the other as the Suffering Servant who would suffer and die to atone for sin (Isa 53).
    5. In the fullness of time, Jesus was born as the center-piece of human history.
      1. There is a reason WHY “Christmas” is celebrated, even though we have no specific Biblical warrant. Whether men recognize it or not, the birth of the Christ was the most important events in human history and the entire world has been changed because of it.
      2. However, Biblical Christianity does not WORSHIP the birth of Christ, but rather the Christ Himself-thus there is a distinction between a cultural celebration of an historical event, and a religious requirement to offer God proper worship.
      3. It is this balance that is often misunderstood and why so many Reformed Christians have taken such as definite stand against Christmas- many Christians brought into the worship of God something that He Himself never required or desired.
      4. The birth of the Messiah, was central to human history, and therefore a legitimate social, cultural event to celebrate, but it was NOT the central event in God’s history, which was the crucifixion and resurrection; the two events that propitiated God’s righteous wrath and allowed Him to redeem His creation from our sin.
      5. Hence, we are commanded to celebrate both the crucifixion AND the resurrection every Lord’s Day since THESE are from God’s perspective, what is really important.
    1. Hence the “faith” that was delivered was the confidence and trust that God had kept His covenant promises to redeem His creation, wipe away Man’s sin and the effects it had personally as well as socially, culturally and environmentally.
    2. And the proclamation that Jesus was the Messiah, the Christ, the “Anointed One” of God, meant that all men must acknowledge Him as Lord to receive the benefits of His comprehensive redemption.
  2. Now, at the heart of the confession that Jesus is Lord, is also the assumption that Man cannot save himself, that he is righteously condemned and that there is nothing, he can do to.
      1. That Jesus is the Messiah also requires men to recognize their own helplessness before God and their complete and utter dependence on His role as the Suffering Servant.
      2. Thus, by the grace of God, wicked men are given faith to trust that the Messiah has fully and completely fulfilled all the righteous requirements of God’s Law as our “new” Adam or federal head. Since God condemned the human race because of Adam’s sin, He therefore redeems the human race based upon the perfect obedience of Jesus.
      3. The gospel then is a complete repudiation of Man’s rebellion in the Garden; God is vindicated as God (and man is not) – God’s Word is true (He keeps His promises both to condemn sin as well as redeem sinners) – and God’s entire creation will be redeemed from the curse and stain of sin and wickedness.
  1. Secondly, notice that this “faith” was “once for all delivered” to the “saints.”
    1. Our word “saints” literally means “holy ones.” The word does not mean a select, elite form of Christian but rather the generic term for “believer.” We are the “holy ones” because we have been “called out” or “separated” from the world and are to be “dedicated” or “consecrated” to the Lord (the basic definition of “holy”).
    2. This faith was “delivered” to the “holy ones” through the Apostolic message; the Apostles preached to the world that the Messiah had come and that every knee should bow and every tongue confess that HE and HE alone was “Lord” in fulfillment of the Father’s promise.
    3. Furthermore, this delivery was “once for all” which means that it is sufficient, complete and nothing can be added to it.
        1. One of the problems that Jude was addressing was that certain men had crept into the church and were perverting the gospel by introducing destructive and dangerous doctrines. In essence, they were saying that Christ was good, but not good enough. Men needed their revelation to “really” find peace with God.
        2. As we will see, these “heretics” were not just misinformed or confused, but wicked men who infiltrated the church and taught strange things for personal aggrandizement. In essence, they did not acknowledge Jesus as Lord, but recapitulated the error of Adam; they would determine good and evil, not the Lord God through His gospel.
        3. Hence, the church had to be aware of such men and contend for the truth against these errors. Any person who at any time claims to have new revelation that improves upon the gospel is in effect, identifying with these wicked men and showing that they are not part of the “holy ones” but dangerous and subversive enemies of the gospel.
        4. But those who trust in Jesus, and the sufficiency of His Word, are members now of God’s own family, beloved by God and His people. If you love Jesus, then you have to love His Word (Jn 14:21) and submit yourself to it-we cannot have Him as Savior if we do not also recognize Him as Lord (Rms 10:9-10).
      1. Conclusion and Application
  1. The “faith” is not some upper story, academic or philosophical speculation but rather the revelation that Jesus is Lord, and that through Him, God has redeemed what man lost.
  2. Therefore, let us bring every thought, every word and every deed into submission to His will while recognizing that there are those who would pervert and distort the gospel…
  3. There are many ways to “contend” for the faith; some lawful, some not. Not every doctrine has equal importance with every other doctrine. There is to be grace, kindness, gentleness and compassion for those whose understanding is less than our own (cf. Rms 14:1ff, 2 Tim 2:23ff). Often, arrogance and pride are the real motivations for much contention, division and schism within the church (Rms 8:1). Every difference in doctrine is not necessarily a heresy and every one who believes differently from us is not necessarily a heretic – how we handle our theological differences with one another may be as important as who is more technically correct.

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