Keep Yourselves in the Love of God

I read the very last section of Jude today which is subtitled in the ESV "A Call to Persevere." I think it would behoove us to consider the delicate tension between human responsibility and Divine ordinance with respect to the perseverance of the saints. The title of this post comes from the first part of Jude 21. Jude clearly presents this keeping as a part of our responsibility. Notice that he says "keep yourselves", which is active, rather than something like "be kept", which is passive. We need to be active in persevering to the end.

That said, we also need to keep in mind the fact that the Bible is clear we are kept by God. In Jude 1, the greeting is to those who are "kept for Jesus Christ." The ESV has a little note that says the word "for" could also be translated "by" so that it would read "kept by Jesus Christ." Furthermore, in verse 24 Jude praises God "who is able to keep you" (24). So this idea of keeping is a theme in Jude and the responsibility seems to go both ways. Understanding such a thing is quite difficult. More recently I believe I've been able to make some sense out of it at least, but it takes far too long to really explain.

There's a danger of leaning too far one way or the other. For example, you could be fatalistic and use God's grace as a license for sin. After all, if you have God's promise that He will keep you to the end, doesn't that mean you can get away with whatever you want? Not exactly. Jude has been clear already that only ungodly men marked out for destruction are the ones who "pervert the grace of our God into sensuality" (4).

Then you could lean the other direction and declare that it is completely up to you to keep yourself saved. This is not the case either, because then you would be getting credit for your salvation. After all, you were good enough to remain in God's favor, weren't you? But Jude ascribes all the glory to God in verse 25. So what do we do? We must keep them in tension. Paul says it wonderfully: "work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure" (Phil. 2:12-13).

We have the privilege of fighting a valiant fight, but if we're not fighting, we're not in the army. So fight the spiritual fight - against sin, against falling away, against false teaching, against "every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God" (2 Cor. 10:5) - and hold on to the hope that all those who are enlisted by the Lord will see victory. There are no casualties in God's army. He is able to keep you.