"Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, To God our Savior, Who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen.” (NKJV).
“Now all glory to God, who is able to keep you from falling away and will bring you with great joy into His glorious presence without a single fault. All glory to Him Who alone is God, our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord. All glory, majesty, power, and authority are His before all time, and in the present, and beyond all time! Amen.” (NLT).
“This is Jude’s benediction. With powerful forces working untiringly against Christians and the cause of Christ, it is very easy to get discouraged. Sometimes it seems that the devil is winning. All of our efforts to live for Christ are constantly being sabotaged. The false teachers have great resources that they use to reach millions of people. Their deceptive message is cunning, and it lures gullible men and women. We feel like John the Baptist, who was “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; Make His paths straight’” (John 1:23).
Jude is saying that in spite of the false teachers, the believer's salvation is secure in Christ Jesus. God is able to keep us from falling. It is God who keeps us saved and will not allow any of His children to be lost. God assures the believer saying, ‘Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time’” (1 Peter 1:3-5). –Adapted in part from: Dr. Cooper P. Abrams, III, bible-truth.org
Verse 24a: “Now to Him who is able…” This speaks of God’s omnipotent power. Omnipotent in Greek is, pantokrátōr, which means, “almighty; unrestricted power; exercising absolute dominion.”
“Since He has at His command all the power in the universe, the Lord God Omnipotent can do anything as easily as anything else. All His acts are done without effort. He expends no energy that must be replenished. His self-sufficiency makes it unnecessary for Him to look outside of Himself for a renewal of strength. All the power required to do all that He wills to do lies in undiminished fullness in His own infinite being.” – A.W. Tozer
God is able.
Ephesians 3:20,21 “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”
2 Corinthians 9:8, “And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.”
The seven stages of God’s ability: “Able” in Greek is, dunamai, “to be able to, to be capable of, to be strong enough to do or to have power to do something.” From these two verses, see God’s ability:
1. He is able to do…He is not idle, never tired or inactive, Psalm 121:3,4 MSG, “He won’t let you stumble, your Guardian God won’t fall asleep. Not on your life! Israel’s Guardian will never doze or sleep.”
2. He is able to do…“exceedingly abundantly above all…” One of Paul’s super superlatives. Exceeding: “More and greater than; above all else; abundantly; very much more than; infinitely more; immeasurably more.”
3. He is able to do…what we ask. He hears and answers every prayer. John 14:13,14, “Whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.” 1 John 5:14,15, “Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.”
4. He is able to do…what we think…Psalm 139:1 NCV, “Lord…You know my thoughts before I think them.” 1 John 3:20, “God is greater than our heart, and knows all things.”
5. He is able to “make all grace abound toward you…” Romans 5:20,21, “But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
6. He is able to “do all…” Genesis 32:27, “Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is there anything too hard for Me?” Luke 1:37, “For with God nothing will be impossible.” Can God make a rock bigger than He can move? Yes! And then He can move it!
7. He is able to do…because He is the All-Sufficient One…He is El Shaddai, the All-Sufficient God. 1 Peter 1:3, “His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness.”
Verse 24b: “Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling…” “Now all glory to God, who is able to keep you from falling away…” (NLT).
“Keep” in Greek is phulasso, meaning, “to watch, to carry out the function as a military guard or sentinel.” This word is used to describe the shepherds “keeping watch over their flock by night” (Luke 2:8), which congers up the image of savage wolves seeking to devour helpless sheep.
“Stumbling” in Greek is, skandalon, “a snare, stumbling-block, cause for error.” Originally skandalon was the name of the part of a trap to which the bait is attached, hence, the trap or snare itself.
He is able to keep believers from apostasy. Christ is able to keep us from all error and sin that can entrap us. Psalm 121:3, “He will not allow your foot to be moved…” He is able to cause us to stand firm. 2 Corinthians 1:24 NLT, “It is by your own faith that you stand firm.” Ephesians 6:13, “Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.”
Verse 24c: “And to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy…”
“Faultless” in Greek is amomos, it literally means “without spot or blemish” (Ephesians 5:26,27). “Above reproach” (Colossians 1:23). It was used to describe the absence of defects in sacrificial animals and figuratively of the Lamb of God as unblemished (1 Peter 1:19).
Hebrews 9:14, “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”
Ephesians 1:4, “According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.”
1 Thessalonians 3:13;23, “ So that He may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints…Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
“There shall be none in heaven but those who are faultless. There shall by no means enter into those holy courts anything that defiles. Heaven is perfectly pure; and if you and I are ever to get there, we must be pure as the driven snow. No taint of sin must be upon us, or else we cannot stand among the courtiers of God. Come, Christian, think for a minute how faultless Christ has made you so far as your past sin is concerned. The moment you believed in him, you were so completely washed in his precious blood that not a spot of sin remained upon you. Try to realize that, whatever your past life has been, if you now believe in Jesus Christ, you are cleansed from all iniquity by virtue of his atoning sacrifice, and you are covered by a spotless robe of righteousness by virtue of his blessed life of perfect purity and obedience to his Father’s will. You are now without fault so far as your past sin is concerned, for he has cast it all into the depths of the sea; but you feel that you are not without fault as to your nature.” –Spurgeon
“Getting our children to look good for church was always a challenge. Ten minutes after arriving at church all spruced up, our little Matthew would look like he didn’t have parents. I’d see him running down the hall with his shirt half untucked, glasses cockeyed, shoes scuffed up, and cookie crumbs decorating his clothes. Left to himself, he was a mess. I wonder if that is how we look sometimes. After Christ has clothed us in His righteousness, we tend to wander off and live in ways that make us look like we don’t belong to God. That’s why Jude’s promise that Jesus is “able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless” gives me hope (Jude 1:24). How can we keep from looking like we don’t have a heavenly Father? As we become more yielded to His Spirit and His ways, He will keep us from stumbling. Think of how increasingly righteous our lives would become if we would take time in His Word to be cleansed with “the washing of water by the word” (Ephesians 5:26). What a blessing that Jesus promises to take our stumbling, disheveled lives and present us faultless to the Father! May we increasingly look like children of the King as we reflect His loving care and attention.” –All spruced up by Joe Stowell
Verse 24d: “Before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy…”
What an awesome thought! I suppose that the usual way we think of going into the presence of Almighty God, the Sovereign of the universe is in fear and in shame. But by the wonderful grace of God and the sacrificial work of Jesus Christ, we know that we can go to God with joy and with all fear banished.
Surrounded by Your glory, what will my heart feel?
Will I dance for You Jesus? Or in awe of You be still?
Will I stand in Your presence? To my knees will I fall?
Will I sing Hallelujah? Will I be able to speak at all?
I can only imagine.
–I can only imagine by Bart Millard–
Verse 25: “To God our Savior, Who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen.”
Verse 25a: “To God our Savior…”
“We note one last thing. Usually we associate the word Savior with Jesus Christ, but here Jude attaches it to God, The Father. He is not alone in this, for God is often called Savior in the New Testament. Luke 1:47, “And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.” 1 Timothy 1:1, “Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the commandment of God our Savior and the Lord Jesus Christ, our hope.” 1 Timothy 2:3, “For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior.” So we end with the great and comforting certainty that at the back of everything there is a God whose name is Savior. The Christian has the joyous certainty that in this world he lives in the love of God and that in the next world he goes to that love. The love of God is at once the atmosphere and the goal of all his living.” –Barclay
Verse 25b: “Who alone is wise…”
Alexander MacClaren notes: “Now it is to be noticed, as those of you who use the Revised Version will observe, that the word ‘wise’ seems to have crept in here by the reminiscence of another similar doxology in the Epistle to the Romans, and was probably inserted by some scribe who had not grasped the great thought of which the text is the expression. It ought to read, ‘to the only God, our Savior.’ The writer’s idea seems to be just this-he has been massing in a dark crowd the whole multitudinous mob of corruptions and evils that were threatening the faith and righteousness of professing Christians. And he turns away from all that rabble, multitudinous as they are, to look to the One who is all-sufficient, solitary, and enough. ‘The only God’ is the refuge from the crowds of evils that dog our steps, and from the temptations and foes that assail us at every point.”
But it is still a truism, God is wise! Proverbs 3:19, “The Lord by wisdom founded the earth. By understanding He established the heavens.” Job 12:13, “With Him are wisdom and strength, He has counsel and understanding.” Romans 16:27, “To God, alone wise, be glory through Jesus Christ forever. Amen.” There is no wisdom above or beyond God. He is ultimate wisdom, and our wisdom is merely a derivative of His wisdom. God is wise because He devised a plan independent of man.
Verse 25c: “Be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen.”
“Glory” in Greek is doxa, from where we get the word doxology. Doxa expresses all that He is in His Being and in His nature, character, power and acts. He is glorified when He is allowed to be seen as He really is. To be where God is will be glory. To be what God intended will be glory. To do what God purposed will be glory.
When all my labors and trials are o’er,
And I am safe on that beautiful shore,
Just to be near the dear Lord I adore,
Will through the ages be glory for me.
Oh, that will be glory for me, glory for me, glory for me,
When by His grace I shall look on His face,
That will be glory, be glory for me.
–Charles H. Gabriel–
“Majesty” in Greek is megalosune, it signifies prominence, importance, preeminence, stateliness, dignity, impressive greatness as a king can be in his bearing. Megalosune signifies that God is greater than all and is used only of God the Father. “Majesty” is the incomparable regal presence of God as the Ruler of the universe.
“Dominion” in Greek is kratos, meaning, unlimited power, force or strength. Ephesians 1:19, “And what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power.”
“Power” in Greek is exousia, meaning, “authority, weight, especially: moral authority, and influence.”
“Both now and forever.” Jude looks at the full extent of eternity: “Before all time, and now, and to the end of all time.” This is the same idea as Hebrews 13:8, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”
This could also be translated “unto all the ages.” This is “as complete a statement of eternity as can be made in human language.” (Robertson) Our victory, our triumph in God, is forever.
“Amen” is a transliteration of the Hebrew noun amen and then into Latin and into English and many other languages, so that it is practically a universal word. The idea of amen is “Let it be so!” Which signifies a hearty consent to God’s promise, and a steady belief that it will continue to all generations
Revelation 5:13,14, “And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, I heard saying: ‘Blessing and honor and glory and power be to Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, forever and ever!’ Then the four living creatures said, ‘Amen!’ And the twenty-four elders fell down and worshiped Him who lives forever and ever.”
“And now to him who can keep you on your feet, standing tall in his bright presence, fresh and celebrating—to our one God, our only Savior, through Jesus Christ, our Master, be glory, majesty, strength, and rule before all time, and now, and to the end of all time. Yes” (Jude 24,25, The Message).
Let me conclude with a synopsis of the last few verses in Jude:
Six steps to dynamic faith: Building, Praying, Keeping, Looking, Having compassion, Witnessing.
1. Verse 20a: “Building yourselves up on your most holy faith.” Having firmness and unshaken resolve. 1 Corinthians 3:11 NLT, “For no one can lay any foundation other than the one we already have—Jesus Christ.” 2 Timothy 2:19, “Nevertheless the solid foundation of God stands, having this seal: “The Lord knows those who are His.”
2. Verse 20b: “Praying in the Holy Spirit.” Our spiritual battles are fought on our knees, depending on the power of the Holy Spirit. Prayer is not something we do in the flesh! Ephesians 6:12, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” God has given every believer the weapon of prayer to fight the battles of life.
3. Verse 21a: “Keeping yourselves in the love of God.” There are two sides to keeping: 1) God keeps us: “Keep” in Greek is tereo, meaning, “to attend carefully, to care for, to guard.” 1 Peter 1:5, “Who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” 2) We keep ourselves: Literally, keep yourself in the place of blessing! Stay within the boundaries of God’s love. John 15:9,10, “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.”
4. Verse 21b: “Looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.” Mercy is God’s love in action! Lamentations 3:22,23, “Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.” Jude reminds us of the ultimate of God’s mercy…eternal life. When our eyes are fixed on that goal, we are not apt to be led astray by false teachers.
5. Verse 22: Having Compassion on those who are being led astray. The Greek word for “compassion” is eleeo, meaning, “pity, sympathy, empathy, feeling, care, concern, solicitude, sensitivity, warmth, love, tenderness, mercy, leniency, tolerance, kindness, humanity and charity eleeo is a very close word to elios, “mercy.” We have the responsibility to share God’s mercy with those who are struggling with their salvation.
6. Verse 23: Witness with urgency. “But others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire…” 1 Peter 3:15, “Always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear.” 1 Corinthians 9:19-22, “19 For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win the more; and to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win Jews; to those who are under the law, as under the law, that I might win those who are under the law; to those who are without law, as without law (not being without law toward God,[b] but under law toward Christ), that I might win those who are without law; to the weak I became as weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.”
Unless otherwise noted, the New King James Version of the Bible was used. Also The New Living Translation (NLT); The New American Standard Bible (NASB); The Message (MSG); The New Century Version (NCV); The Amplified Bible (AMP); The King James Version (KJV), The New Life Version (NLV); English Standard Version (ESV); J.B. Phillips New Testament; Easy to Read Version (ERV) and The Living Bible (TLB).
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