Falling

Good morning!

It is 5:45 here in AZ, and believe it or not, I beat yesterday's record by awaking before 4:00.  This is not a cause for rejoicing, Y'all.  My sinuses have figured that they're "not in Kansas anymore", and are on a full-scale rebellion.  Nice.

But, let's rejoice in our LORD this morning!  He is good, all the time.

Yesterday, I said we were going to spend some time in Jude and yesterday's post was on Biblical salvation, which is foundational to the Christian faith and to my walk.  There is a good bit of controversy about that, actually.  So, today, I want to move onto the next verses in Jude to another controversial topic:  falling from grace.  (If you are new to the faith, you are figuring out that Christians have their own funky language.)  Basically, some believe that once you begin your relationship with Jesus, you can "lose" that relationship by sinning.  I don't believe that this is what the Scripture teaches.

In verses 24-25 Jude pronounces a blessing to close his book.
"Now, unto Him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God, our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever!  Amen."

The "Him" referred to here is our Savior.  Jude, under divine inspiration, tells us that our Savior, Jesus, is able to "keep us from falling".  What does that mean?  Well, as I mentioned earlier, some believe that it means that you can lose your salvation by how you act.  Other Bible scholars take a different view, and this is the one I share.

Let me ask you something.  We all have parents, right?  Whether you ever knew them or not, a male and a female had some part in your conception and birth.  Are you forever their child, biologically?  Can anything you ever do change that?  No, it can't.  For better or for worse, you are their biological child.  You are a biological branch on their family tree.
When you are born into God's family through accepting Jesus as Savior and Lord, you are irrevocably His.  Here are other text references offered as support of this position.

"And no man can snatch them out of my Father's hand..."  Jesus, speaking in John 10:28-30

"Nothing can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus..."  Paul, speaking in Romans 8:31-39

The High Priestly Prayer of Jesus, recorded in John 17.  More validation of this from Jesus Himself

"He forgave all our sins, having cancelled the charge of our legal indebtedness..." Colossians 2:13-14  Paul, speaking of the finality of Christ's triumph in vanquishing our sin.

There was a Christian vocalist a few years ago who had a smash hit called, "Butterfly Kisses".  His name was Bob Carlisle.  He produced a couple of albums, as I recall.  I've lost track of him lately.  But, on one of his albums was a tremendous song which did not get much air time.  I think it was called, "We Fall Down".  At any rate, the gist of the song was that the singer met a monk who lived in a very reclusive order in a monestery in his town.  Rarely were the monks ever seen outside the walls.  But, on one occasion, the singer met a monk outside the monestery walls and asked him how he managed to live such a life of dedication to Jesus Christ.  The monk's reply was this:  "We fall down.  We get up.  We fall down.  We get up."  The first time I listened to that song I was like, "Whahhh?"  But then...I realized what he was saying!  The monk was saying that when they sin, they get up, go to Jesus for confession and forgiveness and keep on walking until they fall down again.

Listen!  The same God who created us saves us.  "He knows our frame; He remembers that we are made of dust."  Psalm 103:14  He knows that, with our fallen natures warring with our redeemed "new man" natures constantly, we will at times fall into sin.  How much sense, really, does it make that Jesus would choose to put on skin, come down here, suffer the most awful earthly death imaginable to redeem us only to allow us once we receive Him as Savior to slip through his fingers?

Now our enemy, the Devil, loves to try to convince us that we don't truly belong to Him, and he uses our lapses into sin to do it.  He will whisper in our ears, "You can't possibly be a Christian, because look what you have done!"  If he is successful in making us believe that, then we are rendered discouraged and ineffective, which is exactly what he wants - - - to neutralize us.  Don't listen to the Father of Lies, as Jesus called him.

Here is what we must do.  Jesus said (Luke 9:23) that we must "take up our cross daily and follow Him".  John said in 1 John 1:9, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness."  John was speaking to members of the early Church in that verse, not to unbelievers.  Ongoing confession of our sins will keep us walking close to Jesus.  When we refuse to confess our sins, we limit His ability to commune with us, to teach us, to bless us, because God is holy.  He cannot dwell where sin is present.  Read Proverbs 28:13.

Back to Jude...."and to present us faultless..."
Our Creator Savior King Jesus has paid for and guarantees eternal life to all who accept Him as their Lord and Savior.  Jude testifies here that Jesus will present His own, His beloved, pure and without blemish or spot before His Father and our Father, Jehovah God.  We are unable to present ourselves faultless...that has already been accomplished by our Savior.

So, what is our role here.  Look at Hebrews 12:1-2
"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith...."
Our role is to take up our cross daily, throw off anything that would keep us from drawing nearer to Jesus and to run with perseverance (whew!) the race that our Savior has marked out for us while we keep our eyes on Jesus who is what?....what?...the Author and Finisher of our faith.  

Dear Jesus,
Keep us from the sins that so easily entangle us today; deliver us from evil.  Thank you for paying the price for us, for "authoring" our faith.  Thank you that you also have finished our faith, and that in You we are secure.  Thank you for putting your Holy Spirit in our hearts when we accepted you as Savior and that He, the Spirit, cries out "Abba, Father" in testimony that we belong to you, forever and ever.  We love you, Lord.  Amen.