Kept

Jude is a short book. One chapter. It is almost an echo of Peter's second letter. It's like Jude read Peter's letter and said, "I've got to write more on this." He employs the same theme -- false teachers -- with the same descriptions and the same warnings and the same encouragement to deal with them. There is one very interesting feature in Jude. Look.

From Jude, a slave of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to those who are called, wrapped in the love of God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ. (Jude 1:1)

Now to the One who is able to keep you from falling, and to cause you to stand, rejoicing, without blemish before His glorious presence, to the only God our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority, before all time, and now, and for all eternity. Amen. (Jude 1:24-25)

Did you see it? Jude starts and ends his letter with the concept of "kept." He writes to those who are "kept for Jesus Christ" and declares that He is able to "keep you from falling." Bookends, if you will. Now, Jude intended to write "about our common salvation" (Jude 1:3), but got sidetracked with false teachers. In the end, though, he still included an important component of our common salvation. Jude doesn't write this from the perspective of the saved; he writes it from the perspective of the Savior. He tells the saved, for instance, that we should build "yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life" (Jude 1:20-21). That's us. That's the kind of thing we are responsible for. But God, according to Jude, is in the business of "keeping." "The called" are kept. They are kept from falling. They are kept for Jesus Christ.

The Scriptures are not vague on this. After telling us we're saved apart from works (Eph 2:8-9), Paul wrote, "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them" (Eph 2:10). James said that faith without works is dead (James 2:17). So we must "work out your salvation with fear and trembling" (Php 2:12). Not for salvation, but because of it. Believers have a job to do. It's good to know that maintaining salvation is not part of it. It is God who is at work in you both to will and to do His good pleasure (Php 2:13). It is God who keeps us from stumbling. We are kept in the salvation we are given.