The turning of God’s grace into lewdness

For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.
(Jud 1:4)

The Epistle of Jude is generally titled as ‘Contending for the Faith’ as Jude wrote in Jude 1:3. In fact, he uses the word ‘content earnestly’, which indicates effort on the believer’s behalf to stand for their moral convictions or truthfulness of their God. We are then never to let our guard down as though in a situation of war.

The contention for the faith requires watchfulness of ‘certain’ men who managed to maneuver their way into acceptability in the church. As wolf in sheep’s clothing seeking to corrupt the Grace of our God, turning the heavenly value of His Grace into a common thing. It is as though there have been a downgrading of the standards of God’s grace and dragging it down to the level of lasciviousness or lewdness. It causes the grace that brought us salvation, out of darkness into His marvelous light; the deliverance from God’s wrath to be devalued to a license to sin (licentiousness). This is the spirit of the end times that Jesus talks about as lawlessness (Matt 24:12) or Antinomianism. This certain men bring with them a destructive teaching upon themselves and on those who follow their folly (2 Pet 2:1). There is no such thing as exemption from the morals of God; even Jesus declared that He came to fulfill the law and not to destroy it but to fulfill it (Matt 5:17).

The liberty that we obtained by God’s grace is the liberty NOT to sin. Once we were slaves to sin, but now am free! Once we were so wretched in sin that it cost God His only begotten Son and the Son of God His life to bring about propitiation for sin. Propitiation: meaning the placating of God’s wrath for sin by Jesus bearing the full brunt of it on the cross. Liberty in the eyes of the great apostles was to be free from the slavery of the devil into the mastery of Jesus Christ, thus calling themselves bond servants of Jesus Christ. It is in the Mastery of Christ upon our lives that we find true liberty.

Another point of liberty that we as believers have is the ability to forgive others as we have been forgiven. This is probably one of the biggest struggles that we will have in our pilgrimage. Jesus included forgiveness as one of the elements in the prayer He taught us in Matt 6, also because in forgiving others the Father will also forgive us. Being able to forgive removes the root of bitterness from our lives, which actually makes us more miserable than the person we can’t forgive.

Our liberty also gives us the possibility of being meek, pure in heart, as peacemakers, being poor in spirit, etc. These come with promises of being blessed of happiness. No longer will our pursuit of happiness be in vain, but our hope is sure.

When the grace of God is devalued to ‘common’ instead of heavenly there will be the denial of the Lordship of God upon our lives. Jude aptly puts it as ‘denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ’. The double mention of Lord is significance for us to consider seriously.

These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit. But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
(Jud 1:19-21)

Jude gives us sound advice as to living in the last days in contending for our faith. We are encouraged to build ourselves us in the most holy faith. The prior verse tells us to separate ourselves from sensuality (gratification of the flesh) and live in the Spirit where there is no condemnation (Rom 8:1). Building a strong spirit requires feeding the spirit man by His Word. Feeding our flesh with things that gratify it will inevitably ‘grow’ the flesh which will eventually overcome the spirit life.

It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.
(Joh 6:63)

Secondly, praying in the spirit is a continuous action. This means that our prayers have to be Holy Spirit influenced and guided. How else will we learn to pray that way unless we first have an ongoing growing relationship with our Father (for God is Spirit, John 4:24)?

Thirdly, keep ourselves in the love of God is not by our own strength. We stay in the position to be loved of God as Jesus did for 30 years and finally Heaven’s open and declared the love of the Father over the Son. The only hint of Jesus life in the 30 hidden years was the temple incident at the age of 12. That short section of Scripture gives tell us that He was about Father’s business, concerns and priorities (Luke 2:49).

Lastly, in looking for the Lord’s mercy unto eternal life for mercy is of God (1 Pet 2:10). We can’t earn God’s mercy. But the proof of having God’s mercy is when we are merciful (Matt 5:7). God always command us to show mercy to the fatherless and widows. How else can there be purity of our belief in God?

Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
(Jas 1:27)