CONTENTS
The opening of this Epistle is truly sweet. Jude addresseth all he hath to say to the Church. It is to you, Beloved, Jude saith that he writes. He then, through the greater Part of the Chapter, points out the awful state of the reprobate. But still it is to the Church he speaks of those things, for their consolation and instruction. Towards the end, he points out the safety and blessedness of the Church, and concludes in praise.
Jude 1:1 Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called:
The opening of this Epistle is ponderous and full of glorious truths. The Lord give grace to his church, to regard what is here said. Jude calls himself a servant of Jesus Christ, and he writes his epistle to the Church of Christ. To whom should the servant of Christ minister, but to the household of his Lord? I beg once more, that this may be well noticed. I have all along, through the blessed Epistles we have passed, in this Poor Man's Commentary, particularly pointed this out to the reader, that it is to the Church, and not to the world, the servants of our God and Savior write. They, who would be supposed to have more mercy than God himself, are willing to overlook, or have not known this distinguishing character, of those holy writings of the Apostles. Let not the reader. Jude writes to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called.
If the reader hath not forgotten the Apostle Peter's address, in his first Epistle general to the Church, in the opening of it, he will observe a beautiful correspondence to this of Jude; and which, as it shews what a oneness of heart those great Apostles had in divine truths, so will it no less prove to him, that both were under the same divine teaching. See 1 Peter 1:1-2. There is, indeed, a difference in the wording of those verses, by those Apostles; but the doctrine is the same. And the different expressions, if rightly considered, give a beauty and blessedness, to the grand truths they deliver and confirm. For, when we find the same divine offices and perfections, in one Scripture, spoken of one of the Persons of the Godhead in another, ascribed to either of the other Persons of the Godhead, what are these things, but so many collateral testimonies to the leading article of our most holy faith, that there are Three that bear record in heaven; the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are One. (1 John 5:7)
In this blessed verse Jude ascribes to God the Father the sanctification of the Church. To them that are sanctified by God the Father. And, without all doubt, God the Father hath chosen the Church in Christ before the foundation of the world, that it should be holy and without blame before him in love. (Ephesians 1:4) Nevertheless, the word translated in this verse sanctified; might have been rendered, (as is well known to the learned), beloved in and of God the Father; which, in its meaning, more particularly refers to the electing love of God the Father. Similar to the sense of the same word, in relation to Christ, the glorious Head of the Church. Say ye of Him (said Jesus to the Jews) whom the Father hath sanctified?, (John 10:30) that is, whom the Father hath chosen? And this title of elect and chosen, as applied to Christ, is the greatest and most endeared in all the Bible, if we may judge by the manner of expression, in which God himself useth it. Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine Elect, in whom my soul delighteth! (Isaiah 42:1) Hence by the Church, whom Jude here calls sanctified by God the Father, is meant, the chosen by God the Father, whom peter calls a chosen generation (1 Peter 2:9) and whom Moses, under the Holy Ghost, stiles a peculiar treasure to the Lord above all people. (Exodus 19:5)
Reader! Pause over the view of the Father's everlasting love, in this special act of His, as it relates to the Church. It is from hence we date all our mercies. It is to this source, from the election of grace, and the being given to Christ, and chosen in Christ, that the Church is kept by the power of God, through faith, unto salvation. Hence, the Apostle to the Church: We are bound (said he) to give thanks always to God, for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation, through sanctification of the Spirit, and belief of the truth; whereunto he called you by our Gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Thessalonians 2:13-14)
The next point of doctrine we meet with, in this blessed verse is, and preserved in Jesus Christ. Numberless blessed things are included in this comprehensive expression, Preserved in Jesus Christ. Every degree of preservation is implied, as well before our being called to Christ, as after. For, as we are chosen in Christ, before the present time-state of our nature, are truly one with Christ, by his betrothing all his people to himself, when receiving them as the gift of his Father, before the foundation of the world; so, there is a grace-union with Christ; by virtue of it, which all the members of his mystical body have; and whereby they are secretly, though mysteriously to us, preserved in him, and beheld as one with him, before their being in Adam, is brought forth in time. And though this preservation in Christ, doth not keep them, (because it was never intended so to do), from falling, with the whole race of men, in the Adam-transgression, (and indeed, thereby, all the blessings of redemption arising out of that transgression, finds opportunity for exercise), yet, it keeps them from the unpardonable sin, and from the second death; and it keeps them, in all the covenant privileges, made in the ancient settlements of eternity, between the Persons of the Godhead. Who shall calculate or write down in the history of one child of God, much less the whole Church, the wonders of this preserving grace, in the ten thousand times ten thousand instances of it? Preserved in Jesus Christ, before called to Jesus Christ. Preserved in all the after stages of life, when called by grace, until grace is finished in glory. The church in every individual member, may, and indeed ought, daily to ponder the melting subject; but we must enter eternity, and look back over the everlasting hills through all the path the Lord hath brought us on our way; before that we shall have a becoming sense, and apprehension, of the unspeakable blessings, contained in these four words, preserved in Jesus Christ.
``And called!'' here, though the blessed name of God the Holy Ghost be not added, yet is it implied; because, in the economy of redemption, it is his peculiar office to call sinners from darkness to light, and from the power of sin and Satan to the living God. The same Almighty Spirit, which in the old creation of nature, moved over the face of the waters, and said, let there be light, is He, who in the new creation of grace, commands the light to shine out of darkness in the heart, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ. (Genesis 1:3; 2 Corinthians 4:6) And there is a beautiful order in all this, that the hand of each glorious Person of the Godhead is seen, in this great work of Covenant love towards the Church. Turn to these Scriptures in proof: Romans 8:29-30; Ephesians 1:3-10; Titus 3:3-7. And so infinitely blessed and important is this great grace of the Holy Ghost, in calling, that, until it is wrought, no child of God can have any apprehension, either of God the Father's love in election, or God the Son's grace in redemption. It is by regeneration that we are made partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world, through lust! (2 Peter 1:4-5)
Reader! let us not dismiss the view of those united mercies, before that we have paused a moment longer, to pay the tribute of praise, on our bended knees, to God, in his threefold character of Person, for those unspeakable mercies! Blessed forever be God our Father, for sanctifying, setting apart, choosing, and electing the Church in Christ, before all worlds, that it should be holy and without blame before him in love! Blessed forever be God the Son, for uniting the Church to himself, in a oneness and union, preserving her before all time, and preserving through all time, his Church as his own, and redeeming her to himself, for his social spouse and companion, to whom he might impart all communicable grace, quickening her, when dead in trespasses and sins, and bringing her into a new and spiritual life in Christ Jesus! Blessed be the Holy Three in One, for all our mercies in time, and to all eternity. (Ephesians 1:3-6; Hosea 2:18-19; John 17:2; 2 Timothy 1:9)