Not long ago I wrote a post about how holiness doctrine is much more about what He is able to accomplish than what we are able to accomplish. I wrote that in Jesus’ command (and we find the command elsewhere in scripture as well) to “be perfect as the Father in heaven is perfect” we find a statement that is much more about Him than it is about us.
Holiness is not about our performance or spiritual achievements. That smacks of works-oriented religion rather than grace and love filled relationship. Holiness doctrine is about what the sovereign Creator is able to do amongst a broken and decaying world; it’s about what he can do in the human heart.
This concept is further accentuated with this passage from Jude:
“Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen” (Jude 1:24-25).
Amen indeed.
This is my favorite doxology in all the Scriptures. Jude (brother of Jesus) says it just right:
“Now unto him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless…”
Holiness is about him. Salvation is about him. His World Renewal Plan is about him, not me.
Moving beyond this, we have to remember not to interpret this text outside of its contexts (literary, historical, and theological). Jude’s Epistle is a letter of judgment. Jude makes an appeal for an aggressive defense against those who cause others to drift away.
What’s so intriguing about this is that those who are threatening the church are those within the church. Those who “snuck in”.
Jude draws on the OT to bring clarity to his point. He compares the situation with Israel who is freed from Egpyt. They were freed, yet died in the wilderness. They believed enough for God to deliver them from Egyptian oppression and discomfort, but they didn’t believe in him enough to reshape the contours of their hearts; they didn’t believe in him enough to lead them into the great inheritance of the promised land. They failed to persevere.
So how does judgment of the enemies of the church and an appeal to aggressively defend orthodoxy link up with the doxology? It’s all about HIM. In the same way that he exercises his sovereignty to defend his church, in the same way that he exercises his sovereignty to judge the living and the dead, he exercises his sovereignty in reshaping the human heart to look like his own.
Sovereignty is about much more than judgment and creation, it’s also about holiness.
He is sovereign enough to sanctify.
