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"Now to Him who is able…"

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The following is adapted from the commentaries of Ray Stedman, available as a free resource at the Blue Letter Bible website.

Now to him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you without blemish before the presence of his glory with rejoicing, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and for ever. Amen. (Jude 24,25)

This doxology falls into three divisions.

“Now to him who is able to keep you from falling” indicates the potential in the Christian life. It does not say “Now to him who does keep you from falling,” because God does not always keep us from falling. He is able to, Jude says, but he does not always do it. We need to fall sometimes; some of us will not learn any other way. If we were not so thick-headed and stubborn, and if we would obey him, he would keep us from falling. In that sense, we never need to fall.

But even when we do fall, he is able “to present us without blemish before the presence of his glory.” The word translated “without blemish,” is the word “anomas,” which means “apart from the law.” He has so completely dealt with us that even our falls have already been handled in Christ. Therefore, after we have learned the painful lesson of it, he is free to wipe it out of the record, and to present us faultless before his glory!

And this will be done, he says, with rejoicing. That means we will have had a part in this too. We are also involved in the process, and when we get where we’re going, we can say, “Hallelujah! Thank God, I’ve won!” As Paul says, “I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness.” (2 Tim. 4:7, 8)

Then there is the final recognition of the only God, our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. To him be “glory, majesty, dominion, and authority before all time and now and for ever.” That takes in everything, does it not? From the beginning, through the present to the eternal future, he is the One around whom the universe itself gathers.

Comments

  1. I also believe here that, He being “able to keep us from stumbling” means He is willing and available to keep us from stumbling, if we would just ask. How many stumblings could we avoid by living a life in ceasless communication with the Lord.

    • Willing and Able yes, but if I do something stupid out of fellowship with Him, God has a limitation–He can’t cover come my “free will”, that’s why we fall at times, because of our free will to do something contridicting of the Word, Or God’s Will. God’s Will is His Word and His Word is His Will.

      God Wills the best for us, but sometimes we step out of bounds don’t we? The Word is our rule book.

      God Bless again, you guys are great,
      Christ in
      Jim Schultz

  2. Amen smallshot! Like the Israelites, we can obey and get to the farther along in our Christ-likeness, sanctification or we can wander in the wilderness due to trying to do it on our own. I like the water skiing analogy. We hang on, we “do” the skiing but it is impossible without the power source. “To keep us from stumbling” also has a Phil 1:6 ring to it “For I am confident of this very thing,that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.”

  3. No one else can keep me from falling, love me when I do fall, and help me get up again than Jesus Christ, my Savior.

    No one else loves me enough to pick me up, dust me off, and present me before the Father in the presence of His glory than Jesus Christ, my Savior.

    No one else loves me enough to rejoice with me and claim me as His now and in eternity, than Jesus.

    I am really humbled today.

    • Thank you Debi, your response blessed me as it reminds me that this great love the Father has for His children is expressed so beautifully in His Son Jesus Christ. John 3:16

  4. Hebrews 10:38 Now the just shall live by faith but if any man draw back MY soul shall have no pleasure in him

    Hebrews 10:39 But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition but of them that believe to the saving of the soul

    Mark 8:35 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it but whosoever shall lose his life for MY sake and the gospels the same shall save it

    John 17:17 Sanctify them through thy truth thy word is truth

    2 Thessalonians 2:10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved

    John 5:34 But I receive not testimony from man but these things I say that you might be saved

    Matthew 12:37 For by thy words thou shalt be justified and by thy words thou shalt be condemned

    Proverbs 18:21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof

    Psalm 50:23 Whoso offereth praise glorifieth ME and to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I show the salvation of GOD

    Philippians 1:27 Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of CHRIST that whether I come and see you or else be absent I may hear of your affairs that you stand in one spirit with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel

    Romans 1:18 For the wrath of GOD is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness

    Proverbs 8:8 All the words of MY mouth are in righteousness there is nothing froward or perverse in them

    Psalm 40:10 I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation I have not concealed thy loving kindness and thy truth from the great congregation

    Acts 20:26&27 Wherefore I take you to record this day that I am pure from the blood of all men (27) For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of GOD

    Loving The LORD

  5. Proverbs 24:16 for though a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again, but the wicked are brought down by calamity.

    Once more I rise this day – not by MY righteousness, but by the righteousness of my precious Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! A filthy sinner saved by God’s grace. Get up and dust yourselves off my fellow saints in the Lord! As our brother Paul exemplified, “press on…”!!!

    In Love,
    Biggaloot

  7. 1. Whatever is the subject or argument we have been treating of, ascribing glory to God is fittest for us to conclude with.

    2. God is able, and he is as willing as able, to keep us from falling, and to present us faultless before the presence of his glory; not as those who never have been faulty (for what has once been done can never be rendered undone, even by Omnipotence itself, for that implies a contradiction), but as those whose faults shall not be imputed, to their ruin, which, but for God’s mercy and a Saviour’s merits, they might most justly have been.—Before the presence of his glory. Observe,

    (1.) The glory of the Lord will shortly be present. We now look upon it as distant, and too many look upon it as uncertain, but it will come, and it will be manifest and apparent. Every eye shall see him, Rev. 1:7. This is now the object of our faith, but hereafter (and surely it cannot now be long) it will be the object of our sense; whom we now believe in, him we shall shortly see, to our unspeakable joy and comfort or inexpressible terror and consternation. See 1 Pt. 1:8.

    (2.) All real sincere believers shall be presented, and the Lord Redeemer’s appearance and coming, by him their glorious head, to the Father, in order to his approbation, acceptance, and reward. They were given to him of the Father, and of all that were so given to him he has lost none, nor will lose any one, not an individual, a single soul, but will present them all perfectly holy and happy, when he shall surrender his mediatorial kingdom to his God and our God, his Father and our Father, Jn. 6:39, with ch. 17:12, 1 Co. 15:24.

    (3.) When believers shall be presented faultless it will be with exceeding joy. Alas! now our faults fill us with fears, doubts, and sorrows. But be of good cheer; if we be sincere, we shall be, our dear Redeemer has undertaken for it, we shall be presented faultless; where there is no sin there will be no sorrow; where there is the perfection of holiness, there will be the perfection of joy. Surely, the God who can and will do this is worthy to have glory, majesty, dominion, and power, ascribed to him, both now and for ever! And to this we may well, with the apostle, affix our hearty Amen.

  9. Luke 4:4 And JESUS answered him saying it is written that man shall NOT LIVE by bread alone but by every word of GOD

    Matthew 19:17 And HE said unto him why callest thou ME good there is none good but one that is GOD but if thou will enter into life keep the commandments

    Luke 6:45 A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh

    Matthew 12:34 O generation of vipers how can you being evil speak good things for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh

    Matthew 12:35 A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things

    Matthew 12:36 But I say unto you that every idle word that men shall speak they shall give account thereof in the day of judgement

    Matthew 12:37 For by thy words thou shalt be justified and by thy words thou shalt be condemned

    John 15:2 Every branch in ME that beareth not fruit HE taketh away and every branch that beareth fruit HE purgeth it that it may bring forth more fruit

    John 15:4 Abide in ME and I in you as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine no more can you except you abide in ME

    John 15:6 If a man abide not in ME he is cast forth as a branch and is withered and men gather them and cast them into the fire and they are burned

    John 15:10 If you keep MY commandments you shall abide in MY love even as I have kept MY FATHERS commandments and abide in his love

    Romans 11:19,20,21 22 Thou will say then the branches were broken off that I might be grafted in (20) Well because of unbelief they were broken off and thou standest by faith be not highminded but fear (21) For if GOD spared not the natural branches take heed lest HE also spare not thee (22) Behold therefore that the goodness and severity of GOD on them which FELL severity but toward thee goodness if thou continue in HIS goodness otherwise thou also shalt be cut off

    Acts 5:29 But Peter and the other apostles answered and said we ought more to obey GOD than men

    Isaiah 2;22 Cease ye from man whose breath is in his nostrils for wherein is he to be accounted of

  10. As a young Greek student, I’d like to point out that the adjective translated ‘without blemish’ is in fact not anomos (as this writer says) but amomos, which does mean ‘without blemish’ and is unrelated to the word for ‘law’. If it were anomos, it would most likely mean ‘lawless’, in a bad sense (see LSJ, s.v. anomos). This isn’t a theological error, but a simple misreading of the text.

    Blue Letter Bible, I’m thankful for your free texts and consult your website often (in fact, I used your lexicon/concordance tool to look at this verse). But people who don’t know Greek or Hebrew may rely on the commentaries that you provide, as well as on the lexicon/concordance tool, for accurate information about the texts. Could you perhaps include an editor’s note on this commentary explaining that the writer is misreading the Greek?

    This sort of error is common enough, of course, and is a good reminder that even if one doesn’t know Greek, one needn’t automatically believe what someone says about scripture because he says that it’s in the Greek. Words that look similar may mean very different things. And even if it is in the Greek, a single Greek word may have several different meanings, and only a good understanding of the Greek language and the context of the word (in its phrase, sentence, book, and all of scripture) can explain it; looking it up in a dictionary isn’t a substitute.

    • Sounds like you have some understanding with the Gk?

      That’s great, Yes it’s important we rightly-divide the Word isn’t it?

      II Timothy 2:15 What a great verse, As a researcher, can you expound on this verse?

      And explain the gk as you go?

      Thanks, I’m a research of the Word of God and I think this verse has a great deal when it comes to how we handle the Word of God.

      If students of the Word of God, rightly-divided the Word, we wouldn’t have so much confusion. And we know God isn’t the author of confusion is He?

      …Rightly-divide the word of TRUTH. I love that, so it must be available to rightly-divide the truth then, not our own idea of the truth. Own=idios, you should know what that is?

      Jim Schultz
      To speak the Truth, we have to have the truth!
      If we squeeze the Truth, we no longer have the Truth!