Years ago, Ruth Bell Graham, wife of evangelist Billy Graham, saw a sign by the road: “End of Construction—Thank you for your patience.” She said she wanted those words on her gravestone. She got her wish.
24 To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— 25 To the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, glory, majesty, dominion, and power, before all time, and now, and to all the ages. Amen.[1]
James uses the same basic verb for stumbling, patio, to explain "we all stumble in many ways" in James 2:10. This not stumbling carries with it the imagery of a horse that doesn’t stumble. It’s morally sure-footed people. Isaiah described God as ‘leading Israel “through the depths as a horse in the desert, that they stumble not” (Isaiah 63:13).
Keep (phulasso) is what a military guard does. It’s what the shepherds were doing when they were "keeping watch over their flock by night” (Luke 2). The apostates Jude mentioned earlier are kept by God for judgment; saints are kept from stumbling.[2] Just a couple verses before this, we were reminded to “keep ourselves in the love of God.” So how do both of these work together? Richard Sims, a Puritan writer, once wrote:
“As we say of the mother and the child, both hold. But the safety of the child is that the mother holds him.”
It’s not that the child’s grip is unimportant; it’s that one grasps with the strength of a child; the grasp of the other remains fixed. It’s like when you go hiking while holding your child’s hand. When they stumble or waver, we keep them from falling or wandering off the path. They are holding to us for sure, but on their own, their grip would fail. Ours does not. They kept their hand in ours, but we are doing the kind of keeping they can’t possibly do for themselves.
We need both of these “keeps.”
If all we have is “kept by God,” we will prone toward license. If God is keeping me, I can do whatever I want. It’s God’s job, not mine, to keep me from heading toward the fire.
If all we have is “keep yourself,” we will be prone to legalism, because it would mean that we are entirely responsible for the stability of our life and the purity of our walk. It’s my job to keep me from heading toward the fire, and I can judge myself and others based on how close we are to getting singed.
As we say of God and Christian, both hold. But the safety of the child is that his Heavenly Father holds.[3]
Does a GPS analogy work here? (Assume it’s the only game in town that will never fail to take you to your destination.)
Learning to ride a bicycle? (where only God is strong enough to help or fast enough to keep up with you.)
A hero protecting us from a blast? You are in the shadow of the only one who can deflect the blast.)
Eventually, we will be presented before God “without fault” (anegkletos) a legal term that implies not just acquittal, but the absence of even a charge.
Bottom line: Jesus has the power to keep and guard us such that our steps are sure in the midst of our feebleness; Jesus has the power to keep us in the light of God’s love in spite of the temptation to seek the shadows of sin; Jesus has the power to present us faultless before the throne. No wonder Jude says:
To the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, glory, majesty, dominion, and power, before all time, and now, and to all the ages.
* * * * *
And now, some quotes for meditation.
“Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling... The people of God are liable to falling into temptation, into sin, into errors and mistakes… Adam, in his state of innocence, could not keep himself from falling; nor could the angels, many of whom fell, and the rest are preserved by the grace of God; wherefore, much less can imperfect sinful men keep themselves. They want both skill and power to do it; nor can any, short of Christ, keep them, and it is his work and office to preserve them.
Christ…is every way qualified for it: he is "able" to do it, for he is the mighty God, the Creator and upholder of all things; and as Mediator, he has all power in heaven and in earth…and he is as willing as he is able. It is his Father's will he should keep them, and in that he delights; and as he has undertook to keep them, he is accountable for them. Besides, he has an interest in them, and the greatest love and affection for them…
And what he keeps them from is, from falling by temptations, not from being tempted by Satan, but from sinking under his temptations, and from being devoured by him; and from falling by sin, not from the being or commission of sin, but from the dominion of it, and from the falling into it, so as to perish by it; and from falling into damnable heresies; and from the true grace of God, and into final impenitence, unbelief, and total apostasy. (Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible, Jude 1:24)
Only let us remember ‘Him that is able to keep.’ Able… You may have an engine of ever so many horsepower in the engine-house, but unless the power is transmitted by shafts and belting, and brought to the machinery, not a spindle will revolve. He is able to keep us from stumbling, and if you trust Him, the ability will become actuality, and you will be kept from falling. If you do not trust Him, all the ability will lie in the engine house, and the looms and the spindles will stand idle.
Now remember that this text follows on the heels of that former text which bade us ‘build ourselves,’ and ‘keep ourselves in the love of God…’ it is not effort only, but effort rising from, and accompanied with, confidence - in God’s keeping hand. There is all the difference between toiling without trust and toiling because we do trust. And whilst, on the one hand, we have to exhort to earnest faith in the upholding hand of God, we have to say on the other, ‘Let that faith lead you to obey the apostolic command, "Stand fast in the evil day . . . taking unto you the whole armor of God."‘
Now that word rendered ‘faultless’ has a very beautiful meaning. It is originally applied to the requirement that the sacrificial offerings shall be without blemish…suggesting at once that they are, as it were, presented before God at last, stainless as the sacrificial lamb; and that they are conformed to the image of the Lamb of God ‘without blemish and without spot…’He is able to do it. What is wanted to make the ability an actuality? Brethren, if we are to stand perfect, at last, and be without fault before the Throne of God, we must begin by letting Him keep us from stumbling here. The Divine manifestation of Himself in the work of redemption is the highest of His self-revealing works.
Men are not presumptuous when they feel that they are greater than sun and stars; and that there is more in the narrow room of a human heart than in all the immeasurable spaces of the universe… high above all other works of which we have experience is that miracle of love and Divine power which can not only keep such feeble creatures as we are from stumbling, but can present us stainless and faultless before the Throne of God. (MacLaren’s Expositions on Jude 1:24)
“In some sense the path to heaven is very safe, but in other respects there is no road so dangerous. It is beset with difficulties. One false step (and how easy it is to take that if grace be absent), and down we go. What a slippery path is that which some of us have to tread! How many times have we to exclaim with the Psalmist, "My feet were almost gone, my steps had well nigh slipped." If we were strong, sure-footed mountaineers, this would not matter so much; but in ourselves, how weak we are!
In the best roads we soon falter, in the smoothest paths we quickly stumble. These feeble knees of ours can scarcely support our tottering weight. A straw may throw us, and a pebble can wound us; we are mere children tremblingly taking our first steps in the walk of faith, our heavenly Father holds us by the arms or we should soon be down. Oh, if we are kept from falling, how must we bless the patient power which watches over us day by day!
Think, how prone we are to sin, how apt to choose danger, how strong our tendency to cast ourselves down, and these reflections will make us sing more sweetly than we have ever done, "Glory be to him, who is able to keep us from falling." We have many foes who try to push us down. The road is rough and we are weak, but in addition to this, enemies lurk in ambush, who rush out when we least expect them, and labor to trip us up, or hurl us down the nearest precipice.
Only an Almighty arm can preserve us from these unseen foes, who are seeking to destroy us. Such an arm is engaged for our defense. He is faithful that hath promised, and he is able to keep us from falling, so that with a deep sense of our utter weakness, we may cherish a firm belief in our perfect safety, and say, with joyful confidence.
This is how you are to be presented by Christ in glory. There is a great stir in a family when a daughter is to be presented at court, and a great deal is thought of it; but, one day, you and I, who have believed in Jesus, shall be presented to the Father. What radiant beauty shall we then wear when God Himself shall look upon us, and declare us to be without fault;—when there shall be no cause for sorrow remaining, and therefore we shall be presented with exceeding joy! It shall be so, my brother; it shall be so, my sister; therefore do not doubt it.
How soon it shall be, we cannot tell; possibly, to-morrow. Perhaps, ere the sun rises again, you and I may be presented by Christ “before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy.” We cannot tell when it will be, but we shall be there in his good time. We shall be perfect; we shall be “ACCEPTED IN THE BELOVED;” and, therefore, “unto him be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.”
Revolve in your mind that wondrous word, "faultless!" We are far off from it now; but as our Lord never stops short of perfection in his work of love, we shall reach it one day. The Savior who will keep his people to the end, will also present them at last to himself, as "a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing, but holy and without blemish…"
Moreover, the work of the Holy Spirit within us will be altogether complete. He will make us so perfectly holy, that we shall have no lingering tendency to sin. Judgment, memory, will-every power and passion shall be emancipated from the (state of being a slave) of evil. We shall be holy even as God is holy, and in his presence we shall dwell for ever…
Oh the rapture of that hour when the everlasting doors shall be lifted up, and we, being made meet for the inheritance, shall dwell with the saints in light. Sin gone, Satan shut out, temptation past forever, and ourselves "faultless" before God - this will be heaven indeed! Let us be joyful now as we rehearse the song of eternal praise so soon to roll forth in full chorus from all the blood-washed host…“ (Spurgeon Devotional - "Faultless before the presence of his glory." - Jude 1:24)
THREE QUESTIONS
Rather than three questions, I encourage you to do the following: Read through the extended quotes at the end, one at a time. Allow several minutes of silence afterward as you think and pray. Then, share what stands out to you from the quote. As time allows, do it again. You may be surprised at how God’s truth continues to unfold the longer you meditate on it.
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[1] I got loads of help from the website Precept Austin, which quotes a LOT of pastors and theologians intermingled with the comments of the owners of the website. It’s hard to tell sometimes who to cite, so I’m just going to cite the whole thing! Google “Jude 1:24 precept austin.”
[2] 2 Peter 2:9 says the same thing.
[3] Thanks to C. J. Mahaney for this analogy and the application of it.