Happily Ever After

Tangled, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and the Beast, and numerous other stories have several elements in common. There seems to be always some villain who goes to all lengths to silence or remove the damsel, soon to be in distress. They will lie, cheat, and do whatever dastardly dead they can think of trying to become the victor. There is also someone else who comes along to the rescue of the damsel in distress or the victim. It is never an easy battle from our perspective, but you just know they are going to come out victorious. Following that, there is often a wedding and the closing words to all of these stories is They lived happily ever after.

Well, Jude wasn’t writing a fairy tale, but the elements are very similar. Christians can be likened to the fair maiden or the damsel who is being mercilessly persecuted or manipulated. The false teachers are the villains who will stoop as low as they can in order to ruin Christians or keep them from doing what they are supposed to be doing. Jesus is the conquering hero. There were times that it looked as if Jesus were on the wrong side of victory. But on resurrection Sunday, not only can we say that Jesus saved the day, but that Jesus was able to save the sinner. Now, as Christians, we look forward to that day when we will no longer be in the presence of evil or anything that would set itself against God and His people. We wait with great expectation to that day when we will be forever in the presence of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And indeed, we shall live happily ever after.

Christians can be assured that there will be a time when we will forever be in the presence of our beloved Savior, Jesus Christ.

Able, Now and Ever After - 24

As we start to read these last two verses, immediately we think of benedictions which we’ve heard over the years. Here, we also find a great deal of encouragement and truth that we don’t want to skip. We will see that God is able.

Jude 24 NASB95

Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy,

Within this verse is an unspoken understanding of our need to submit to the Lord, if we expect to stand spiritually strong and not get distracted and fall. The reason I say this is because Jude starts out by saying Now to Him who is able . . . Only the Lord is able to keep us from being tripped up and stumble. Only the Lord is able to enable us to stand.

What is He able to do? To keep. It literally means to guard, to watch over. What Jude is reminding us of is the reality that every single day, regardless of what comes our way, or who tries to mislead us, God is able. We all know too well how easy it is to wander off onto different paths. These paths may look enticing and even appear to lead us to some exciting areas. But if we submit to the Savior’s leading by His Holy Spirit, we discover that He will keep us from going off the right path, helping us avoid the potential problems that would most likely cause us to stumble and possibly fall.

But what if we do choose to wander off? What if we do stumble and sin? What if our testimony for the Lord gets blemished? Have we lost all hope? Not at all.

1 John 1:9 NASB95

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Our salvation is still intact, just as Jude reminded us in verse 1.

Jude 1 NASB95

Jude, a bond-servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, To those who are the called, beloved in God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ:

If we always had to worry about retaining our salvation, it would not seem to be worth the cost of giving up everything to follow Jesus. The reality is that there is no way any person could hold on to their salvation. Now to Him who is able . . . The Scriptures tell us that it is guaranteed in Christ. It’s our relationship that needs to be restored. We need to be brought back to the correct path. We need to become more grounded in the Word of God. We need to gratefully accept His forgiveness.

What about the person who seems to forever be wandering off? Some people seem to have the equivalent of spiritual ADHD. What about the individual who is a Christian, but finds himself falling on a regular basis?

Hebrews 12:5–11 NASB95

and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, Nor faint when you are reproved by Him; For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, And He scourges every son whom He receives.” It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.

Eventually, as we continue to grow in Christ, we will find ourselves stand[ing] in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy. The only way that we can be blameless is because Jesus Christ took upon Himself the punishment for our sin and has removed our sin from us. We are given His righteousness. Can you imagine the joy that will be ours?! It is all glory to Him and not to ourselves, for we have done nothing to earn our salvation. It has been said that right now, believers stand in grace, but in the future we will also stand in glory.

Now consider this: if we were not forgiven, and were still carrying our sins, we would not be standing in God’s presence. But Jude reminds us that we can stand in the presence of His glory because we are blameless. In other words, we have no sin within us, for we have Christ’s righteousness. This, of course, is after the resurrection to our glorified bodies.

Glory, Now and Ever After - 25

We know that ultimately, our salvation is not just for our benefit so that we don’t have to experience hell. The purpose of salvation seems to be that God will receive all the glory for all eternity.

Jude 25 NASB95

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.

Jesus is more than just a mental acknowledgement that He is the Savior of all who will believe in His name. Jesus is not just one of many saviors; He is the only Savior. Jude states that Jesus is our Savior. This is incredibly personal; it is not just theory; it is not just objective fact. He is our Savior, my Savior.

In addition, He is exclusive. Nobody else can lay claim to all the attributes given Him by Jude. The false teachers had nothing to present to the church. Let’s look

Glory belongs to Jesus alone. Everything else is temporary, but the Glory of God is eternal. Everything which He does and is, brings glory to Him.

Majesty belongs to Christ alone. This speaks to God’s greatness. There is none who compares. All the fabricated ideas and persons and theories designed to replace Christ are nothing. Anyone who strives to compare themselves with the Lord, is not of God. He will share His glory and majesty with nobody.

Dominion refers to the idea that God is sovereign and in total control. There is nothing or nobody outside the Lord’s control. The word actually means power, sovereignty, rule, strength, might.

Authority is used to mean power. You’ve heard the childish phrase when questioning someone’s authority—You and whose army? Again, the Bible is very clear when it states that Jesus Christ has all authority. That means authority over every thing. That includes Satan and all those who would act on behalf of Satan. There is nothing that is outside our Lord’s authority. He can exert His power however He chooses.

Before all time and now and forever. Amen. This is the way it was before time began. This is the ways it is now. This is the way it will always be.

Conclusion

In one of Charles Spurgeon’s sermon, he shared this powerful thought:

When I heard it said that the Lord would keep His people right to the end,—that Christ had said, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me: and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of My hand,” I must confess that the doctrine of the final preservation of the saints was a bait that my soul could not resist. I thought it was a sort of life insurance—an insurance of my character, an insurance of my soul, an insurance of my eternal destiny. I knew that I could not keep myself, but if Christ promised to keep me, then I should be safe for ever; and I longed and prayed to find Christ, because I knew that, if I found Him, He would not give me a temporary and trumpery salvation, such as some preach, but eternal life which could never be lost, the living and incorruptible seed which liveth and abideth for ever, for no one and nothing “shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

These verses today are a wonderful reminder and encouragement of what our future holds in Christ. This actually ought to encourage us to be more diligent in our Bible reading and Bible study, in our prayer time, as well as making sure that we’re sharing with others what Christ has done for us and desires to do for them. Only Jesus Christ can forgive us of our sins, taking them away, and giving us a new heart with the guarantee of eternal life in His presence. Only Jesus Christ can enable us to live our lives in such a way that we are able to do what pleases Him and serves His purposes. Only Jesus Christ can help us be able to distinguish between truth and error, through His Holy Spirit making clear His Word, the Bible .

Christians can be assured that there will be a time when we will forever be in the presence of our beloved Savior, Jesus Christ.