Epistles Part Three

Epistles

E 03 Jude 5-7 Part 2
November 20, 2016
Part 3

Epistle of Jude-

Greeting

Judgment on False Teachers

Benediction

Review

NKJ Jude 1:3
Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.

“in behalf of the consecrated faith having once been handed over to us.”

…it is the holy faith, specifically referring to the body of truth from God handed over to faithful ones, the Christian apostolic tradition that is normative for the true people of God.

WRONG!

The words following that are dependent on it are in the dative case and indicate for the most part either the one against whom one is fighting, or the person or thing upon which one depends for support in a fight.

“the faith”- not the historical traditions per se, as a body of truth doctrines given to a faithful few, as in behalf of all the others, but the once for all “faith” given once and for all to each believer who resides in Christ) once ( adv. once, one time; once for all time;) having been handed over This is definitely the functional work of God the Holy Spirit.

once and for all time in the NT is then a technical term for the definitiveness and therefore the uniqueness or singularity of the death of Christ and the redemption accomplished by it.

KJV Hebrews 10:2 For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. {would...: or, they would have ceased to be offered, because, etc.}

YLT Hebrews 10:2 since, would they not have ceased to be offered, because of those serving having no more conscience of sins, having once been purified?

The Epistle of Jude formulates the thought of Christian cleansing in a manner of a “once-for-all-time definitive event;” whereas Hebrews 10.2, speaks of a once-for-all-time cleansing as a being declared ritually acceptable, but cleansing salvation is stated in hypothetical terms while referring to the Jews. In the cultus sacrificial system of Judaism there was no once-for-all-time purification and salvation, because there was no once-for-all sacrifice apart from Christ; but Christianity has both.

Christianity is now the faith once-for-all-time handed over to the holy( consecrated) ones.

Christians are a people who are born from heaven, and are individually given every knowledge necessary for salvation, and who are therefore, according to Jude, possess it, and are in no danger of losing it. The thought is thus quite different from that of Epistle to the Hebrews, the unique redemption of Israel out of Egypt is here to be interpreted as a prototype of the one definitive redemption by Christ.

Comprehensive Translation:

Now I want in our mutual behalf to remind you, that while you have continued knowing all these things from the beginning, after the Lord had once saved a people out of the land of Egypt, the next time the people who after not believing, He had destroyed; also the angels, namely the ones who had not maintained their guard over their allotted place of authority, but to the contrary, they had abandoned their own (heavenly) home, for the purpose to enter into judgment in that Great Day, in an eternal imprisonment under darkness, He perpetually keeps them in custody; in the same manner also, Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them (characterized by) the same nature as
these( angels), had been given over to fornication and a going away after flesh of an unnatural kind, are presently serving in behalf of those who think like them, as an example of those who are undergoing a judicial sentence of eternal fire

Exposition of the Greek Text

…one phrase at a time

Now I want ( to want, to desire, to wish; to be willing; to intend, to plan-)

In most NT passages the sense is that of wishing, desiring, or intending, often with something of all three.

These are the ways the expression can be taken here.

in our mutual behalf [middle voice]

This is a reference to the earlier the common( from which comes koinonia fellowship, a sharing atmosphere of those things we have in common, including the blessings and joys of salvation )

to remind you,

While we understand that scripture builds upon scripture, so that when giving examples of biblical truths to mature believers, one usually need only make reference to events recorded in the Scriptures in order to prompt the memory of the truth principles contained therein; the
reference the author intends to make is not merely to a collection of traditions.

This is a reference to the faith which was once-for-all-time handed over to the believer by the work of the Holy Spirit, coming alongside to manifestly deliver it at salvation, making it unnecessary to expound at length or to persuade by extensive argument.

The most important distinction to be made here is to differentiate between the highly valuable traditions of apostolic teaching, the body of truth doctrines we have received from the beginning of the establishment of Christianity as a faith, and the Spirit of Truth that each
believer in Christ eventfully receives at the moment of conversion; this is the faith to which Jude is prompting the believer to remember.

Jude now continues to clarify his words…

while you have continued knowing all these things from the beginning (of your faith), [perfect tense] The perfect tense is a complex expression that references the occurrence of a past event and views the accomplished outcome of that event from the perspective of its abiding results presently affecting the party (or parties) involved.

This one-for-all event that had happened in the past, was when “the faith” was handed over () to the believer by the paraclete (); namely, by God the Holy Spirit, and the accomplished outcome was salvation, to which the Holy Spirit has continued to minister by providing not just intellectual insight, but spiritual truth insight coming from the Holy Spirit, who has been active in this process ever since the beginning event of the believer’s conversion, as He bears positive abiding results which have accrued to the present time, and are promised to continue into the future.

Continuation of Exposition

that after the Lord had once saved a people out of the land of Egypt, [historical event 1] that the Lord (Yahweh) a people
( a people; a nation; a crowd). This reference in Scripture is always to the Jews, or to the Jews as the church, or the people of God; but to non-Jews the descriptive term that was always used later when referring to a crowd of Christians was .

The word is used without the definite article here, thus indicating “a people”, of whom not all of the ones who left Egypt were believers.

The reference of is a technical term for Israel, and is always a reference to the Jewish population; when it is to a non-Jewish crowd of Christians it is always , not . At first when the believing crowds are Jewish, is used, later as the shift takes place to Christian crowds, they are become .

The little key-word (adv. once, one time; once-for- all-time) is again used here to refer to a people as a body of believers who had been saved out from the land of Egypt. The distinction between the true believer and those of the crowd who would not believe is made clear: Jude refers to those unbelievers who were later destroyed, while those that constituted a people to God had been once ( adv. once, one time; once-for-all-time) out of the land of Egypt, He had saved.

the next time the people who after not believing, He had destroyed, [historical event 2] The next time (event) the people who
afterwards were (still) not believing, He had destroyed ().

This pattern is seen to have been established by God throughout redemptive history; some are believing [an event 1]; therefore, once saved, always saved; and some are condemned [an event 2]. Since those who were destroyed were among the great number of individuals who had originally been saved out of Egypt, it is clear that Jude is not talking about salvation limited to common grace, physical salvation; but to a once-for-all-time spiritual salvation, and not to some number from among the saved who had subsequently lost their salvation.

This is how Jude makes the distinction and the reminder to his readers and to himself of the power of once-for-all-time saving faith.

Furthermore, we can understand that, although Yahweh had saved them all as “a people” from the destroyer, even before having been delivered safely out of slavery from Egypt, the land of bondage, the salvation of a faith-salvific sense, would have only applied to a remnant among them whose faith had been given to them by God, which qualified as “a true people of God.”As we have seen from the very beginning( Genesis), common grace salvation to the unbeliever has always been limited to being the by-product of God’s redemptive
purposes with regard to His “called out ones.”

We might also recall another circumstance where Jesus sharpened His warning to the hard of heart and stiff of neck people of Capernaum, who had witnessed first-hand that Jesus’ had performed great divine miracles of salvation and healing, yet most of these people still refused to believe.

NKJ Matthew 11:23-24
“And you, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, will be brought down to Hades; for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I say to you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you.”

( to destroy) God does not play a passive role as One who loses something when people refuse to believe such powerful testimony to His ability to save.

But at the appropriate time after giving every opportunity to believe, He exercises the supremely active function of Judge. His role is active in both protecting and in A primary example of this is found, again in the event of the Passover( cover-over). destroying, even if He should assign that task to another.

Many will be surprised on the Day of Judgment when they discover that it was just as the Word of God says; only the righteousness of Christ is able to save you.All men are sinners and no one can save himself. God is just, so He must punish sin; but He is also merciful, moreover gracious, and offers His Son as the perfect sacrifice in order to purchase a place for you in heaven, which He offers to you as the free gift of eternal life.

Jesus is God Incarnate

In order to pay the debt of our sins, He came from Heaven, having been sent by the Father, where He lived a life of perfect obedience to the Father even unto the shameful death upon the cross in order to pay the debt of your sins.This gift must be received by faith, believing that Jesus’ perfect life and Cross Work was His complete and necessary Atonement for your sins, in your behalf.Faith is a gift that comes by the Power of God the Holy Spirit working in a person’s innermost being. The Holy Spirit has the authority and power to quicken your dead spirit, to make it come to life. If you have not done so before this moment, ask Jesus to forgive you your sins, tell Him you’ve stop trying to be your own savior, and ask Him to come into your life right now, and to give you eternal life. Then, in faith believing, thank Him for the gift that He is giving you, the one He paid for in full in your place, in Jesus’ name,AMEN