Jude, Built Upon Christ

Jude 20 But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit,

Jude diverts the reader’s attention from the false teachers that have thus far been the object of his epistle to themselves. Jude tells his fellow Christians to build themselves up on their faith. The idea here implies that we are, as God’s saints, to build upon the foundation of our faith, which is Jesus Christ, 1 Corinthians 3:11.

Verse 20 brings Jude’s message back full circle to verse 3, where he reveals that his original intention was to write to the church about their common salvation. That common salvation, and the faith upon which it is built, revolves around the person of Jesus Christ. We read of our reception and continuation of the Christian walk in Colossians: “Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude,” Colossians 2:6, 7, NASB. How does one receive the Lord Jesus Christ? By faith, John 11:25, 26, Ephesians 2:8, 9. Paul counsels his fellow believers to walk in the same manner they first received the Lord: by faith, 2 Corinthians 5:7.

Receiving the Lord in such a manner results in our being firmly rooted in Christ and likewise built up in Him. The root is where we derive the nourishment for life and growth; it is how the plant derives its ability to sustain itself. Jude already pointed out that the rootless tree is a dead tree, Jude 12. So our roots are in Christ; He provides the life and nourishment of the believer. If you follow a religion that is not solely focused on the person of Jesus Christ as the originator, sustainer and perfecter of your faith, you have been deceived, and I pray the Lord that you turn to Jesus alone for salvation. Human effort in any capacity is insufficient to meet the standard of God’s measure, which is sinless perfection. That is why our Lord incarnated as a Man to become sin for us, and to become a curse for us, so that we, through Him, may receive forgiveness of sin and eternal life. There is no halfway. We cannot contribute to our salvation. We either accept that Jesus Christ is a sufficient Savior who does not need any human contribution toward our salvation, or we reject Him as Savior and work toward an entirely unattainable goal.

Paul’s instruction to the Colossian church was just this, according to him. The result was that the man or woman saved by the Lord would overflow with gratitude. Why? Because we recognize that without Christ’s intervention on our behalf we would all be consigned to the Lake of Fire. An eternity of hopeless isolation, cut off and removed from the presence of God would be our ultimate and only destiny. In Galatians, Paul wrote, “You were running well; who hindered you from obeying the truth?” Galatians 5:7, NASB. The truth he refers to is of course the message of the gospel, and how the Galatian churches received it by faith before false teachers (certain Pharisees) crept in and “contributed” the valuable addition of Law obedience to salvation by grace through faith alone, Galatians 2:4, 5, Acts 15:1, 5. This minute addition destroyed the efficacy of the gospel because it shifted one’s faith from Christ alone to the Savior coupled with my effort. If it were a math equation it might look like this:

Salvation: Jesus alone = my salvation

Works salvation: Jesus + my contributions = my potential salvation

I add the caveat of “potential” because once human effort is injected into the mix, uncertainty automatically rears its head. The unspoken fear of not doing enough, saying enough, or being enough. Jude wants us to remember where our foundation lies, and how it was that we received Him.

Finally, we are to pray in the Holy Spirit. Like walking in the Spirit, we may pray (or walk) in the flesh. In Luke’s gospel, we read, “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, “God, I thank you that I am not like other men–extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even this tax collector,” Luke 18:10, 11. The Pharisee errs when he uses human reasoning and a human measuring stick to determine a man’s righteousness. Since he was not overtly sinful he deemed himself superior to the examples given, even insulting the tax collector who was with him. It is important to note that Jesus says the Pharisee prayed with himself. He was praying a prayer that lauded his own merits and demeaned other men. We are told that God does not hear the prayer of the unsaved, John 9:31. Neither does He heed the prayer of the saints when we are involved in sinful behavior, 1 Peter 3:7, Isaiah 1:15, 59:2.

Praying in the Holy Spirit would indicate that the saints should pray according to the will of God, as best as we comprehend it from Scripture. This is why, when the Lord taught His disciples how to pray He said, “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” Matthew 6:10. Our prayers are to align with God’s purpose for humanity and His creation. We are told, “The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much,” James 5:16. And, “Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us, and if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him,” 1 John 5:14, 15. The “whatever we ask,” portion of John’s epistle is tempered and contextualized by the, “according to His will,” part. This was why even our Lord, in His own prayer in Gethsemane said, “nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will,” Matthew 26:39. Our desire is for God’s will to reign in our life, and to permeate the lives and fortunes of those we come into contact with. Christ our Lord only wanted the Father’s will to be expressed, all personal desire aside. The believer is to pray according to God’s will. The saint is to seek God’s will done on earth as it is surely done in Heaven. Spiritual prayer is entirely selfless; yes we may pray for ourselves. Of course we may! But we should not be the object of our prayer. God is the object of our prayer, and His love and presence manifested in the lives of everyone He has placed in our life.