This is the 24th and final lesson on the book of Jude. In this lesson I’m going to look at verses 24 and 25 and talk about glory, majesty, power, and authority.
Watch the video or scroll down to read a transcript.
Transcript:
Thanks for visiting Bible Mountain. This is the 24th and final lesson on the book of Jude. In this lesson I’m going to look at verses 24 and 25 and talk about glory, majesty, power, and authority.
Let’s start by reading these two verses.
Jude 24-25
Now to the One being able
to keep you from stumbling, and
to place you before His glory,
blameless, with gladness,
to the only God, our Savior
through Jesus Christ our Master,
be glory, majesty, power, and authority
before all time and now also to all eternity,
amen.
These verses are probably familiar to you. They are commonly used as a benediction in church services. While they are familiar and commonly used, what’s often not talked about is the context of these verses. Why were these verses ever written in the first place?
In this lesson I’m going to start by doing an overview of the book of Jude to remind ourselves what the book of Jude is all about. Then I’ll come back to these verses and see why Jude ended his book with this statement.
Let’s go to the beginning of the book of Jude. Remember, verse one tells us this was written by Jude. It was written to those called. The word called refers to believers. So this was written to believers in general.
Jude explained why he wrote this letter. He wrote to urge believers to contend for the faith. The reason he did this was because certain people had crept into the church secretly. They were turning the grace of God into sensuality and denying Jesus.
Before he expounded on that, Jude reminded his readers that Jesus saved a people out of the land of Egypt, but then he subsequently destroyed those who did not believe. Jude reminded his readers that there are angels who are kept in eternal bonds for the judgment of the great day. He reminded his readers that Sodom and Gomorrah had been destroyed for their sins. The reason for these reminders was to establish that Jesus is not just full of grace, He is also a judge.
After those reminders, starting in verse eight, Jude described these men who had crept into the church secretly. He talked about how they were defiling flesh, rejecting authority, and blaspheming majesties.
In verse 14 Jude applied a prophecy of Enoch to these men which condemned their ungodly behavior.
Then we come to verse 17. Starting with this verse, Jude started telling his readers what they should do in light of the fact that these people had crept into the church secretly. First, Jude told his readers they should remember that the apostles had warned them that there would be ungodly people.
In verse 20 he told his readers to keep themselves in the love of God. The way we love God is by obeying God. Amidst these people creeping into the church and distorting grace, using grace as an excuse for sin, Jude reminded his readers to love God. This was a way of telling them to obey God, a way of telling them not to follow those who were using grace to justify sin.
He also told his readers to extend mercy to those who had legitimate questions about our faith.
Then we come to verse 24. Verses 24 and 25 can be divided into three sections. In the first section Jude said “Now to the one…”
In the second section he said “to the only God,”
In the third section he said, “Be”, and then he listed some characteristics of the One referred to in the first two sections.
Let’s take a closer look at this. First, he said
Now to the One being able
to keep you from stumbling, and
to place you before His glory,
blameless, with gladness,
The pronoun One obviously refers to God. What he says here about God is that God is the one who is able to keep people from stumbling. Remember, Jude wrote this because people had crept into the church secretly who were distorting grace. They were using grace as an excuse for sin. They were downplaying the seriousness of sin. Later, Jude told his readers to keep themselves in the love of God, which meant they should obey God. Here in verse 24 he wrote that it is God Himself who gives people the ability to keep from stumbling. It is God Himself who gives people the ability to not sin.
Let’s go to the second section. He said
to the only God, our Savior
through Jesus Christ our Master,
Jude wrote this book because of people who had crept into the church secretly and were denying Jesus. In this section he acknowledged Jesus. He acknowledged that Jesus is our master and our Savior. He acknowledged that Jesus is the one and only God.
Now let’s look at the third section. The third section starts out with the verb be. Jude ascribed four characteristics to the only God, the One able to keep us from stumbling.
Those four characteristics are glory, majesty, power, and authority.
First, we have the word glory.
Glory is a translation of the Greek word doxa.
In addition to being translated glory, sometimes doxa is translated approval.
Sometimes it’s translated brightness. Glory is a brightness. If something has glory it shines.
The second word is majesty.
The word majesty is a translation of the Greek word megalosune.
That word is only used three times the New Testament. It was always translated majesty in the New American Standard Bible. That doesn’t really help us define majesty.
However, megalosune is a variation of the Greek word megas.
Many times megas is translated as greater. When we think of the word majesty, when we think of God having Majesty, in some ways we can think of it as God having more glory than any thing else. God has the greatest glory.
The third word is dominion.
Dominion is a translation of the Greek word kratos.
Sometimes kratos is translated as power or strength. By ascribing dominion to God, Jude was saying that God has power and strength. He is mighty.
The fourth word is authority.
The word authority is a translation of the Greek word exousia. Sometimes exousia is translated right. Here, Jude said God has the right to have power. He has the right to tell people how to live.
Let me close by summarizing how all this fits into the book of Jude. At the very beginning of his letter, Jude explained why he wrote this letter. He wrote because people had crept into the church who were denying our only Master and Lord Jesus Christ.
Then at the end of his letter, Jude did what we should do. At the end of his letter Jude acknowledged Jesus as our master and our Savior. He did that by closing his letter with these two verses.
Jude 24
Now to the One being able
to keep you from stumbling, and
to place you before His glory,
blameless, with gladness,
25 to the only God, our Savior
through Jesus Christ our Master,
be glory, majesty, power, and authority
before all time and now also to all eternity,
amen.
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