Tuesday,
July 18, 2023
May God give you more and more mercy, peace, and love. Dear friends, I had been eagerly planning to
write to you about the salvation we all share. But now I find that I must write about
something else, urging you to defend the faith that God has entrusted once for
all time to his holy people. I say this because some
ungodly people have wormed their way into your churches, saying that God’s
marvelous grace allows us to live immoral lives. The condemnation of such people was recorded
long ago, for they have denied our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. Jude 2-4
John Wesley began his list of 22 questions to those who be his preachers
in colonial America with this one: Have
you faith in Christ? The point
is derived from the first-century “fathers” of Christ’s church, that without a
resounding YES answer to that question, pulpit, or pew is
neither for you! Without your total
allegiance to Jesus Christ as Lord and Master, you do not belong to Him. Apostle Paul backed that up in his letter to
the believers at Rome:
…(And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in
them do not belong to him at all.)
Romans 8:9
Wisely, John Wesley put the Trinitarian doctrine at the head of what
Methodists were to understand and embrace.
It still stands after more than two and a half centuries…most recently
held (at least for the time being) in the United Methodist Book of Discipline
as Article #1:
Of Faith in the Holy Trinity: there is but one living and true God,
everlasting, without body or parts, of infinite wisdom and goodness; the maker
and preserver of all things, both visible and invisible. And in unity of
this Godhead there are three persons, of one substance, power, and eternity –
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.”
UMC Bishop Mike Lowry wrote about what Jude, the brother of Jesus said,
comparing first century apostates with what’s going on today:
Disguised in the form of pluralism and tolerance we have embraced
doctrinal indifference. With such an embrace has come the destructive chaos
of cheap grace turned into “unrestrained immorality” which denies “our only
master and Lord, Jesus Christ” (Jude 3)….Our modern failure in much of the
church to hold to the historic theological core of the Christian faith erodes
our very ability to speak to the moral anarchy of our times. For far too
many, Christian theological and ethical commitments have been reduced to
matters of opinion and political advocacy. It is past time to reclaim the
heart of the gospel against the raging hedonism and selfishness of our age.[1]
Pluralism and tolerance are nice ways of saying “anything goes” – but that
does not square with the tone, ethics, and commandments of the entire canon of
Holy Scripture. And may we be reminded
that the tired, banal excuse which calls Old Testament law passe’, in favor of
the New Testament love of Jesus is merely an excuse…that
license to do whatever I want. It is
nothing less than the downward spiral of cheap grace! Christ did not die so we can go on sinning
and feel good (even proud) about sining – He died to give us victory over our urge
to sin.
We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin
might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. Romans
6:6
For You Today
Our final word today
is from Jesus' brother, Jude, a
doxology of praise to the One who gives us this power
Now all glory to God, who is able to keep you
from falling away and will bring you with great joy into his glorious presence
without a single fault. All glory to him who alone is
God, our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord. All glory, majesty, power, and authority are
his before all time, and in the present, and beyond all time! Amen.
Jude 24-25
The question nearly begs itself….have you faith
in Christ?
There are about 2,500 devotional
posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.
Title Image:
via Pixabay.com Images without citation are in
public domain. Unless noted, Scripture
quoted from NLT©
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