Salvation Summaries

OVERVIEW OF JUDE

Jude is a short book written by Jude, the half brother of Jesus Christ, to Christians. Jude had intended to write to these believers about the salvation they shared, but instead felt compelled to warn them about false teachers who were causing divisions among them.  To address this problem, Jude urged the believes to defend the truth of the gospel. He also wanted them to build (hence the image I selected) their lives on the foundation of their faith by continuing to pray, living in a godly way, and showing mercy to those who wavered in their faith.  This book shares similarities with 2 Peter, as both describe and warn believers about false teachers.

Do false teachers exist today?  Sure they do.  Are there false teachers attending, and participating, in Christian churches, with some even having a leadership role?  Sure there are, for why wouldn’t there be?  Satan, who is real like you and me, would delight in using false teachers in an attempt to prevent some people from becoming a Christian, and to cause Christians to become confused or discouraged in their faith.

So if you are a fellow believer, what are you obligated to do?  You are to earnestly contend (which Merriam-Webster defines as: to argue or state something in a strong and definite way), for the “faith” – that body of knowledge found in the word – just like a soldier defends his country from military invasion.  Why?  Because we are fighting in a spiritual war that requires spiritual warfare (see Ephesians 6:13-17).  And to be a in a position to defend the faith, what should you do?  Use the tools available to you (study your Bible, pray earnestly, attend church, listen to Christian radio, converse with other believers) to build yourself up in your faith, so that you are strong (spiritually).

SALVATION VERSES

This book answers several questions that relate to salvation, including one sensitive one about homosexuals. I’ll address a few questions in this blog, and the remaining in the next one.

Are Christians slaves? 

Some atheists might like the idea of Christians being slaves (to them), and some Christians who are over-committed to doing church things might at times feel a little like a slave.  The book of Jude does not elaborate on the issue of whether a Christian is a slave, but we can surmise from something Jude said that a Christian is one.  Let’s look at the relevant verse, and then I’ll elaborate.

NAS Jude 1:1 Jude, a bond-servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James…

ESV Jude 1:1 Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James

NLT Jude 1:1 This letter is from Jude, a slave of Jesus Christ and a brother of James.

In this verse, Jude is described as a bond-servant, a servant, or a slave, depending upon the translation used.  Bond-servant, as shown in the New American Standard version, means slave in the Greek, and slave is used in the New Living Translation. As a result, slave seems to be an appropriate term that Jude applied to himself.  But Judas isn’t the only one who described himself in this way.  The term bond-servant, or slave, is mentioned roughly a dozen times in the New Testament and used to describe various people, including Simeon, Paul, Ephaphrus, Tychicus, Titus, James, John and Peter. So if Judas, and all of these other people, are slaves, the next question to ask is, “to who?”  The answer is found in the same verse: to Jesus Christ.

But some of you may be asking, “How can this be?  Doesn’t Jesus ‘set you free’?  Aren’t you liberated after becoming a Christian?” While it’s true that a Christian is no longer a slave to sin, a person who becomes a Christian has a new master, a new Lord, and that Lord is Christ. In his commentary on Romans 1:1, John McArthur defines bond-servant in this way: “a servant who willingly commits himself to serve a master he loves and respects.”

My dear  friend.  Isn’t a bond-servant an apt description for a Christian?  Is not Christ your master and Lord? Are you not seeking to serve and obey Him, regardless of what He asks you to do?  If a bond-servant, or slave, seems to be too much for you, and you view Jesus more as an historic figure who has no involvement in your personal life, then examine yourself and your faith. Jesus plainly tells us in the book of Revelation that a person is either hot or cold, but not lukewarm.  What does this mean?  You are either for Jesus, or you are against Him; there is no middle ground (Rev 3:15-16).

Can you know whether another person is saved, or a Christian?

This is a question I answered in a prior blog entry on the book of Titus, and the answer in that book is the same as in this one: yes.  This can easily be seen in the following verse:

Jude 1:3 Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints.

What was Jude wanting to write about?  Salvation.  Whose salvation?  His, and the people he was writing to.  Could he have written about the salvation that they all had if he didn’t have it, or if he didn’t know whether they had it?  No.

As in the book of Titus, a Christian can know whether another person is a fellow believer.  And how do you know?  Neither book plainly tells us, but we can discern this from reading a number of books in the New Testament.  In short, the Bible tells us that a Christian person is a new creation, and one who has received the Holy Spirit.  A spiritual transaction has taken place in that person, whereby Jesus becomes their Lord and Master, and they receive the gift of faith and forgiveness of their sins.  If this describes you, then you are a believer.  And if you are a believer, over time, you will begin to discover other believers, and therefore be in a position like Jude, where you know you are saved, and you know that certain other people are saved too.

In my next blog entry, I’ll address the highly sensitive issue of whether homosexuals will go to heaven.