What does it mean that God is able to keep us from falling (Jude 24)?

"Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling." How appropriate when thus presenting the dangers, the evils, the horrible iniquity of apostasy from all Christian grace and truth that might have the effect of greatly dispiriting a feeble soul! No one ought even to be dispirited; not one. "Now unto Him that is able to keep" clearly refers to every step of the way, and there is power in Him to keep. It is we who fail in dependence. Never does He fail in power to preserve. "Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless." Where? "Before the presence of His glory." Where is that? Is not that the very glory into which the Lord has now gone? And does not He say, "that where I am there ye may be also"? Here we find that the hope of the Christian and the hope of the church is entirely untouched by all the ruin that had come in. Spiritual power remained intact. And not only that: this glorious, blessed hope remains for our consolation and our joy in the darkest day.

"Now unto Him that is able to keep you without stumbling and to set you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy." There we have what falls in not with Peter, but with Jude. Jude, of course, entirely agrees with Peter, and confirms Peter as to the judgment that is to fall on those that were not only unrighteous but apostate. But then Jude does not forget that there are those that are true, that there are those that are faithful, that there are those that are waiting for Christ, that there are those that are even more appreciative of the blessing because of the unbelief of man. Therefore it is that he brings in this present power which depends entirely on the Holy Spirit's presence to keep us; and, further, he speaks of the blessed hope depending upon Christ's coming to receive us to Himself, "and to present us faultless." That will only be because we are glorified; that will only be because we are like Himself. He was the only One intrinsically faultless, and He is the One Who, by redemption, and then also by its accomplishment for the body — for redemption now is only as far as the soul is concerned, but when He comes it will be for the body as well — will present us faultless both in soul and body "before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy."

Finally, Jude concludes with an ascription of praise, in which he also directs the saints to the only source of their preservation: "Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen."* (vv. 24, 25.) The saints are thus divinely cast upon God; and it must have been an immense comfort, amid the pressure of evil on every side, to be in this way reminded that God was able to keep them from falling, then and all the way through, until they were presented faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. And never was it more necessary than now to remember this truth. It may be, and is, an evil day, and the enemy is both subtle and active; but it is still true that God is able to keep us from falling, however hot the fiery trial, or fierce the temptation. There is no excuse, therefore, to be offered if we fall; the fault is wholly our own, and demands unsparing self-judgment. What a foundation then is laid for our faith in these few simple words — God is able to keep us from falling! And what a different record We should have had of our past lives if we had lived in the daily and hourly recollection of it! Then our eyes would have ever been up to Him, from whom alone our help comes, and who, when we are walking in dependence on Him, will never suffer our foot to be moved.

When we come to verses 24 and 25, how delightful is the contrast with all that has preceded! We come out from the darkness of human wickedness and apostasy, and even from the contentions and efforts of true saints in the presence of the evil, into the clear light of the power and glory of God. Our eyes are lifted to "Him that is able to keep you from falling." Here, and here only, is real rest for the heart.

We are to contend for the faith, building up ourselves on it, and we are to labour to rescue others from defilement and doom, but we can find no repose in ourselves or our efforts. We may have grace to keep ourselves in the love of God, at least in some degree, yet we can only find rest in the fact that He is able to keep us from falling, and present us faultless before the presence of His glory.

Since He is able, we have only ourselves to blame for any tumbles we get on the way. Yet though we may tumble we shall not ultimately fall. We shall be presented in the presence of His glory when forth it shines, and not even the light of that glory shall discover a fault in us. How amazing! How excellent! What a triumph for the grace and power of God!

"Now unto Him that is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen."

Beautiful doxology with which this Epistle ends! His own are being kept in the evil days with which the age closes. They are the preserved in Jesus Christ kept for Him. And while we wait for Him, He is able to keep us not only from falling, but from stumbling. And then comes that day in which He will present His own, His beloved people, whom He bought by His own precious blood. He will present them faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. And what a day of joy and gladness, as well as of glory, it will be, when He shall see the travail of His soul and will be Satisfied, the day in which He will present to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blame! (Ephesians 5:27)

Then he closes, “Now unto Him who is able”. We are not able to keep ourselves from falling. “Now, unto Him who is able to keep you from falling.” Not only that, but to present you faultless, to carry you right through to the glory, to present you faultless before the presence of His glory, and that with exultation, with praises, and songs. Israel will come to Zion one day with songs, and everlasting joy upon their heads. God will present us before the presence of His glory with exultation, with great joy. Who is able to keep us? The only wise God, our Saviour. Here it is the only God, our Saviour, to whom be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now, and for ever. Why does he ascribe these great things to God? Because there are those who deny the only Lord God and our Saviour, Jesus Christ. The Apostle ascribes glory and majesty, dominion and power to the One whom man casts off.

Jude seems to say, "I see the corruption that has come in, I see the rising tide of evil, I see the saints may fail in 'building,' and 'praying,' and 'keeping themselves;' but I see there is One in the glory who is able to keep them from stumbling, bring them safely home, and present them faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. I see the judgment day is coming for the ungodly professors — a day of gloom and sorrow; but I see the presentation day is coming for all His saints — a day of glory and exceeding joy." It is for us in like faith to take up the language of Jude. As we view the ceaseless stream of blasphemies poured out by Christless professors and received with indifference, or even applause, by the great mass of Christian profession; as we see the foundations attacked, truth fallen in the street, and evil men and seducers waxing worse and worse, we may well enquire, "What will the end be?" But, thanks be to God, for the comfort and encouragement of His people, He has left us in no uncertainty as to the end. Jude tells us the end for the corrupters, the end for God's people, and the end for God Himself. All will end by the apostate corrupters meeting their just judgment, the saints of God being presented faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, and God Himself will receive "glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever." The passing sorrows of time will give place to the exceeding joys of eternity. Our joy to be there, His joy to have us there. "He shall see of the fruit of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied." The One whose soul was once exceeding sorrowful even to death, will be filled with "exceeding joy" for eternity. Well may we exclaim with Jude, "To the only wise God, our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen."

Consider further this wonderful statement He is able to keep you from falling — more than equal to every snare and power of evil below — "and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy." Such is the efficacy of the sacrifice of Christ, such the perfection of the righteousness in which we stand in Him that the glory of God will discover no imperfections therein but will make manifest its exceeding blessedness, and so will God have exceeding joy in the results of His wisdom and grace. Well might we sing to Him, the only wise God and our Saviour, glory and majesty, dominion and power both now and for ever. Amen.

The closing doxology is precious, and consistent with the message of this book. All glory is to be God's; but the same eternal God is able to keep the saint from stumbling, as so many do because of self-confidence. He is their only Resource; sufficient in this way for the present; and as to the future, He Will present every believer without blemish before the presence of His glory. Wonderful power and grace, so high above the vanities of religious pretension And it will be "with exceeding joy," that Is, "His joy will exceed. ours will certainly be unspeakable and full of glory," but His will exceed ours. Precious contemplation!

Jude closes with an ascription of praise — most appropriately in keeping with his name, "praise" — a praise how sweet and solemn as we stand amidst the wreck of all that can be wrecked, the shaking of all that can be shaken, with the confidence of those who know that God is able, nevertheless, to keep us from stumbling, and to set us blameless in the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. Whose joy is that? Not simply our own, that "exceeding joy," although we share in it and it reflects itself in us; but the "exceeding joy" is the joy of the Father who has got back the lost, now found, the one dead, now alive again, and He makes the whole house ring with the music that is in His own heart first.

"Unto Him who is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before His glory," etc. Can He not do it — a God of illimitable power? You might not think it, but the heart believes it, because He has said it. Is it enough to wait for it when the church shall be presented faultless? Surely not. We want to walk according to it now. I know all will be faultless then, but should it not be my ambition (as the apostle Paul says) to be well pleasing to Him in all my ways now?