When Grace Becomes Our Calling

The opening words of the epistle of Jude in Scripture reveal a pastoral heart, that of Jude carrying readers’ thoughts to Christ. He composed an exquisite triad — naming Christians called, beloved, and kept: 

“Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ” (Jude 1:1).

Jude addressed his audience according to their status in Christ, earned by Him and given without cost — gifts that come by grace through faith. 

Grace in Jude’s Address

Just as Jude highlighted the grace that is personal to believers’ lives in Jude 1, we can do the same. Read along as I apply and personalize Jude’s opening address: 

“Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James” …

I have been saved from sin through the blood of Christ, now able to serve and live for Him forever, as I was made to do. I no longer live subject to the burden of pleasing myself or in anticipation of future wrath — I am able to honor my Creator who alone is great and worthy. As the apostle Paul writes, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Galatians 2:20). 

To those who are called … 

God has appointed me as His very own and to His service. I have been given life that I could not earn or secure for myself. God has decidedly loved me — and I am forever His. As it says in Roman 11:29, “for God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable.”

… beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ.

Just as surely as the Father accepts and keeps His own Son, I am kept in the Father’s love for the sake of Christ — for the Son perfectly obeyed the Father so that many sons and daughters could rise to glory by way of His resurrection from the dead. I am among those “. . .who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Peter 1:5).

Truth in Jude’s Appeal

Believers are transferred into a prized status of belonging with God in Christ by grace. As Jude’s letter progresses, we come to see that this grace was received by his audience after they had heard a message (see Jude 1:5, 17). The faith — or the truth of all God has accomplished with finality on our behalf in Christ — had been delivered to Jude’s recipients. And now, it was their turn to protect this precious message in their midst. 

Jude issued these compelling words: 

“Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.” (Jude 1:3)

We can consider how this faith that Jude referenced in Jude 3 has been delivered into our hands too. Read along as I now apply and personalize Jude’s appeal for the truth:

Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation …

All believers are welcomed into a shared salvation before God, having been given the same truths to know and love. No matter the time or place, when I meet fellow believers, I have dear fellowship with them through our faith. As Paul writes of those who have been welcomed to God in Christ: “so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another” (Romans 12:5).

… I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith … 

I am in possession of what is more precious than I can fully understand. When I live my life according to God’s truth, I will never question in my final days if it was worth the effort. The apostle Paul gives notable description of his life of service: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:7, emphasis added). The faith content that I know — the message of Christ — merits my devotion; adhering to it in this fallen world is, according to Paul, the good fight.

… that was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 1:3).

No religion or sect has spiritual insight that increases, supersedes, or supplants what God has already given in the Scriptures. While believers’ understanding of the truths of the Scriptures grows, the Scriptures themselves stand faultless. The apostle Peter echoes that the faith delivered to all believers is unchanging: “To those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ. . .” (2 Peter 1:1b). My confidence in Christ’s grace is established on the truth, the faith once for all delivered.

Grace and Truth

As Jude’s brief letter continues to its conclusion, we can note that he lived according to his own appeal to stand for truth. His recipients were grievously deceived, being led away from Christ and His grace (Jude 1:4). In response, Jude consistently warned them of what was false, and of how those in the past who rejected God’s truth were condemned. He does so with all hope that his recipients would remember God’s mercy (Jude 1:21), keep themselves in God’s love (Jude 1:21), and praise Christ as the only One able to save (Jude 1:24). 

Jude sought to persuade his recipients to act in accordance with their grace and truth by being merciful to those who doubted the truth (Jude 1:22), pulling those at risk of judgment back from it through prayer and faithful counsel (Jude 1:23), and guarding personal fidelity to the truth while helping others (Jude 1:23). When Jude wrote with warning about deceivers, he addressed his appeal to believers: a people of calling. And those people are also us. For as we treasure our grace, it becomes a calling in our lives to Christ’s message, that what God has done for us in Him may be truly known.

Photo credit: Unsplash/Ben White

Lianna Davis is author of Keeping the Faith: A Study in Jude and Made for a Different Land: Eternal Hope for Baby Loss. She is also a contributor to We Evangelicals and Our Mission with Cascade Books. Lianna is a graduate of Moody Bible Institute and a student at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. She lives in Illinois with her husband and daughter. You can learn more about her writing at her website.