Now unto him that is able to keep you from
falling
The people of God are liable to falling into temptation, into
sin, into errors and mistakes, from an exercise of grace, or from
a degree of steadfastness in Gospel truths, and even into a final
and total apostasy, were it not for divine power; and they are
not able to keep themselves. Adam, in his state of innocence,
could not keep himself from falling; nor could the angels, many
of whom fell, and the rest are preserved by the grace of God;
wherefore, much less can imperfect sinful men keep themselves,
they want both skill and power to do it; nor can any, short of
Christ, keep them, and it is his work and office to preserve
them; they were given to him with this view, and he undertook to
do it; and sensible sinners commit themselves to him, as being
appointed for that purpose; and this is a work Christ has been,
and is, employed in, and he is every way qualified for it: he is
"able" to do it, for he is the mighty God, the Creator and
upholder of all things; and as Mediator, he has all power in
heaven and in earth; instances of persons kept by him prove it;
and there is such evidence of it, that believers may be, and are
persuaded of it: and he is as willing as he is able; it is his
Father's will he should keep them, and in that he delights; and
as he has undertook to keep them, he is accountable for them;
besides, he has an interest in them, and the greatest love and
affection for them; to which may be added, that the glory of the
Father, Son, and Spirit, in man's salvation, depends on the
keeping of them: and what he keeps them from is, from falling by
temptations, not from being tempted by Satan, but from sinking
under his temptations, and from being devoured by him; and from
falling by sin, not from the being or commission of sin, but from
the dominion of it, and from the falling into it, so as to perish
by it; and from falling into damnable heresies; and from the true
grace of God, and into final impenitence, unbelief, and total
apostasy. Instead of "you", the Alexandrian copy reads "us", and
some copies "them":
and to present [you] faultless before the presence of his
glory with
exceeding joy;
to himself, in this present state of things, as washed in his
blood, and justified by his righteousness, and hereafter in the
millennium state, and in the ultimate glory; and also to his
Father, and this he died to do, and in some sense did it at his
death, even in the body of his flesh, through death, and now as
the representative of his people in heaven; and will at the last
day, when he will deliver them up complete and perfect; all which
is in consequence of his suretyship engagements: and this
presentation is made "before the presence of his glory"; either
before the glorious presence of Christ, or Christ himself, who is
glorious, and will appear in glory, in his own, and in his
Father's, and in his holy angels; or else before the glorious
presence of God the Father, and who is glory itself: and the
condition in which the saints are, and will be presented, is
"faultless"; though they have sinned in Adam, and were so
wretchedly guilty and filthy in their nature state, so prone to
backslidings, and guilty of so many after conversion, and though
a body of sin and death is carried by them to the grave; yet they
will at last be presented by Christ in perfect holiness, in
complete righteousness, and in the shining robes of immortality
and, glory. The manner in which they will be presented is "with
exceeding joy"; in themselves, for what they shall be delivered
from, from sin and sorrow, and every enemy, and for the glory and
happiness they shall then enjoy; and also in the ministers of the
Gospel, who will then bring their sheaves with joy, and then will
their converts be their joy and crown of rejoicing; and likewise
this presentation will be with the joy of angels, for if they
rejoice at the conversion of men, much more at their
glorification; and even with the joy of Father, Son, and Spirit.