“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.” Jude 24
One of the great, permanent ministries of the Father and the Son, administered and accomplished by the Holy Spirit, is that of “keeping.” In what is called the High Priestly prayer by the Lord Jesus, preserved for us in John’s gospel, and prayed before He was tried and crucified, the Lord prayed to the Father that He would, “… KEEP through Thine own name those whom Thou hast given me, that they may be one as we are.” (Jn. 17:11) There is no doubt that Jesus was paying the Father to protect, preserve, and provide for His disciples, and all those who would belong to Him. That “keeping” of the Father was intended to keep them safe and saved, not like Judas who was “lost.” The Lord Jesus then goes more in detail praying that those belonging to Him, by the Father’s own will and power, would be kept from evil, or the evil one. (v.15) This is such a valid prayer for it deals with not only the helpless condition of the Lord’s sheep to know the way, and be strengthened to walk in it, but to be shielded from the enemy of their souls, who is always like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. The prayer is for the constant and present protection by the Father against any weakness, helplessness, and doubting failure of the sheep to remain the possession of the Shepherd. That protection goes beyond anything of the sheep to address the overpowering wickedness of Satan, to seek to dislodge the sheep from the Shepherd, which in reality cannot be done. Although, such great pressure at times can be brought upon the sheep by the enemy, so as to persuade the sheep of such a lie.
There is another aspect of this ministry of keeping that is so very important to grasp, and it is that of being kept “one” with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. There is perhaps no greater truth which is an integral part of Christ’s salvation of men, than the fact that God the Father has placed every redeemed, saved, and Spirit-born child of God IN JESUS CHRIST, making him complete in Christ, accepted in the Beloved for time and eternity. This the great truth from which the enemy of our souls seeks to dislodge the believer in his mind and heart, for if he cannot perform a separation from God and His child actually. He can persuade the believer to believe a lie, and render him ineffective, having neutralized him by creating in him doubt, or doublemindedness. Herein is the great crux and central point of the earnest prayer, that the sovereign God and Father, would preserve, protect, and provide for the constant needs of the child of God, that one belonging to Christ, in such a manner that he would not be dislodged in his thinking to believe that they could be separated from Christ, but on the contrary, rise to the heights of blessing and victory by living in the everlasting truth of one’s union with Christ. They are in Christ, and Christ is in them. No force from without, or from within, can separate them from the love of God, and all that is in Christ. The great warfare is to understand one’s position in Christ, appropriate His power, that power of the resurrection, provided by the Holy Spirit, to live by the faith of the Son of God, and know the reality of Christ dwelling in him by faith, as he abides in Christ.
In the wonderful doxology found at the end of Jude’s letter, we find the great summation of God’s keeping power, not only in that He can keep us from falling, but also to present us faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. This is the work of the only wise God our Savior. To Him be glory, majesty, dominion, and power.
Dear Father, Be our Keeper today. In Jesus’ name, Amen.