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Doxology Of Jude Series
Contributed by Rev. Dr. Andrew B Natarajan on Dec 21, 2023 (message contributor)
Summary: A benediction flows from God to His people. It’s God announcing a blessing over His people. A Doxology moves in the opposite direction; it’s the people of God blessing Him as they worship, adore and exalt His name. Doxology is a praise; it’s adoration; it’s exalting God.
Jude 1:24-25 Doxology
“Now to Him who is able to protect you from harm and to place you before His glory blameless with great joy, to the only God our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord is glory, majesty, might, and authority from every age and now and into all ages. Amen.”
Introduction:
A benediction flows from God to His people. It’s God announcing a blessing over His people. A Doxology moves in the opposite direction; it’s the people of God blessing Him as they worship, adore and exalt His name. Doxology is a praise; it’s adoration; it’s exalting God. This is the way doxologies work. Each book of the Psalter concludes with a doxology (Psalm 41:13; 72:18-19; 89:52; 106:47-48; 150:1-6). A careful examination of those concluding doxologies will show similar language to Jude’s closing praise. They refer first to something that God has done or will do, and then they ascribe attributes to God that account for that action, or are expressed in the action. Jude is celebrating three things: God keeps us from stumbling. He presents us before the glory of God blameless. And he presents us before the glory of God with great happiness.
Able to protect you:
God’s ability to love and keep His own (Jude 1), save and destroy a people (Jude 5), angels (Jude 6), and cities (Jude 7) has been a common and repeated theme throughout this letter. He is able to keep, watch over, guard, hold, and preserve (t????) from stumbling (Jude 1, 6, 13, 21). We are prone to stumble. Our inability to keep ourselves. Apostates cannot destroy our faith or knock us out of the Christian race. God has the power to keep us upright and at the end of the race present us without fault to His glorious self. We need to fix our eyes continually on the only one who is able to keep us from stumbling.
He watches, guards, keeps, protects, looks out for (f???ss?). The Hebrew terms ??? (to keep watch, guard, protect, observe, obey, comply with – Deuteronomy 32:10; 2 Kings 17:9; 18:8; Psalm 11:8; Proverbs 2:8), and ???? (to keep, watch, guard, take care of, protect, save, restrain – Genesis 2:15; 3:24; Exodus 12:17, 24, 25; Deuteronomy 33:9; Psalms 105:45; Proverbs 5:2).
He is able to strengthen you (Romans 16:25), He is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think (Ephesians 3:20), He is able to guard until that day (2 Timothy 1:12), He is able to help (Hebrews 2:18). He is able to make all grace abound to you (2 Corinthians 9:8). No one is too far gone. No situation is beyond Him. Nothing is outside of His reach. All things are possible with our God. He is the One who knows no beginning and no end. He’s the One who created everything out of nothing. HE IS ABLE!!
Able to Place You:
He is able to set, place, put forward, present introduces a second ability of God for which He is to be praised. God is able to present them to Himself for they will be spotless, blameless. It describes without the moral blame. Ephesians 5:27 also anticipates the time when Jesus presents the church to himself without blemish. He has called believers not simply to ‘batten down the hatches’ and ride out the storm, but to reach out redemptive to those who are falling away.
“mono theo soteri hemon dia Iesou Christou tou kuriou hemon doxa megalosune kratos kai exousia pro pantos tou aionos kai nun kai eis pantas tous aionas amen” God will place before himself who is Glory, Majesty, Dominion, and Authority.
“Glory” refers to God’s radiance and moral splendour. It expresses all that He is in His Being and in His nature, character, power and acts (1 King 8:11). “Majesty” refers to God’s greatness, his transcendence (Psalm 93:1). We know the Lord has power like no other. Greatness of appearance; dignity; grandeur; dignity of aspect or manner; the quality or state of a person. Majesty is the incomparable, ineffable, regal presence of God as the Ruler of the universe. (Job 26:12-I4). “Dominion or mighty” denotes the presence and significance of force or strength rather than its exercise. It is the ability to exhibit or express resident strength. “Authority” combines the idea of the "right and the might". God has great authority with which he has subdued all enemies (2 Chronicles 20:6). God is able to give you the great joy and unlimited Happiness.
Able to give you:
He is able to protect you, place you, and give you with great joy. He gives the great joy: To de dunameno phulaxai humas aptaistous kai stesai katenopion tes doxes autou amomous en agalliasei”
The word Agalliasei means gladness or extreme joy, often accompanied by words and/or bodily movements, such as jumping, smiling, etc. a deep happiness. Agalliasei "Literally, “with exultation” as of those who leap for joy." It is used to denote the gladness, great joy, and joy. Luke 1:14: You will have joy, and gladness, and many will rejoice. Luke 1:44: The baby leaped in my womb for joy. Acts 2:46: Day by day with gladness and sincerity of heart. Hebrews 1:9: Oil of Gladness. Jude 1:24: with great joy. This denotes a proud, exulting joy. Every believer will be judged for the deeds they do while living on earth (2 Corinthians 5:10). There will be great joy associated with hearing “well done” my faithful servant (Matthew 25:21) and seeing that our deeds were “gold, silver, precious stones” that are refined and preserved in the fire of God’s judgment (1 Corinthians 3:12-13). With the abounding joy that they are redeemed would have because they are rescued from sorrow, sin, enemies, and death, and that heaven is to be their eternal home. The "exceeding joy" comes because the Christian will be out of the realm of where he could fall and never be tried or tempted with sin.
(Ref: Bibleref.com; The pastor’ brief; the gathering community church; Study light; Austin Precept)