(GRACE AND DISGRACE - Day 6 of 7)
“For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.”
Jude 1:4
Emboldened word in scripture quotation is of focus in each corresponding paragraph:
“For certain persons have crept in unnoticed,” - “crept in” - (pareiseduēsan - Greek)…compound of ‘para’ (beside) + ‘eis’ (in) + ‘duō’ to sink or plunge, so to slip in secretly as if by a side door, here only in N.T.” (Robertson’s Word Pictures) This is why there is so much encouragement for Christians to be “sober-minded”, “on guard”, and “vigilant”.
“those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation” - “In Jude 1:4 it means to proscribe, appoint, ordain, post up publicly in writing. Those who were summoned before courts of justice were said to be progegramménoi(Gk), posted up ahead of time, because they were cited by posting up their names in some public place. Even in our day the cases to be heard by a judge are written beforehand and appended in a public place in the courthouse. Thus what Jude is declaring is that judgment was published or declared in writing ahead of time.” (Word Study)
“ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness” - "’Turning’ is metatithēmi (Gk), ‘to transpose’ two things, one of which is put in place of the other. Thus, these false teachers put lasciviousness in the place of the grace of God. ‘Lasciviousness’ is aselgeia(Gk). The aselgeia person is he who in the words of Trench ’acknowledges no restraints, who dares whatever his caprice and wanton petulance may suggest.’" (Wuest’s Word Studies) ie - does whatever he wants.
“Whatever these men appeared to be, Jude describes them for what they really are—ungodly, apostate, grace perverters. They perverted the grace of God into license to sin without fear of consequences, as if a saving relationship with God has no conditions (cf. Rom_6:14; Rom_6:23; Rom_9:15; Tit_2:11-12 and notes)... Grace perverters were at work then and now. In their teachings they take up the grace of God and put false grace down in its place, destroying the message of Salvation…” (UCRT Cross References)
“and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.” - “But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves.” (I Peter 2:1) “They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient and worthless for any good deed.” (Titus 1:16)
The perversion of grace has been a great danger from the time of the first century. With time, nothing has changed. We must understand “grace”, and in a proper understanding of it, realize the dis-grace in perverting it. “Certain persons” “ungodly persons” “persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness” are people that the “only Master” has “long beforehand marked out for” “condemnation”. May we be vigilant to not be such persons, nor follow such persons, but may we live in the grace of our Lord and be seekers of His righteousness in our life!
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