Dr. Barclay with Something to Think About - FAITH AND SALVATION

 

FAITH AND SALVATION

The author of the book of Jude in the Bible was believed to be the half-brother of Christ. It is said that, before the resurrection, even the family of Jesus did not believe in Him.

For even His brothers did not believe in Him.

(John 7:5)

But after His resurrection, this belief changed and His siblings became strong believers and stalwarts in the church. As such, it is believed to be His half-brother who is the author of the second last book in the Bible. And thus it was Jude who wrote:

Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerting our common salvation, 

I [also] found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend 

earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. 

(Jude 1:3)

When Jude talked about the common salvation, he was not considering salvation as being ordinary or being of little value but of it being the same for everyone regardless of the mode or method of worship or service. Provided the faith in Christ is there, then salvation is the same or common for everyone, for after all it is:

…by grace you have been saved through faith…it is the gift of God… 

(Ephesians 2:8)

If salvation is common (or available) to everyone through faith, then that faith is valuable and worth contending for, or agonizing over; it certainly is worth protecting. This is why we are warned to ever keep diligent and watch over that faith which was once delivered to the saints because:

…certain men have crept in unnoticed…ungodly men, 

who turn the grace of our God into lewdness 

and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. 

(Jude 1:4)

and 

…that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, 

afterward destroyed those who did not believe.

(Jude 1:5)

The tendency of the world is to compromise almost all belief in order to accommodate as many as possible, and while that accommodation is to a degree important, it should not result in a compromise of the basic tenants of the belief on which our salvation rests. But over the years “certain men have crept in.” As a result, many of the basic beliefs and tenants of our faith have been changed so that it can be difficult at times to even see those tenants exercised in many places. We have not, to a large extent, contended earnestly enough for the faith that leads to salvation and as a result may suffer the same as did those Hebrews who left Egypt so long ago.

Maintaining the true faith without compromise is important and needs to be earnestly contended for, more so than we appear to be doing at present and it is something we should all be thinking about.