2 Tim 2:15 "Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth."
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OUR KEEPER FROM APOSTASY (III)
THURSDAY, APRIL 30
Jude 25
Ephesians 1:3-6
“… that we should be
… to the praise
of the glory of his grace …”
OUR KEEPER FROM APOSTASY (III)
The final affirmation of this sublime benediction is of God as “the only wise God our Saviour” (Jude 25). He is “wise” ‒ omniscient and perfect in all His plans and designs (and there is none else like Him; He is the “only wise God”). His plan of salvation is a perfect plan. His decree of election and predestination is a perfect decree. And therefore His calling also is perfect in wisdom, and cannot be challenged. “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified” (Rom 8:29-30).
What we see around us, therefore, is part of the unfolding of the one eternal and perfectly wise plan of the “only wise God.” These apostates, for all their wickedness, and for all the damage they cause, have been “before of old ordained to this condemnation” (Jude 4). The apostasy of the last days has been “spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Jude 17). Yet how unfathomable is the grace we have received, that we should be “called” (Jude 1) as part of that same divine plan of the “only wise God”!
We should be filled with praise and thanksgiving that this “only wise God” is indeed “our Saviour,” because of His sovereign grace and mercy toward us. We live now to glorify Him; and all we do, including our contending for the faith, is never for our glory but His. Truly, “he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love… to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved” (Eph 1:4-6).
Dear reader, even in the heat of battle, never take your eyes off God. The ultimate result and aim in all our earnest contending for the faith is the glory of God; that all glory and majesty, dominion and power, might be ascribed to Him who is King of kings, and Lord of lords, who reigns for ever and ever. Amen.
THOUGHT: Do I live as though my chief end is to glorify God?
PRAYER: Heavenly Father, help me to glorify Thee in all that I do.