Build yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, by looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. (Jude 1:20-21)
Jude tells us how to keep ourselves in the love of God. It is clear that Jude is encouraging us in this verse to cultivate our love for Christ, for we cannot be separated from His love for us (Rom 8:35-39).
We have a great high priest who has gone to live with God in heaven. He is Jesus the Son of God. So let us continue to express our faith in him. Jesus, our high priest, is able to understand our weaknesses. When Jesus lived on earth, he was tempted in every way. He was tempted in the same ways we are tempted, but he never sinned. With Jesus as our high priest, we can feel free to come before God’s throne where there is grace. There we receive mercy and kindness to help us when we need it. (Heb 4:14-16, ERV)
Jesus is superior to any priest, pastor or prelate. The priesthood of Jesus is superior to any of our religious leaders and their professed priesthood. To the Jews back in Bible times, the high priest was the highest religious authority in the land. He alone entered the Most Holy Place in the Temple once a year to make atonement for the sins of the whole nation (Leviticus 16).
Similar to the high priest of ancient Bible times, Jesus mediates between God and us. (Heb 7:25) As humanity’s representative, he intercedes for us before God. As God’s Representative, Jesus assures us of God’s forgiveness. Jesus has not just more authority than humanity’s religious leaders. Jesus has ALL AUTHORITY (Mat 28:18, Phil 2:9, 1 Pet 3:22, Phil 2;10, John 19:11) and He will never give His glory to another (Isaiah 42:8) because he is truly God and truly Man. Unlike the high priest, who could go before God only once a year, Christ is always at God’s right hand, interceding for us. He is always available to hear us when we pray. (Heb 7:25)
What a wonderful Friend we have at court as we face the coming judgment. After His resurrection Jesus spoke to His disciples, saying
“All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.” (Col 2:10)
These words were spoken to all who will receive them as a living assurance!
Through nature and revelation, through His providence, and by the influence of His Spirit, God speaks to us. But these are not enough; we need also to pour out our hearts to Him. In order to have spiritual life and energy, we must have actual intercourse with our heavenly Father. Our minds may be drawn out toward Him; we may meditate upon His works, His mercies, His blessings; but this is not, in the fullest sense, communing with Him. In order to commune with God, we must have something to say to Him concerning our actual life.
Prayer is the opening of the heart to God as to a friend. Not that it is necessary in order to make known to God what we are, but in order to enable us to receive Him. Prayer does not bring God down to us, but brings us up to Him.
When Jesus was upon the earth, He taught His disciples how to pray. He directed them to present their daily needs before God, and to cast all their care upon Him. And the assurance He gave them that their petitions should be heard, is assurance also to us.
Jesus Himself, while He dwelt among men, was often in prayer. Our Saviour identified Himself with our needs and weakness, in that He became a suppliant, a petitioner, seeking from His Father fresh supplies of strength, that He might come forth braced for duty and trial. He is our example in all things. He is a brother in our infirmities, “in all points tempted like as we are;” but as the sinless one His nature recoiled from evil; He endured struggles and torture of soul in a world of sin. His humanity made prayer a necessity and a privilege. He found comfort and joy in communion with His Father. And if the Savior of men, the Son of God, felt the need of prayer, how much more should feeble, sinful mortals feel the necessity of fervent, constant prayer.
Our heavenly Father waits to bestow upon us the fullness of His blessing. It is our privilege to drink largely at the fountain of boundless love. What a wonder it is that we pray so little! God is ready and willing to hear the sincere prayer of the humblest of His children, and yet there is much manifest reluctance on our part to make known our wants to God. What can the angels of heaven think of poor helpless human beings, who are subject to temptation, when God’s heart of infinite love yearns toward them, ready to give them more than they can ask or think, and yet they pray so little and have so little faith? The angels love to bow before God; they love to be near Him. They regard communion with God as their highest joy; and yet the children of earth, who need so much the help that God only can give, seem satisfied to walk without the light of His Spirit, the companionship of His presence.
The darkness of the evil one encloses those who neglect to pray. The whispered temptations of the enemy entice them to sin; and it is all because they do not make use of the privileges that God has given them in the divine appointment of prayer. Why should the sons and daughters of God be reluctant to pray, when prayer is the key in the hand of faith to unlock heaven’s storehouse, where are treasured the boundless resources of Omnipotence? Without unceasing prayer and diligent watching we are in danger of growing careless and of deviating from the right path. The adversary seeks continually to obstruct the way to the mercy seat, that we may not by earnest supplication and faith obtain grace and power to resist temptation.
There are certain conditions upon which we may expect that God will hear and answer our prayers. One of the first of these is that we feel our need of help from Him. He has promised, “I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground.” Isaiah 44:3. Those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, who long after God, may be sure that they will be filled. The heart must be open to the Spirit’s influence, or God’s blessing cannot be received.
Our great need is itself an argument and pleads most eloquently in our behalf. But the Lord is to be sought unto to do these things for us. He says, “Ask, and it shall be given you.” And “He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” Matthew 7:7; Romans 8:32. {SC 93.1-95.2}
Jesus once said something very interesting to Mary that relates to us today just how serious He was in how to bring the cross to bear in all of our affairs in these last days:
Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to Him, “Rabboni!” (which is to say, Teacher). Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God.’ ” (John 20:16-17)
Here we see how Jesus did not want to receive the homage of His people, His Church, until He knew that His Sacrifice had been accepted by The Father and until he had received the assurance from God the Father Himself that His atonement for the sins of His people had been full and ample, and that through His blood alone they might gain eternal life. When Jesus ascended to Heaven he presented Himself on our behalf before the Throne of God, showing the marks of shame and cruelty upon His brow, His hands, His feet. (Zech 13:6) Jesus resisted the crown of glory, the royal robe, and even the adoration of angels, until the Father had signified that His offering was accepted.
Jesus also showed a strong desire to prefer concerning His chosen ones, His church here on earth, in that he wanted to have the relationship clearly defined that His redeemed should thereafter sustain to Heaven and to His Father.
For Jesus, His Church must be justified and accepted before He could accept any sort of Heavenly honor. Jesus has declared in His Word that where He was, there also His Church should be. In the mind of Christ, if He was to have this Heavenly glory, then His people too should share in this glory. Those of us who suffer with Jesus here on earth must finally reign with Him in His kingdom. In the most explicit manner, Jesus pleaded for His Church, identifying His interests with theirs. Advocating for us with a love and constancy stronger than death for our rights, titles gained through Him.
This is what Phil 2:5 means when it says
“let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.”
We should be found daily humbling ourselves before God, confessing our own individual sins, seeking the pardon of our transgressions, and cooperating with Christ in the work of preparing our souls to reflect the divine image. Unless we enter the sanctuary above, and unite with Christ in working out our own salvation with fear and trembling, (Phil 2:12) we will be weighed in the balances of the sanctuary, and shall be pronounced wanting.
We are assured in Heb 10:19 how we may have “boldness” or confidence to enter the Holiest (heavenly sanctuary in prayer) through the blood of Christ and in Eph 2:13 we know that “those who are afar off are made near the blood of Christ. We need never worry about the ever-darkening shadows of ecclesiastical authorities because ALL AUTHORITY has been given to Jesus and by His blood we share in His glory!
Some people talk about “keeping the faith” when what they should be talking about is giving it away!
My friends, sometimes our experiences, both good and bad can be powerful teachers. They shape us, help us grow in faith (for the purpose of giving more of it away) and they provide valuable lessons that we carry with us throughout our lives that we have the privilege of sharing with others in the form of our personal testimony on our own experience with Jesus. (1 John 1:1-3, Rev 12:11)
A good friend of mine shared with me a testimony about how God got her through a difficult, life-threatening pregnancy and child birth. Her baby came quite early and the situation was critical. Both her and the baby could have died. But through her faithful prayer her first daughter, a miracle baby was born. She prayed to live long enough to raise her baby, and God granted her that prayer. When she finished her story she said
“that’s how God really works His great power in my life.”
Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, And to present you faultless Before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, To God our Savior, Who alone is wise, Be glory and majesty, Dominion and power, Both now and forever. Amen. (Jude 1:24-25)