Title: The Called One
(Lecture 1) Jude 1:1-2 The Called One
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Judas, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, To those who have been called, who have been loved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ: Mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you (Jude 1:1- 2)
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What is truth and what is untruth? Untruth is something that has the form of truth but is not truth. Considering that there are many people who are deceived by mistaking untruth for truth because untruth takes the form of truth, it can be said that it is the mission given to God's people who know the truth to correctly testify what is the truth in this day and age. can.
People live with confidence in the untruth. He is confident that he will never be deceived by untruth. But it is too easy to see untruth. Untruth comes in a form that fits human common sense and thinking. This is a very reasonable and common-sense statement. On the other hand, truth is contrary to human common sense and thinking. Therefore, we are in danger of always inclining our thoughts to untruth.
What a believer must have in this danger is to constantly ask, “What is the truth?” and strive to know the truth. And we should try to speak only the truth without compromising on things that are not the truth. It can be said that this is the mission of those who are called to the truth.
Verse 1 says, “Judas, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to those who are called, loved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ.”
You've probably heard a lot about being called. And when we understand that we are called as a mission, we tend to understand that God has called us to do something.
But to be called means to deliver from sin those whom God has chosen to be his people. God's method of election and calling was mobilized because man cannot find God on his own and cannot escape from sin by himself.
In this way, from the beginning, the truth cuts off all human merits, powers, abilities, possibilities, and so forth. In other words, the truth does not acknowledge anything that comes from human beings. Man wants to come to God and acknowledge all that he owns, namely, reading the Bible, praying, keeping the Lord's Day, donating, hard work, and devotion, but God does not see all of them.
If he knew the truth that does not acknowledge human beings, what would seem untruth to him? Naturally, it is to enhance human action, merit. It is to discern that all the sayings that good deeds and religious zeal please God, receive blessings and rewards were untruth. Why are these untruths mistaken for truth? Because, as I said before, it is common sense. This is because it is common knowledge that good people and people who are zealous for church work are right to receive blessings and go to heaven, so untruths that are consistent with common sense are considered truth.
However, if human zeal and deeds can be of merit, shouldn't we be able to seek and believe in God with those zeal and deeds? But why do we need God's call? Does it mean that when you first seek God, you must have God's call, and from then on, you will serve God with your own strength? In this way, untruth only has a mass of contradictions that do not match.
Human beings cannot respond to God's call. Therefore, the truth is that God gave us faith so that we might respond to His call, and that believers come to God through that faith. Therefore, those who truly abide in faith do not turn their eyes away from their own zeal or merits. Therefore, you should know that comparing the merits of human beings and stating the reward of heaven is a lie and only an untruth.
Many people view faith as attending church. But isn't going to church something we can do with our own will? That is why I come to think that heaven also depends on what I do.
However, faith is not about attending church, it is about denying all human merits and only looking at and exalting the merits of God's grace. Faith is the denial of all human possibilities. Knowing that there is nothing I can do about it, and that nothing will come out of my will but sin. So, it is faith that makes us confess that we are only God.
Jude describes those who are called as those who have been loved in the Father and kept for Jesus Christ. In other words, a believer is one who has already been loved in the Father by being called. In the Father, love means the love of the Father. Therefore, the believer is already in the Father's full love just by being called. It is love that is satisfied regardless of whether we live well or not.
But the common sense of the world is that if you believe in God, shouldn't you be living a better life? If you believe hard, shouldn't you be blessed? This is the untruth that ignores the love given in the calling itself.
Because the Father's love was confirmed by the cross, the circumstances and circumstances of the world cannot be the standard to judge love. Because love is overflowing with fullness that He has delivered me from sin, from whom I deserve to be rejected. So, if you don't think about how blessed you are to be a believer, the fact that you received love while thinking of a difficult situation will not touch your heart.
And to be called is to be kept for Christ's sake. This means that the calling is not for me, but for Christ. As such, I am not at the center of God's work, only Jesus Christ is there. We think of our salvation in our calling, but God thinks of Jesus. This is the difference between our thinking and God. Therefore, to fill the gap in thinking with God will mean to look only at Christ and live.
Why is the call for Christ? It is not because we were sent to heaven, but because we were called to be witnesses of the grace of Christ on the cross. This is because it is God's will to call God's people to testify to the world the grace of Jesus' humiliation and death. Therefore, to live like a called believer is to live as a witness to the grace that forgives all of my sins, wherever, in any circumstance, and whatever I do.
Therefore, we should not ask God, ‘What should I do?’, but rather, ‘What should I live for?’
The believer's attention, whether life or death, should be directed only to Christ. The church cannot be the subject of attention. At that time, something of the truth will be witnessed. Living is the same whether you are a believer or a non-believer. But what matters is what you live for. It is important to know what is prolonging my life. Think about why God has called me. It's not about doing great things, it's about living with the grace of Christ in your heart.