Insightful Musings on the Scriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

Good morning, dear ones…

…with not much morning left. It’s already been a busy day. I joined Becki in attending her surgery-follow up visit and x-ray. I requested a copy of the x-ray…and it was granted. Amazing. She is doing so well that therapy was never prescribed. She is now free to resume her swim exercise activities. Great.

Included in the trip was some consultation with my mechanic on some minor problems left over from a somewhat major problem yesterday with the boom truck…that resulted in cooking the starter and stripping all the teeth off the drive gear. At least it was fairly easy to purchase a replacement starter and install it…after repairing the problem that caused it.

Well…here comes another modified 2010 version. The reading schedule I’m following calls us to jump ahead to the little book of Jude on this 30th day of April. Speaking of that schedule, perhaps I will stick on a copy of that schedule as an attachment for good measure.

The weather report is promising us a blast of summer-like heat today. Based on the current feel, I think it’s true. But it sure won’t be as hot as…a place we need to talk about.

May your day be blessed.

Love, Dad/Ray.

Speaking frankly and literally, it seems to me that Jude’s primary objective in writing this letter was to warn the HELL out of his readers (that natural ingredient within one’s soul which disqualifies one for salvation) and to encourage them in holiness that most assuredly qualifies one for the opposite—HEAVEN (eternal life). He provides several cases of wrong responses to God’s grace and states, “They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire” (v. 7). That can mean nothing other than HELL.

Let’s give some attention to a license—say a driver’s license. It is an important document (or used to be) to hold if one is going to participate in the modern privilege of owning or operating a motorized vehicle on public roads. For good reason, the laws of every government impose rules and regulations to protect that right and prevent it from damaging the rights of others. So the possession of a driver’s license is not authorization to make one’s own roads through the fences and back yards of the neighborhood. It does not give one the right to drive into stores or on sidewalks or through all the landscaping of the city park. It is not a provision for disregarding red lights, speed limits, or right of ways. The license only grants permission to operate a vehicle within the parameters of the laws governing that permission. That makes sense to me.

Now consider carefully Jude’s words as he presents his primary concern in verses 3 and 4. Perhaps I will insert some of my own parenthetical comments along with the text. “Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation (God’s ultimate objective in issuing the license of His grace) we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith (the proper and appropriate use of the license of salvation/God’s grace) that was once for all entrusted to the saints. For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men (though they claim to hold the same license as the saints), WHO CHANGE THE GRACE OF OUR GOD INTO A LICENSE FOR IMMORALITY and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord (failure to live in proper submission to the government and giver of the license).”

The grace of God has been issued to us ONLY as a license for holiness unto heaven. Any use of it outside those parameters is unauthorized, unacceptable, and punishable.