Grace is not a license to sin
Defending the faith
Jude opens his letter by exhorting his readers to “contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3). The need for such contending arises not from the world but from within the church—“certain people have crept in” (v. 4). Many of the greatest dangers to the church around the world come not from outside her walls but from inside. As Jesus said, there are wolves in the church that look like sheep (Matt. 7:15). Despite acting subversively rather than openly, false teachers can easily be identified by their godlessness. They are “grumblers, malcontents, following their own sinful desires” (Jude 16). Jude reminds his readers, and us, that the apostles predicted that such false teachers would arise (vv. 17–18). The church must not be swept into falsehood and godlessness but must persevere in the love of God (v. 21), receiving mercy from Jesus and extending mercy to others (vv. 22–23).
The nature of grace
The false teachers who have infiltrated the church “pervert the grace of our God into sensuality” (Jude 4). The gospel is so radical, justifying the ungodly (Rom. 4:5), that taking grace in this godless direction has been a perennial danger to the church. Paul seems to have combatted this error in Romans (Rom. 5:20–6:23). Yet the grace of God, when truly received and enjoyed in all its freeness by the power of the Holy Spirit, does not encourage sinning. It rather transforms sinners and gives them a distaste for sin. Jude returns to the nature of true grace at the end of his letter when he reminds his readers of “the love of God” and “the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Jude 21) in the context of exhorting them toward holiness (vv. 22–23; contrast v. 16). God’s grace is not a license to sin. For grace is not only a pardon that forgives but a power that transforms. It cannot be one without the other.
