361. Our Common Salvation

“Jude, a bondservant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to those who are called, sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ. . . .

“Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.” Jude 1-3.

Jude was very diligent to write concerning “our common salvation.” Forgiveness of sins is something everyone who has been saved has in common. Here we are all in agreement; the forgiveness of sins is our common salvation. The prophets wrote about Israel’s exodus out of Egypt, and how God continually reminded Israel of how He, with upraised arm and outstretched hand, had saved them from under the yoke of Egypt and Pharaoh’s power. He reminded them how He had divided the Red Sea so they could walk across on dry land, while Pharaoh’s chariots and entire army were drowned. This was Israel’s common salvation.

It is the same with us. We all have this in common, that God has forgiven us our sins for Jesus’ sake. This is the message that is preached, and we rejoice greatly in it. It is this salvation that Jude urgently desired to write about, but he found it necessary to exhort the saints to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to them.

Jude saw that certain men had crept in unnoticed, ungodly men who turned the grace of our God into lawlessness and immorality. By their life they deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. In order not to be contaminated by the spirit that was in these ungodly men, Jude found it necessary to exhort the saints to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to them.

He reminded them, “That the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.” They shared in the common salvation from Pharaoh and Egypt, yet they were still destroyed because of their unbelief.

We have received an exalted position by way of our common salvation. But just as certain angels did not take care to keep their exalted position, but fell, abandoning their own dwelling, so, too, can we lose our high calling and become one with the ungodly because of unbelief. The righteous live by faith. We must contend earnestly to preserve the faith and progress in it. Jude understood this; that is why he exhorted the saints.

Those who forsake their faith, in the same way as Sodom and Gomorrah, “are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. Likewise also these dreamers defile the flesh, reject authority, and speak evil of dignitaries.” They trample the common salvation under their feet.

“Whatever they know naturally, like brute beasts, in these things they corrupt themselves.” They throw away their faith and mock all understanding by faith. We have had ample opportunity to see and hear of these types of examples.

The ungodly have gone the way of Cain, jealous of their brother for whom everything succeeds by faith, and “have run greedily in the error of Balaam for profit.” Covetousness and desire for honor dragged them away with those who are with Balaam, and there they perish in the rebellion of Korah. They oppose God’s appointed apostles, prophets, and teachers, and so in their opposition they are found lacking and they perish. Their light and power are insufficient and useless because they pursue idolatry, and so they perish. Coveting and the lusts of the flesh are, in fact, idolatry. “You also took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god Remphan.” Acts 7:43. Their reputation is their only concern. They cultivate idols on the heights. Anyone who tells them that they are committing idolatry will be hated.

But such are the “raging waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame. . . . These are spots in your love feasts, while they feast with you without fear, serving only themselves.” Think—these clouds without water sat right in the midst of the saints. They appear to be clouds over dry land, but they have no rain.

“But you, beloved, remember the words which were spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ: how they told you that there would be mockers in the last time who would walk according to their own ungodly lusts.” Verses 17-18.

Therefore, let us not sleep in our common salvation but take heed to Jude’s exhortation to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints, so we can progress on the new and living way through the veil, His flesh.