To the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.

Jude 25

In our day we see almost no benedictions or blessings like this.  When have I finished a letter, standard or email, with a closing like this?  Probably never.

Yet, how very fitting.  Jude bares his heart about the danger of moving Jesus to the periphery of life and putting self or something else in the center.  The warning is strong, indeed.  Then comes this reassuring, warming, comforting word, a true benediction.  Jude asks. who deserves to receive glory, majesty, power and authority?  Any human being, dead or alive?  The most admired people in our cultures? Any nation?  Any philosophy or world-view?  Or is this all just a play on words?  Only a hope, not a reality?  None of the above.

In my culture it is hard to imagine the possibility of anyone who has this glory, majesty, power and authority.  The idea is preposterous. I think my culture has lost the ability to even begin to think in these terms.  We have settled into a relativity that excludes such unthinkable terms. The world, our culture holds (the physical world and the world of people) has no meaning at all, there is nothing transcendent to cast any light at all on life as we know it.  We walk around blind.

That is exactly what makes believers different from the cultures we live in.  We do know that God almighty is our Savior who earned our salvation at great cost to him, and that salvation in his name is now available to anyone who believes and abides in Him.  That free salvation is the door into God’s heart.

As we receive it and look upon the One who earned it for us, our hearts well up in real heart-felt gratitude, for He alone merits glory, majesty, power and authority.  If we really believe that and reorient our lives around that reality, we burst free from the bondage of lostness in which unbelievers move about as blind.  That is what makes us believers different – we know the actual heavenly Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  They are alive in our lives, right now.  We not only embrace Him but sing a song of eternal praise, joining all those who love Jesus Christ with all their hearts, now and evermore.