Judgment Day

Confessing the Faith

To those whom he called “friends,” Jesus warned, “do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him!” (Luke 12:4-5). Of course, they were, like we are too, friends prone to fear, fear that is often unfounded, fearing wrong things and wrong ones, rather than the One. And while Jesus pointed them to God’s providential care of creation and our image-bearing place in it, the temptation to fear is a powerful one, especially the fear of others, what they will think of us, what they will say about us, what they will do to us.

Behold, the Lord Comes

But in our passage today, Jude emphasizes neither Enoch’s piety nor his mysterious rapture but instead his prophecy. Translating Enoch’s words into a New Testament context, Jude emphasizes the imminence of Christ’s return and the certainty of divine judgment.

Jesus, Savior, Judge, Lord

Jude begins the body of his epistle with a reminder, something they “once fully knew,” or “already know.”[1] Jude is introducing nothing new but reminding them, and us, of what we are prone to forget. What is it?

Come Judgment Day, he who will be revealed to the world as the Judge, we know as our Savior, leading us not to fear that day but to long for it. For, he will judge the world with righteousness and judge the peoples with equity (Ps. 9:8), and “there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). So, we who are saved by God’s grace through faith, standing only in the perfect righteousness of Christ, say, “Come, Lord Jesus! (Rev. 22:20). Come!

Judgment Day

Judgment Day is coming. Will you be found righteous and rewarded in Christ, revealed in your life lived for him? Or, will you be found cursed apart from Christ, where even your good deeds demand not reward but eternal punishment.

The Greatest Sign

Every Lord’s Day, on the first day of the week, we acknowledge the greatest of signs, worshiping our risen Savior. For everyone looking for a sign, here it is: He is risen; He is risen indeed! Every Lord’s Day we gather to worship Christ through the signs and wonders of His ordinary means of grace: The reading, singing, and preaching of the holy Scriptures; the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper; and, the prayers of the saints assembled.