Jude 1: 4d — The Test

…and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.

Jude warns us about people who secretly slip into our churches and are ungodly, pervert the grace of our God, and deny Jesus Christ.
We have talked about the first two. What about the third? How do they deny Jesus?

One way to deny Jesus is to proclaim a false Jesus. These people redefine Jesus to fit their concept of religion.

Jesus is unique. The Jesus we meet in the Bible is unlike anyone else that has ever lived or will ever live. Jesus has power over all things physical and spiritual. Jesus knows you and me inside and out. He knows our hearts and what is in our minds. He “sees” everything about us. He is one with God the Father and serves Him faithfully.

If you are told something about Jesus that is not in the Bible, the Jesus they are talking about is not the Jesus of the Bible. They are, in a practical sense, denying the real Jesus. There can be no other authority on who Jesus is than His Word affirmed by His Holy Spirit. If we submit to any other authority that is less than fully faithful to God’s Word, we submit to something less than truth.

To deny Christ is not always saying, “I deny Jesus.” Denying Christ is pretending we define who Christ is. The reality is that we are subject to His Truth, not the other way around.

It is tempting to list off examples of individuals and religions who have their own version of Jesus. The problem is where do we start and where do we end? How much alteration is acceptable? Rather than trying to list off all the possible deviations from the norm, we can look at what Jesus says. In chapter 17 of John’s gospel, Jesus prays the “High Priestly Prayer.” It is a summation of his mission on earth and his goal of serving this Father. Near the end (verses 20-23) he speaks of his hope for the church:

My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one — I in them and you in me— so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

It is reasonable to conclude from this that Jesus values unity among his believers. Someone who preaches the real Jesus preaches unity. As He and His Father are one, so his believers should be one. So let’s apply this as a test. Is there unity among believers?

Now apply this test to everyone who claims to preach in the name of Jesus. Every church in town, every preacher on television. How much unity do you see? (This is not a judgment of people’s righteousness before God, but a judgment of behavior, something we are exhorted to do. See Matthew 12: 57) Of course, we have to add the other test that Jesus prescribes in Matthew 7: 3-5. We need to look at the “plank in [our] own eye.” Are we in unity with other believers? Is unity with other believers a reflection of the Jesus you know?

Application: When someone speaks of Jesus, listen carefully. How does it compare with what the Bible says about God?

Food for Thought: What does the church look like when it is in complete unity?