Summary
Peace If Possible, Truth at All Costs
"Peace if possible, truth at all costs." That bumper-sticker phrase captures the heart of Jude's brief but urgent letter to the early church. Jude, the half-brother of Jesus and full brother of James, came late to faith in Christ; like James, he did not accept Jesus' messianic identity during the Lord's earthly ministry, but the resurrection changed everything. Both brothers became leaders in the early church, and Jude wrote with the authority of one who had come to know that Jesus truly is the Christ.
Jude tells his readers in Jude 3 that he had eagerly intended to write about "the salvation we share"—the common salvation now offered to Jew and Gentile alike in Christ. But the need of the hour shifted his pen. Certain intruders had crept into the fellowship, "perverting the grace of our God into licentiousness" and denying the Lord Jesus Christ. So instead of a warm meditation on shared salvation, Jude wrote an appeal: "contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints." The word contend implies a defensive stand, a readiness to fight; the word entrusted means the faith has been handed to believers in full confidence by God Himself, to guard, protect, and pass on intact.
The perversion Jude warns against is still alive. It is the temptation to twist grace into permission—"I'm forgiven, so I can indulge whatever the flesh wants." It is also the temptation to reshape God's grace around the sins of those we love, softening the truth so we can keep the peace. But to pervert grace is, in the end, to deny God Himself. There is no other Jesus and no other God; the Lord we worship is whole and complete, a God of law and gospel, justice and mercy, not a God we may remold to fit our preferences. When we dampen the gospel to make it palatable, we treat it like a breath mint covering a stench—a cover-up that never reaches the sin within.
Scripture insists that nothing can hide our sin from God. Hebrews 4:13 declares that "before him no creature is hidden, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account." Psalm 32 confesses that silence over sin makes the bones waste away. Confession of sin rocks our immediate peace, but refusing to confess forfeits eternal peace. By the mercy of God, we do not have to bear the full weight of our sin's depth; in His kindness He grants us forgiveness even for sins we did not know we committed, because 1 John 1:9 promises that the faithful and just God forgives and cleanses all who confess.
True peace was purchased where there was no peace at all. Christ Himself contended for the faith—standing ready to fight, and indeed laying down His life. There was no peace in His mocking, no peace on the cross as He bore the wrath our sin deserved, no peace in the tomb. As 1 Peter 1:18–19 reminds us, we were ransomed not with silver or gold but with the precious blood of Christ. The cross itself rocked the peace of the world—a stumbling block to some, foolishness to others—yet it is precisely there, in His death and resurrection, that eternal peace is secured.
This is the stand Martin Luther was called to take. In 1517 his Ninety-Five Theses were not meant to shatter the church but to call it back to the truth of God's Word. Summoned in April 1521 before the Roman inquisitor Johann Eck and demanded to recant, Luther weighed peace by recantation against truth at the cost of his life, and answered: "Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Scriptures, or by clear reason… I am bound by the Scriptures I have quoted, and my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not retract anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience." Whether or not he actually added "Here I stand," the conviction was the same: God's Word alone is truth, and on that truth a Christian must stand.
Peace is possible—not the false peace of silence over sin, but the true and lasting peace given by the full Word of God entrusted to the church and secured at the cross of Christ. We are indeed sinners by nature; Christ indeed died and rose for us; and you who hear this gospel are called by it into forgiveness and life. Upon this truth the Christian stands. Amen.
Video citations
- "Here I Stand" 9-3-23 — If you wouldn't please open your Bibles to the letter of Jude, that's on page 216 in the New Testament, if you're using a Pew edition of the Bible, we're in the letter that Jude wrote page 216 in…