This morning Sue and I read these words from the end of Jude: "And now all glory to God, who is able to keep you from stumbling, and will bring you into his glorious presence innocent of sin and with great joy. All glory to him, who alone is God our Saviour, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Yes, glory, majesty, power, and authority belong to him, in the beginning, now, and forevermore. Amen" (Jude 24-25).

Jude has been describing an environment where dangerous false teaching was rampant and seductive immorality pervasive – very similar to our own times. What to do? Withdraw? Michael Green writes: "No. Rather, be strong in the Lord's might, advance against the forces of evil and face head-on the dangers involved. Such is the thrust and the context of this doxology."

Jude begins with heartfelt adoration. God is able to keep us from stumbling. We must keep watch and stay close to the Lord, but only he can guard us so that we do not fall as we pick our way through this life like a sure-footed stallion descending a steep incline full of hidden snares and dangers. But not only that, he will bring us into his own glorious presence enabling us to stand there. He assures us that we will arrive in our heavenly home; that this depends on him not on our performance. Only he can make us innocent of sin, faultless, without blame, and utterly acceptable through the blood of his Son, and it brings him great joy to do so! If God be for us, who can be against us?

To God alone be the glory! This is not a prayer but a statement of fact. For what he has done through Jesus – through the eternal achievement of the Son becoming a human being and paying the price of our redemption – all glory (splendour and radiance), all (kingly) majesty, all power (dominion and control over all things), and all authority (capacity to do anything) belong to him.

"For he [Jesus] must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death … When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all" (1 Cor. 15:25-28).