v. 5 “But I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.”
Jude has now identified the key issue – the false teachers and their false teaching (v.4). Jude now appeals to salvation history to begin the defence of his argument.
A distinctive feature of the false teaching that Jude was challenging in his letter was the denial of judgement for sin – ‘cheap grace’ that says, “Because we are now under ‘grace’ and not ‘law’ it doesn’t matter what we do. We are now free, therefore, to indulge in our sinful desires.”
To counter this perverse teaching Jude brings to remembrance three things that these Christians will already have been well familiar with. For the Jewish Christians this would be especially true, but even the Gentile converts would have received a basic teaching of these three things as they would have all been used in the teaching of the gospel.
These three things are:
1. Though the Israelites were delivered out of Egypt… sinfulness was still judged (v.5).
2. Though these “angels” were knowledgeable in godliness… sinfulness was still judged (v.6).
3. Though the people of Sodom and Gomorrah lived as though there was no judgement for sin… sinfulness was still judged (v.7).
These three things reveal that:
1. God judges the unbelieving.
2. God judges the proud and rebellious.
3. God judges the immoral.
In these things we find three of the main characteristics of these false teachers and their false teaching and Jude is labouring to underline the reality of judgement for these false teachers (and the danger of it for those who choose to follow them and who are as yet unconverted).
Though the Israelites were delivered out of Egypt… sinfulness was still judged
It is not too hard to understand why this rejection of judgement is such an appealing teaching. Judgement is a difficult subject for us to fully understand. This is because we are sinful and cannot understand sin as God understands it.
We understand it in part, of course. For example, most of us would agree that murderers deserve to be punished heavily for their crimes. Yet we have to acknowledge that our understanding is still incredibly inadequate, defective, and tainted with sin.
Jude reminds us how judgement of sin is thoroughly biblical. He roots it in both the Old Testament and the New in one fell swoop. For some, with a superficial understanding of the Bible, it appears that the God of the Old Testament is full of judgement, whereas the God of the New Testament is full of love. However, there is as much love in the Old Testament as there is in the New, and there is as much judgement in the New Testament as there is in the Old.
Guy Prentiss Waters, in his excellent work ‘The Life and Theology of Paul’, in writing of Paul's understanding, concludes that, “human sinfulness is the great presupposition of the Christian gospel. Apart from our comprehension of sin, the gospel will make little sense to us.”[1] The gospel of Jesus Christ is good news, but as it is often said, “The gospel is only such good news because there is bad news too”.
Israel’s deliverance from Egypt was the core aspect of what is now referred to as ‘Judaism’, as can be seen in the continued importance of the Passover festival. Even God, when speaking to His people through the prophets, often referred back to their deliverance from Egypt as the foundational act of the covenant between Israel and their God, (see Jeremiah 11:4, for example).
It is through God’s deliverance of Israel from Egypt that we come to understand so much of the New Testament gospel too. Stephen links it in in his powerful sermon in Acts 7; Paul does so in Acts 13; the writer to the Hebrews does so numerous times throughout his letter; and John does so in Revelation 11:8.
Even more tellingly, the Lord Jesus did so when He instituted the remembrance of the New Covenant (the Lord’s Supper) out of the remembrance of the Old (the Passover meal).
Jude reminds us that even out of those who were delivered from their Egyptian slavery those who did not believe were destroyed. Their salvation was merely cosmetic, and it didn’t penetrate through to their hearts… yet they were still blessed with so many privileges. These privileges, however, bring greater responsibility.
I don’t know of any Gentiles who were instantly killed for complaining. I know of many Israelites (Numbers 21:4-9).
It is good to be a part of a Christian community, but it is not enough. These false teachers believed that judgement wasn’t coming. I’m sure they felt safe being within the Christian community, trusting to their ‘cheap – and false – grace’. God judged the unbelieving within the Israelite wilderness community. God will judge these false teachers.
The warning is also there for us all. Whether we are within the Christian community or without, judgement is coming to all who are outside the Person of Jesus Christ.
For the unbelieving Israelites, for the unbelieving false teachers, and for all unbelievers, death will bring us immediately to the Judgement Seat of Jesus Christ, and the judgement of unbelief is destruction.
This is a part of the gospel message that we must all take as seriously as it deserves.
[1] Guy Prentiss Waters, The Life And Theology Of Paul, (Sanford: Reformation Trust, 2018), p.41.