v. 6 – …and the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day.

Devotional:

The verse from Jude today sounds scary, right? If not scary, it certainly sounds serious and that’s because it is.

In Matthew 25:41 Jesus refers to “…the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (NIV). And in 2 Peter 2:4 Peter writes, “God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and committed them to pits of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment.” It is not beyond reason to believe Jude is talking about the same. Lucifer and the angels who followed him rejected the purpose for which God created them, and ultimately this is a rejection of God Himself.

I believe Jesus, Peter, and Jude share the reminder of these fallen angels as a warning to us. By rejecting God’s rule and reign, which is experienced by living inside God’s purpose for creating you, you are rejecting the dignity, purity, and protection that comes with being under God’s provision. The fallen angels chose this and would choose it 10,000 times so their fate is sealed under “gloomy darkness.”

The difference between men and angels in this regard is that each man didn’t choose it for him/herself; it was chosen for us by Adam as Paul writes in Romans 5:12, “just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned.” The rejection of God and His purposes were chosen for us through Adam and we continue to choose it for ourselves time and time again through self-reliance and self-righteousness. That is to say, we who were created in God’s image to be loved by Him and kept secure under His protection, have rejected our position of authority and left our proper dwelling place. But, praise be to God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ who has not left us under the gloomy darkness of self-exalting but has stepped out of His proper dwelling place as the King of heaven so He could break us loose from our chains of damnation and replace them with robes of righteousness. Today, by faith, we can live inside God’s purpose for creating us and flourish under his rule and reign by trusting in Jesus.

We can trust Jesus in work, in worry, in laughter, and in tears. We can trust Him with our children, money, hurts, and fears. To trust in Jesus is to live as God desires – inside the Father’s grand design. Each of us is a unique masterpiece of God’s own choosing, and by His grace, we are made alive. He does not leave us to ourselves. He came to save us, secure us for the Father’s glory and fame, and to restore us and give us His name. Jesus is higher than the angels so He can do what they could not, and yet He lovingly chose to lower himself beneath us, in order that He might exalt us who are His brothers above the angels forever.

REFLECTION:

What do you need to trust God to do on your behalf today?