Jude - salvation and punishment of sins

[Abd_Yesua_alMasih]

I am just writing up a study on Jude for cell group next week and I saw something of interest (well I could say the whole thing is of interest but that wouldnt help the discussion).

Jude in verse 3 states clearly he was going to write about salvation but instead decided to write about contending for the faith (especially against those people who use the grace of God as an excuse to indulge in worldly pleasure). In verses 5-7 Jude then talks about the punishment for sins... etc...

Do you think this says something about the priority we should put on understand the nature of sin rather than understanding the nice pritty side of salvation itself? Have I understood it wrong or am I on the right track?

 

[Contra_Mundum]

There is a logic to biblical literature. Follow it, and you will appreciate the writer's flow and argument.

We need both the positive and negative aspects of redemption in equal measure. I certainly think the normal order in presenting the matter rationally proceeds from law to gospel--from conviction of a sense of sin, an acknowledgment God's righteousness, and the reality of judgment; to the divine remedy.

Maybe you are reading a bit much into Jude's topical switch, however. Jude thought he would write a letter on one topic, salvation. He probably thought long and hard about the composition. Then, when he sat to write, the Spirit of God inspirationally and infallibly reoriented his efforts. He was gripped with the necessity of writing with another major purpose in view. And I believe, in the process, the Holy Spirit probably had him use a good bit of the material he was going to write out, only in a different way.

I think that is similar to how some of the best sermons are delivered. In a way that is hard to describe or define, sometimes a preacher will be uniquely (there is simply no other term for it) annointed by the Spirit for preaching. And by the man's own confession, the delivery may be something far different from what he had spent perhaps the whole week preparing for. It is an acknowledgement of the "sovereignty of the Spirit." The preacher admits himself to feeling swept along by a power greater than himself. This isn't infallible inspiration or new revelation. It is the old revelation (the Bible) reasserted by the same Word who first spoke it. Its just preaching "in the demonstration of the Spirit, and with power."