Decisive Keeper

Excerpt from Learning to Pray in the Spirit and the Word, Part 1 by John Piper

[Jude]

...

Over and over in the Bible we see this: God's action is decisive; our action is dependent. And both actions are essential. So I urge you again to resist the mindset that cynically says, "If God is the decisive keeper of my soul for eternal life (verses 1, 24), then I don't need to 'keep myself in the love of God'" (verse 20). That would be like saying, since God is the decisive giver of life, then I don't need to breathe.

No. No. Breathing is the means that God uses to sustain life. So the command to breathe is the command to fall in with the purposes and patterns of God to give and sustain life. This is what I mean by the term, "means of grace." "Grace" is the free keeping-work of God to sustain our spiritual life that leads to everlasting joy. The "means of grace" is our "keeping ourselves in the love of God." God's "keeping" inspires and sustains our "keeping." His keeping is decisive and our keeping is dependent on his.