Jude, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, To those who are called, sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ:
sanctified by God the Father, [or, beloved in God the Father]
Jude gives three divine designations to those to whom he writes:
1. Called
2. Sanctified
3. Preserved
We come to the second divine designation of the book of Jude—sanctified. “Sanctified” means that they are set apart as special in God’s eyes. The perfect tense indicates that this set-apartness to God was permanent. Sanctification is the peculiarity of God’s property. God puts His brand on us for His own use. It is God that does the sanctifying.
…to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me. Ac 26:18
And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. 1 Co 1:6
Some translations have “beloved” rather than “sanctified.” The verb is in the perfect tense, carrying the idea of permanence. The voice is God’s voice (passive voice). We are permanently loved by the Lord. God loved us in the past with the result that He keeps loving us. We are the recipients of His love (passive voice), not the originator of His love.
PRINCIPLE:
The believer has permanent status before God because of the finished work of Christ on the cross.
APPLICATION:
The believer is both sanctified and loved by God permanently. This is no temporary situation. There are three kinds of sanctification in the Bible: past, present, and future. The believer was sanctified at the point of salvation, and that sanctification is permanent. God forever sets him apart unto Himself. God sets apart those He wants for His own. That is God’s privilege. Not only is the believer sanctified permanently, but he is also loved permanently.
Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come that He should depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. Jn 13:1
The Lord has appeared of old to me, saying: “Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you. Je 31:3
