The Worst of them All.

To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy, to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen. Jude 24, 25. (NIV)

The foregoing passage is one of my favorite in all of scripture. To me, it tightly and richly packages the Gospel. I am especially struck that Christ will present the me before the Father "with great joy." He intends to present me, a wretched sinner, with great joy! That leads me to an unresolved question I have had since I became a Calvinist. Why me? Why have I been shown favor. Other than it is for the glory of God, I do not know if a sufficient biblically supported answer can me made. However, I have often wondered if it were not because the elect were the worst, or at least had the potential to be the worst, lest the hand of God holding them back. That is, in order to show the power of the cross, Christ would present us, the most wicked, evil and rebellious lot of them all, with great joy, to the glory of God. It would seem to fit in the tetor toter kingdom of God.