Was Judas The Betrayer Saved Because He Repented?
Question : If repentance means it is to make a 180 degree turn around and give back the things we have taken wrongly, did not Judas the one among the twelve apostles of the Lamb felt remorseful and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders which he had previously received to betray Jesus (Matt 27:3-5)? Did Judas at the last moment repent before he ended his life? If Judas had repented for what he had previously done, can we expect him to be in heaven because of God's mercies?
Answer : As you say the word "repentance" quite literally means to turn around and go the other way. It is a 180-degree turn around to go in the opposite direction. Repentance is a radical transformation of mind where a complete turn around is wrought by God in one's thinking towards sin and self, till it affects the lifestyle and total behaviour of someone to change. The word “repent” in the Greek is “metanoeo” means “to change your mind; reconsider; or, to think differently” and it does not mean change in behavior though it might follow, sometimes instantly and at other times progressively. The true act of repentance is when a person knows that he is a sinner and needs the Savior Jesus to save him from sin.
The Apostle Matthew says, "3 Then Judas, His betrayer, seeing that He had been condemned, was remorseful and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, 4 saying, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.” And they said, “What is that to us? You see to it!” 5 Then he threw down the pieces of silver in the temple and departed, and went and hanged himself." (Matt 27:3-5). What we see in Matt 27:3-5 is Judas' remorse for sin. When a thief is caught by a police, he will try to return what he has taken to avoid receiving the punishment he deserves. In the same way, Judas having been condemned for betraying Jesus within his conscience, he wanted to justify himself by returning the money he had taken to betray the innocent blood of Jesus. This was a external act trying to justify and clear the conscience through works. If through works he was trying to justify, how could Judas who was a thief and having consistently taken offering put in to the money box as he acted as the treasurer of the apostolic company Jesus led, could ever fully justify himself (John 12:6; 13:25-30)? Many times Jesus directly and indirectly tried to make him understand the evil that was working within him and wanted him to repent and come to Him for salvation (Matt 26:21; John 13:21; Mark 14:17-21; Luke 22:21--23). But it was all in vain as time after time Judas rejected the gracious time God gave him to repent and be saved from sin (Rom 9:16-24).
When Jesus chose the 12 apostolic disciples, he prayed all night with much diligent seeking after the will of God, then he chose the right persons whom God has chosen and then one among them was Judas whom God has called to be an apostle among the twelve (Luke 6:12-16). God did not do a mistake in selecting a betrayer knowingly, Judas must have had zeal to work for God but because of his conscious choice to reject the truth of Jesus consistently, be became a thief, betrayer and a traitor (Luke 6:16). He was chosen to take part in the ministry and apostleship, but by transgression fell headlong to take his own life when he was convicted and condemned by his own conscience after he betrayed Jesus who did no wrong to him but had always sincerely sought to save him from sin by trying to make him understand the seriousness and the result of sin (Acts 1:25; Matt 26:24-25).
First of all Judas was not saved as Jesus spoke of him as a devil who sins, like Satan who sinned from the beginning (John 6:70; 1 John 3:8). Judas after being with Jesus for nearly three and half years, never once let himself repent of his sins and let Jesus save him from sin (John 12:4) and had no remorse for his evil doing of thievery until he died by suicide. As both Jesus and John the baptist preached the same message in their ministry saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand!" (Matt 3:2; 4:17), being one among the radical followers of Jesus, Judas completely failed to hear within his heart the message which he might have heard again and again thousands of times and that which he also preached to others (Luke 9:1-2, 6; Matt 10:7). O what a lesson to the preachers and teachers of the word of God, we can preach and teach to others because we are called to do it, without ever being saved if we have not allowed Jesus to change us from our inside from all our sins. Jesus has clearly told that the devil will also try to sow tares which are unsaved men acting as zealous workers for the Lord in the kingdom of God, they will be collected and burnt at the end afterwards during the judgment time for all men (Matt 13:24-30; Heb 9:27). Many of them have been also predicted by Jesus to tell during the white throne judgment that they have prophesied, driven demons and did miracles in Jesus name, but at that time Jesus will tell them that he never knew them at all because they have practiced lawlessness without the salvation from sin that comes by grace through faith (Matt 7:21-23; Rev 20:11-15; Eph 2:8-10).
Just because we are appointed by God to preach and heal the sick and cast out demons can never make us get automatically saved, until we realise that we are sinners and need Jesus to save us from our sins (Mark 3:13-15, 19). If our covetous heart makes us blind enough to think that we need no salvation just because we are called of God to do a mighty work for Him, woe unto us, for we will be heading nowhere but straight to hell like Judas Iscariot who was called by God for apostleship (Mark 14:10, 43-45).
God's word reveals that three things are that which is appointed for all human beings. All humans are called by God [i.e. invited to salvation], chosen [i.e. select favorites, election] to be partakers of salvation, and finally tested for faithfulness [i.e. trustworthy, dependable, reliable] for which they will be rewarded for eternity. God desires all human beings to be saved from sin and spend eternity with Himself (1 Tim 2:3-4). So He has called all men through the gospel of Jesus Christ to get saved from sin (Matt 22:14). But only those who choose Jesus as their Lord and Saviour are chosen by God to be partaker of the great salvation (Matt 22:14; Heb 2:3). There are unprofitable servants who work for God and yet are not saved at all, they do the work of God for selfish ambition and profit sake (Php 1:15-16; 3:18-19; Matt 25:27). Surely the Bible says, "Cursed be he that doeth the work of the LORD deceitfully, and cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from blood [when it is needed to defend their country from the enemy]." (Jer 48:10, TMB Version and Emphasis added within Square Brackets). Once a person is saved, God has prepared good works to be done by the strength and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ for the eternal reward that God has prepared for us ahead (Eph 2:10; John 15:5). These rewards are awaiting for all those who will do the work for which they are called to do faithfully within the kingdom of God (Matt 25:21, 23). The Lord only says to all his faithful servant, "Well done good and faithful servant" and not 'Well done called, chosen and faithful' because all are called and those who have chosen Jesus as their Lord and Savior can only become faithful in the work that God has called them to do for His glory (Eph 2:10). Or else even though every person is called with some natural gifts to work for God which is irrevocable or if they have used it for themselves in the world (Rom 11:29; 2 Tim 4:10), Jesus will not know them personally if they have not chosen Him to save them from sin and therefore will be in the category of those unsaved who practice lawlessness (Matt 7:21-23; John 6:40; 1 John 3:8-9; John 10:27-28). We are exhorted to “make our calling and election sure” (2 Peter 1:10), so that we can do all our work as for the Lord and receive the reward that God has in store for us (Col 3:23-24; Luke 12:42-23). All true believers who are saved and follow Jesus will be called, chosen and faithful who will receive their reward after Jesus comes and takes back His Church again to the Father's house (Rev 17:14; John 14:2-3; Rev 22:12).
Some people say that God predetermined and prophesied in the Old Testament about the fate of Judas, yet we see that time after time it was the wrong choice which was taken by his own free will that Judas filled in the blank that God has allowed in His sovereign will. Jesus said, "23 “He who dipped his hand with Me in the dish will betray Me. 24 The Son of Man indeed goes just as it is written of Him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born.” 25 Then Judas, who was betraying Him, answered and said, “Rabbi, is it I?” He said to him, “You have said it.”" (Matt 26:23-25). The above verses are prophetical verses mentioned in Psalms 41:9 which Jesus reminded to Judas that he was indeed fulfilling the very thing that has been foretold by God in the Scriptures and so it would have been better if he had not been born than to go to hell fire and spend his eternity without God. Was it cruel of God to create Judas who He knew would be condemned? No way that can be because God was like a movie director who wrote the screenplay and knew the end, but he was watching the movie that was played by the rebels and had nothing to do with those play actors who were acting because of their free will under a new rebellious director Satan and his assistants who took the story of the One who wrote it and began to foolishly boast and fulfill it as though it was their own story, not realising that history is His-story without doubt (1 Cor 2:6-8).
Paul the apostle in 2 Cor 7:10 spoke about two types of repentance by saying, "For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death." Judas' repentance was sorrow of the world that produced death physically and eternally as he was a unsaved man. Godly sorrow will make people realise that they are sinners and that they need Jesus to save them from their sin. Godly sorrow will make the saints to turn away from their sinful lifestyle.
Satan had a plan to make someone within the 12 apostles to betray Jesus and make Him die physically (Matt 27:7-10; 26:24-25, 47-50), as Judas was unsaved thief still living in the kingdom of darkness and under the power of Satan, but was working for the kingdom of God (Acts 26:18), Satan filled him to fulfill his whims and fancies (John 10:10; 13:27, 30; 1 Cor 2:8).
I know of some Christian denominations that majors on external repentance rather than the permanence of salvation for all the people who are saved (John 10:24-30). They fail to say that if Christ saves them, it is for eternity He saves without any effort on their part and that He helps them work out from within their own salvation works for their reward which He has prepared for them already (Eph 2:8-10; Php 2:12-13; Rev 22:12). Many people as they repent of their unrighteous deed that they have done within these denominations, they immediately think that they are justified just because they have returned back the things that were taken by them unrighteously in their past lives. Little do they realise that they cannot by their own outward act of repentance can never save themselves from sin. Slowly they become self righteous religious people within the walls of Church rather than saved people who live by the grace of God. O what a waste of time within the walls of the Church!
Judas never repented with a godly sorrow and was never saved from his sins, so we cannot expect him to be in heaven because of God's mercies. This shows to us clearly that no matter what things we return back from where we have done thievery or how many times we ask sorry for the wrong we have done to people, yet it is of no use in regard to our salvation which is a free gift that God gives apart from our works (Eph 2:8-9; Titus 3:5-8). Our works does include repentance from dead works unto life and of faith toward God which are the elementary principles of Christian life (Heb 6:1). I do not say restitution for past mischief is not necessary, nor discourage you from doing restitution of stolen things or asking forgiveness to people for past hurt which has been caused by you or any other thing if the Holy Spirit convicts you to do it (John 16:7-11; Matt 5:21-26; Eph 4:25-29; Luke 19:8-9; Num 5:7; Exo 22:1). All I am saying is that, whatever restitution or repentance that you do, adds nothing to your salvation that is given absolutely free because of God's mercy through what God has achieved already through our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Cor 1:30; 2 Cor 2:14). In fact you can do nothing to save yourself from sin and if you try to add any work to your faith in Christ Jesus, it again becomes dead works because of wrong motives and will have no reward for it if you are a believer (Rom 4:4; Gal 2:21). If any unbeliever tries to work out his own salvation rather than believe the Lord Jesus by accepting Himself as a sinner in need of the Savior, he will go straight to hell fire like Judas went.
Much Blessings.... :)
Answer : As you say the word "repentance" quite literally means to turn around and go the other way. It is a 180-degree turn around to go in the opposite direction. Repentance is a radical transformation of mind where a complete turn around is wrought by God in one's thinking towards sin and self, till it affects the lifestyle and total behaviour of someone to change. The word “repent” in the Greek is “metanoeo” means “to change your mind; reconsider; or, to think differently” and it does not mean change in behavior though it might follow, sometimes instantly and at other times progressively. The true act of repentance is when a person knows that he is a sinner and needs the Savior Jesus to save him from sin.
The Apostle Matthew says, "3 Then Judas, His betrayer, seeing that He had been condemned, was remorseful and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, 4 saying, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.” And they said, “What is that to us? You see to it!” 5 Then he threw down the pieces of silver in the temple and departed, and went and hanged himself." (Matt 27:3-5). What we see in Matt 27:3-5 is Judas' remorse for sin. When a thief is caught by a police, he will try to return what he has taken to avoid receiving the punishment he deserves. In the same way, Judas having been condemned for betraying Jesus within his conscience, he wanted to justify himself by returning the money he had taken to betray the innocent blood of Jesus. This was a external act trying to justify and clear the conscience through works. If through works he was trying to justify, how could Judas who was a thief and having consistently taken offering put in to the money box as he acted as the treasurer of the apostolic company Jesus led, could ever fully justify himself (John 12:6; 13:25-30)? Many times Jesus directly and indirectly tried to make him understand the evil that was working within him and wanted him to repent and come to Him for salvation (Matt 26:21; John 13:21; Mark 14:17-21; Luke 22:21--23). But it was all in vain as time after time Judas rejected the gracious time God gave him to repent and be saved from sin (Rom 9:16-24).
When Jesus chose the 12 apostolic disciples, he prayed all night with much diligent seeking after the will of God, then he chose the right persons whom God has chosen and then one among them was Judas whom God has called to be an apostle among the twelve (Luke 6:12-16). God did not do a mistake in selecting a betrayer knowingly, Judas must have had zeal to work for God but because of his conscious choice to reject the truth of Jesus consistently, be became a thief, betrayer and a traitor (Luke 6:16). He was chosen to take part in the ministry and apostleship, but by transgression fell headlong to take his own life when he was convicted and condemned by his own conscience after he betrayed Jesus who did no wrong to him but had always sincerely sought to save him from sin by trying to make him understand the seriousness and the result of sin (Acts 1:25; Matt 26:24-25).
First of all Judas was not saved as Jesus spoke of him as a devil who sins, like Satan who sinned from the beginning (John 6:70; 1 John 3:8). Judas after being with Jesus for nearly three and half years, never once let himself repent of his sins and let Jesus save him from sin (John 12:4) and had no remorse for his evil doing of thievery until he died by suicide. As both Jesus and John the baptist preached the same message in their ministry saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand!" (Matt 3:2; 4:17), being one among the radical followers of Jesus, Judas completely failed to hear within his heart the message which he might have heard again and again thousands of times and that which he also preached to others (Luke 9:1-2, 6; Matt 10:7). O what a lesson to the preachers and teachers of the word of God, we can preach and teach to others because we are called to do it, without ever being saved if we have not allowed Jesus to change us from our inside from all our sins. Jesus has clearly told that the devil will also try to sow tares which are unsaved men acting as zealous workers for the Lord in the kingdom of God, they will be collected and burnt at the end afterwards during the judgment time for all men (Matt 13:24-30; Heb 9:27). Many of them have been also predicted by Jesus to tell during the white throne judgment that they have prophesied, driven demons and did miracles in Jesus name, but at that time Jesus will tell them that he never knew them at all because they have practiced lawlessness without the salvation from sin that comes by grace through faith (Matt 7:21-23; Rev 20:11-15; Eph 2:8-10).
Just because we are appointed by God to preach and heal the sick and cast out demons can never make us get automatically saved, until we realise that we are sinners and need Jesus to save us from our sins (Mark 3:13-15, 19). If our covetous heart makes us blind enough to think that we need no salvation just because we are called of God to do a mighty work for Him, woe unto us, for we will be heading nowhere but straight to hell like Judas Iscariot who was called by God for apostleship (Mark 14:10, 43-45).
God's word reveals that three things are that which is appointed for all human beings. All humans are called by God [i.e. invited to salvation], chosen [i.e. select favorites, election] to be partakers of salvation, and finally tested for faithfulness [i.e. trustworthy, dependable, reliable] for which they will be rewarded for eternity. God desires all human beings to be saved from sin and spend eternity with Himself (1 Tim 2:3-4). So He has called all men through the gospel of Jesus Christ to get saved from sin (Matt 22:14). But only those who choose Jesus as their Lord and Saviour are chosen by God to be partaker of the great salvation (Matt 22:14; Heb 2:3). There are unprofitable servants who work for God and yet are not saved at all, they do the work of God for selfish ambition and profit sake (Php 1:15-16; 3:18-19; Matt 25:27). Surely the Bible says, "Cursed be he that doeth the work of the LORD deceitfully, and cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from blood [when it is needed to defend their country from the enemy]." (Jer 48:10, TMB Version and Emphasis added within Square Brackets). Once a person is saved, God has prepared good works to be done by the strength and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ for the eternal reward that God has prepared for us ahead (Eph 2:10; John 15:5). These rewards are awaiting for all those who will do the work for which they are called to do faithfully within the kingdom of God (Matt 25:21, 23). The Lord only says to all his faithful servant, "Well done good and faithful servant" and not 'Well done called, chosen and faithful' because all are called and those who have chosen Jesus as their Lord and Savior can only become faithful in the work that God has called them to do for His glory (Eph 2:10). Or else even though every person is called with some natural gifts to work for God which is irrevocable or if they have used it for themselves in the world (Rom 11:29; 2 Tim 4:10), Jesus will not know them personally if they have not chosen Him to save them from sin and therefore will be in the category of those unsaved who practice lawlessness (Matt 7:21-23; John 6:40; 1 John 3:8-9; John 10:27-28). We are exhorted to “make our calling and election sure” (2 Peter 1:10), so that we can do all our work as for the Lord and receive the reward that God has in store for us (Col 3:23-24; Luke 12:42-23). All true believers who are saved and follow Jesus will be called, chosen and faithful who will receive their reward after Jesus comes and takes back His Church again to the Father's house (Rev 17:14; John 14:2-3; Rev 22:12).
Some people say that God predetermined and prophesied in the Old Testament about the fate of Judas, yet we see that time after time it was the wrong choice which was taken by his own free will that Judas filled in the blank that God has allowed in His sovereign will. Jesus said, "23 “He who dipped his hand with Me in the dish will betray Me. 24 The Son of Man indeed goes just as it is written of Him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born.” 25 Then Judas, who was betraying Him, answered and said, “Rabbi, is it I?” He said to him, “You have said it.”" (Matt 26:23-25). The above verses are prophetical verses mentioned in Psalms 41:9 which Jesus reminded to Judas that he was indeed fulfilling the very thing that has been foretold by God in the Scriptures and so it would have been better if he had not been born than to go to hell fire and spend his eternity without God. Was it cruel of God to create Judas who He knew would be condemned? No way that can be because God was like a movie director who wrote the screenplay and knew the end, but he was watching the movie that was played by the rebels and had nothing to do with those play actors who were acting because of their free will under a new rebellious director Satan and his assistants who took the story of the One who wrote it and began to foolishly boast and fulfill it as though it was their own story, not realising that history is His-story without doubt (1 Cor 2:6-8).
Paul the apostle in 2 Cor 7:10 spoke about two types of repentance by saying, "For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death." Judas' repentance was sorrow of the world that produced death physically and eternally as he was a unsaved man. Godly sorrow will make people realise that they are sinners and that they need Jesus to save them from their sin. Godly sorrow will make the saints to turn away from their sinful lifestyle.
Satan had a plan to make someone within the 12 apostles to betray Jesus and make Him die physically (Matt 27:7-10; 26:24-25, 47-50), as Judas was unsaved thief still living in the kingdom of darkness and under the power of Satan, but was working for the kingdom of God (Acts 26:18), Satan filled him to fulfill his whims and fancies (John 10:10; 13:27, 30; 1 Cor 2:8).
I know of some Christian denominations that majors on external repentance rather than the permanence of salvation for all the people who are saved (John 10:24-30). They fail to say that if Christ saves them, it is for eternity He saves without any effort on their part and that He helps them work out from within their own salvation works for their reward which He has prepared for them already (Eph 2:8-10; Php 2:12-13; Rev 22:12). Many people as they repent of their unrighteous deed that they have done within these denominations, they immediately think that they are justified just because they have returned back the things that were taken by them unrighteously in their past lives. Little do they realise that they cannot by their own outward act of repentance can never save themselves from sin. Slowly they become self righteous religious people within the walls of Church rather than saved people who live by the grace of God. O what a waste of time within the walls of the Church!
Judas never repented with a godly sorrow and was never saved from his sins, so we cannot expect him to be in heaven because of God's mercies. This shows to us clearly that no matter what things we return back from where we have done thievery or how many times we ask sorry for the wrong we have done to people, yet it is of no use in regard to our salvation which is a free gift that God gives apart from our works (Eph 2:8-9; Titus 3:5-8). Our works does include repentance from dead works unto life and of faith toward God which are the elementary principles of Christian life (Heb 6:1). I do not say restitution for past mischief is not necessary, nor discourage you from doing restitution of stolen things or asking forgiveness to people for past hurt which has been caused by you or any other thing if the Holy Spirit convicts you to do it (John 16:7-11; Matt 5:21-26; Eph 4:25-29; Luke 19:8-9; Num 5:7; Exo 22:1). All I am saying is that, whatever restitution or repentance that you do, adds nothing to your salvation that is given absolutely free because of God's mercy through what God has achieved already through our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Cor 1:30; 2 Cor 2:14). In fact you can do nothing to save yourself from sin and if you try to add any work to your faith in Christ Jesus, it again becomes dead works because of wrong motives and will have no reward for it if you are a believer (Rom 4:4; Gal 2:21). If any unbeliever tries to work out his own salvation rather than believe the Lord Jesus by accepting Himself as a sinner in need of the Savior, he will go straight to hell fire like Judas went.
Much Blessings.... :)
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A gift for you....truth.
The true Gospel is now delivered to you from the wilderness Rev 12:6 as a witness Matt 24:14.
Our heavenly Father will NOT put any child of his into a hell fire no matter what their sins. Sin doesn't scare God! He created it Isa 45:7 to teach us all the knowledge of good and evil Gen 3:22 for our eternal placement in his coming kingdom. Throwing a child of his into a hell fire has never entered the heart or mind of God to ever do such a thing Jer7:31, Jer 19:5. Anyone preaching a hell fire for any child of God has been deceived into teaching lies. The whole world has been believing in a god of hate murder and revenge (The devil Rev 12:9). The true word of God John 1:1 is now delivered Rev 12:5 here http://thegoodtale.wordpress.com/
God chose a woman Rev 12 to be the prophet like unto Moses Num 12:3 and Elijah Matt 17:3, Acts 3:21-23, Luke 1:17. Those professing themselves to be Christians would be wise to hear all Acts 3:23 BEFORE making any judgment. The proof of what I tell you is in the hearing.
Prove ALL things 1 Thes 5:21. Satan has deceived the whole world Rev 12:9 until now. Turn your heart to the children of God for a better placement Ezek 37:26 in God's world Rev 21.
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