SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/28/2024 7:49 AM
My Worship Time
Focus: PT-4 “Shocking the Twelve”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
26:21b-24
Message of the verses: “He said, "Truly
I say to you that one of you will betray Me." 22 Being deeply grieved,
they each one began to say to Him, "Surely not I, Lord?" 23 And He
answered, "He who dipped his hand with Me in the bowl is the one who will
betray Me. 24 “The Son of Man is to go, 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."
I
begin with a quote from John MacArthur’s commentary that goes along with what I
was writing about in the last SD. “Contrary
to the perverted reasoning of some interpreters, the fact that this sinful act
was used by God to provide salvation from sin did not justify Judas by making evil
good. God’s sovereignly turning evil to
His own righteous purposes does not make a sin any less sinful or the sinner
any less guilty. God turned Judas’s
betrayal to His own divine purposes, but He did not thereby transform the son
of perdition (John 17:12) into a son of righteousness. Judas was not an unwitting saint but a
willing devil (John 6:70). The
suggestion that he intentionally betrayed Jesus in order that the world might
be redeemed through the crucifixion is as unscriptural as it is ludicrous. He had no interest in the salvation of the
world or the coming of the kingdom. He
was a consummate thief, a disillusioned, selfish mercenary who soon would sell
out his teacher and friend for a mere thirty pieces of silver.”
The
Lord made it very clear that Judas’s destiny was damnation. Despite the fact that God used the betrayal
to fulfill prophecy, Jesus said, “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.’” Judas’s future in hell was so terrifying that
he would have been infinitely better of if he had not been born. Judas is the most graphic and tragic example
of the people about whom the writer of Hebrews says that, because they “go on
sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer
remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain terrifying expectation of judgment,
and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries…How much severer
punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under the foot the Son
of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was
sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?” (Heb. 10:26-27, 29).
I have stated that even though Judas’s sinfulness in
betraying the Lord Jesus Christ, that Jesus did love him, and that is certainly
hard for me to understand. Jesus’
fearsome warning of judgment seems also to have been a final gracious appeal
for Judas to turn to Him for salvation before it would forever be too late,
however as we know Judas refused.
Lord
willing I want to look at verse 25 in the next SD “Signifying the Traitor.”
4/28/2024 8:07 AM
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