SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/12/2024 9:53 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-3 “The Contrast between Guilty Judas
and Innocent Jesus”
Bible Reading & Meditation
Reference: Matthew 27:3-5
Message of the
verses: “3
Then when Judas, who had betrayed Him, saw that He had been condemned, he felt
remorse and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and
elders, 4 saying, "I have sinned by betraying innocent blood." But
they said, "What is that to us? See to that yourself!" 5 And
he threw the pieces of silver into the temple sanctuary and departed; and he
went away and hanged himself.”
I will try and get a little further into these verses
today and not get sidetracked as I have been for the last few days. The “then when” in verse three could be
translated “at that time” and that seems to fit the context better. This was happening even before dawn, and even
by then it was evident to Judas and the others in the courtyard that the
foregone verdict of the Jewish leaders had been confirmed. Now Judas, who had betrayed Him, saw with his
own eyes that He had been condemned.
MacArthur writes “Although horao (saw)was
sometimes used in the figurative sense of being aware of or perceiving, its use
here suggests literal, physical sight.
If Peter was able to see Jesus during at least part of the trial (Luke
22:61), then others in the courtyard could have seen Him as well. Judas had seen Jesus maligned, spat upon,
beaten and mocked. Now he watched in
bewilderment as his condemned Teacher was taken to Pilate.”
Now as Judas watched Jesus being
carried away to Pilate, the full enormity of his treachery finally began to
dawn on him, or you could say that the “light” came on in his mind as he
realized the Jewish leaders did intend to put Jesus to death. All they had to do now was get permission from
the compromised Pilate, which Judas had no reason to believe that Pilate would
deny their request, even though that too would take some time to persuade him. As mentioned the Jews had something on Pilate
and they were using that to manipulate him to get what they wanted, and that
was to have Jesus crucified.
This sight was surely devastating to
Judas, more than even his money-hungry mind, his disgusting soul, and also his
seared conscience could deal with, after all when he left the upper room Satan
had entered into him to accomplish what Satan wanted done to Jesus, and so
after he did Satan’s bidding Satan had no more use for him, and because Satan
likes death that was his plan for Judas as he would fill Judas with great guilt
and the only thing that would cure that guilt as far as Satan was concerned was
suicide.
MacArthur writes “No man could be
more evil than Judas Iscariot. Only
eleven other men in all of history had had the intimate, personal relationship
he had with the incarnate Son of God. No
man has ever been more exposed to God’s perfect truth, both in precept and
example. No man has been more exposed
firsthand to God’s love, compassion, power, kindness, forgiveness, and grace. No man has had more evidence of Jesus’ divinity
or more firsthand knowledge of the way of salvation. Yet in all of those three indescribably
blessed years with Jesus, Judas did not take some much as the first step of
faith.
“In a way that defies comprehension,
Judas persistently resisted and rejected God’s truth, God’s grace, and even God’s
own Son. Also in a way that defies
understanding, he managed to completely conceal his wicked rebellion from
everyone but Jesus. His hypocrisy was so
complete and deceptive that even when Jesus predicted that one of the disciples
would betray Him, Judas was not suspected.
“Judas was so totally trapped in the
darkness and corruption of sin that he became a willing instrument of Satan. Because this false disciple had totally
renounced Christ, ‘Satan entered into Judas who was called Iscariot’ (Luke
22:3), and it was then a simple matter to persuade him to betray Jesus (John
13:2). Judas’s heart was so utterly
hardened to the things of God that long before he consciously considered
betraying Him, Jesus called him a devil (John 6:70).
“Even so, Judas could not escape the
divinely designed signal of guilt that reminds men of their sin and warns them
of its consequences. Just as pain is an
intrinsic and automatic warning of physical danger, guilt is an intrinsic and
automatic warning of spiritual danger.
It was not that Judas suddenly became afraid of God, else he would have
turned in desperation to the One he knew could forgive him. Nor was he afraid of men. Although he was now discarded and despised by
the Jewish leaders, they had no reason to harm him. It was rather that Judas suddenly realized
the horrible wrongness of what he had done.
An innate awareness of right and wrong is divinely built into every
human being and cannot be totally erased, no matter how deep a person may fall
into depravity or how consciously and rebelliously he may turn against
God. This is intensified by the convicting
pressure of the Spirit of God.”
I have to say that there is much
more to the commentary on these verses, and so Lord willing I will continue it
in the next SD, as I want to talk about Judas’s remorse.
7/12/2024 10:29
AM
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