Saturday, July 13, 2024

PT-4 "The Contrast Between Guilty Judas and Innocent Jesus" (Matt. 27:3-5)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/13/2024 10:42 AM

 

My Worship Time           Focus:  PT-4 "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.”

 

            The section that we are looking at now has a lot of MacArthur’s commentary in it, I guess I could say “extra commentary” and I say that because that is the way that he teaches, and that is the way that I like to be taught.  In cases like this I do a lot of quoting from his commentary, and as mentioned before I do this so that those who read these from my blog get what I consider great teaching.  Today we begin this SD by talking about “Judas’s remorse was not repentance of sin, as the King James Version suggests.  Matthew did not use metanoeo, which means a genuine change of mind and will, but metamebmai, which merely connotes regret or sorrow.  He did not experience spiritual penitence but only emotional remorse.  Although he would not repent of his sin, he could not escape the reality of his guilt.  Genuine sorrow for sin (metamebmai) can be prompted by God in order to produce repentance (metanoeo), as Paul declares in 2 Corinthians 7:10.  But Judas’s remorse was not prompted by God to lead to repentance but only to guilt and despair.”  Let us look at 2 Cor. 7:10 “10 For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death.”  I have a friend of mine who truly thinks that Judas is in heaven, but that is not the case as seen in this last paragraph.  Not only is he not in heaven, but as mentioned in earlier SD’s I believe that there are different places in hell where the punishment will be worse than others and my belief is that Judas will be in the “hottest” part of hell, and the reason is because Judas walked with the very God who created the heavens and the earth and then after walking with Him for three years betrayed Him so that in the end He died on the cross.  I realize this was in the plans of God from eternity past, but Judas is still responsible for what he did and thus will have to pay for his sins.

 

            MacArthur goes on to write “Because he was a kind of witness against Jesus, perhaps Judas thought that by admitting the wickedness of what he had done he would be punished as a false witness, as Deuteronomy 19:16-19 prescribes.  Under that provision, he would have been crucified himself; suffering the penalty imposed on the one he caused to be falsely convicted.  Instead of looking to Jesus’ for forgiveness and trusting in His atoning death, Judas’s perverted mind may have led to believe that by dying he somehow could atone for his own sin.”  Now we will look at Deuteronomy 19:16-19 “16 "If a malicious witness rises up against a man to accuse him of wrongdoing, 17 then both the men who have the dispute shall stand before the LORD, before the priests and the judges who will be in office in those days. 18 "The judges shall investigate thoroughly, and if the witness is a false witness and he has accused his brother falsely, 19 then you shall do to him just as he had intended to do to his brother. Thus you shall purge the evil from among you.”

            I will quote two more paragraphs from MacArthur’s commentary which will finish this Spiritual Diary for today.

 

            “Proof that Judas’s sorrow was ungodly and selfish is seen in the fact that he made no effort to defend or rescue.  He had no desire to vindicate or save Jesus but only to salve his conscience, which he attempted to do by returning the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders.”

 

            While some of the Jewish religious leaders were escorting Jesus to Pilate, others remained in the Temple.  It was there that Judas confronted them (see. V. 5) and confessed that he had sinned by betraying innocent blood.  Had he been concerned about forgiveness for his sin and had he really believed on the Lord, he would have approached Jesus, not the chief priests and elders.  He hoped somehow to assuage his guilt simply by returning the blood money.  Like Pilate, who recognized Jesus’ innocence but nevertheless permitted His death, Judas knew he had betrayed innocent blood, but he did not come to Christ’s defense or seek His forgiveness.”

 

7/13/2024 11:21 AM

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