by Seth Metoyer

Created on: October 13, 2009   Last Updated: October 19, 2009

Judas was an overall good man that was deceived and influenced by Satan. It is a perilous thing to judge a man by any single action. In his great hours he may be greater than himself; possibly he may be less than his true self. Most people would say that the apostle Peter was a good guy, yet he denied knowing Christ. Why then is there so much bad press for Judas in comparison to many other Biblical players?

HUMAN TENDENCIES

Known most famously as the betrayer of Christ, Judas Iscariot also had many qualities that made him just like the rest of human kind. We all have positive aspects that define us as well as bad tendencies that plague our existences. Ultimately we are born into an evil world as sinners and have to constantly struggle with our sinfully bad nature. This doesn't necessarily make us bad guys, but rising above temptations and evil is what makes us good overall through the Savior's grace.

HAND PICKED APOSTLE

Let's break down some crucial facets of Judas as a regular human being. It is imperative to remember that Judas was chosen by Christ as one of the original 12 apostles. Jesus must have seen many good qualities in Judas to have hand pick him for this prestigious position. They spent many days and nights together performing divine miracles and enjoying each other's fellowship. Jesus was aware of the fact that Judas was going to betray Him, and isn't everyone guilty of failing Christ in one way or another? Let's also remember that Jesus allows bad things to happen for His greater purpose out of love.

CHOSEN TO BETRAY

Someone had to betray Christ and unfortunately for Judas, he was chosen for the task. Judas was overridden with guilt for what he had done. Innately evil people tend to lack any feelings of remorse or guilt for the terrible acts that they have committed. If Judas was such a bad guy, why then would he have felt any sort of shame for what he had done? He ultimately returned the money that he made from the betrayal and was so grief stricken about what he had done that he ended up killing himself.

THE SATAN FACTOR

In Luke 22:3 the Bible states that Satan entered into Judas, and John 13:2 says that after supper he went on to betray Christ. Before this time Judas was given the authority to heal sickness and cast out demons (Mark 3:15). This would indicate that Judas was in fact a good man who was overtaken by Satan to commit the betrayal of Christ. That tends to point to the fact that it was indeed the Devil ultimately acting as the bad guy and not in fact Judas Iscariot.

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