by KCWriteWinger

Created on: April 05, 2010

Jesus of Nazareth called 12 men to be his disciples, one of these men named Judas, was chosen for a specific purpose, to be the unlucky one to betray the Son of God in order that prophecy might be fulfilled.   Judas walked right along with the other 11 men, ate meals with them, and fellowshiped with them as though he were one of them, but inside he was not.

Obviously he heard the words that Jesus spoke Christ, witnessed the miracles Christ performed, but whether he truly believed that Jesus was the Christ, I am not sure? Judas was a bad guy, as all the disciples were bad guy's in the beginning, Matthew was a tax collector for crying out loud, a Jewish IRS agent.

It is possible that that the inner transformation that the other disciples experienced as a result of following Jesus up close and personal, seems to have evaded Judas somehow. Was Judas a plant?  Was he just an infiltrator become traitor?

Judas felt very deep guilt of what he had done in betraying Jesus the Christ to the Romans and Jews, It his him so hard he committed suicide by hanging himself. On the other hand he may have believed the truth concerning Jesus, but yet had his other foot in the world.

It is clear the Judas was chosen by the divine appointment of God, to accomplish God's plan to bring Salvation to mankind. So his being a part of the group was not a mistake by any means, but rather part of the big picture. 

I believe that God forgave Judas of the sin of betrayal, as he Christ forgave the men who crucified him, and gambled for his clothes. It makes sense that Jesus also extended his mercy and grace to Judas as well, even though he sold him out for a bag of silver coins.

In what way are you and I like Judas?

How have we betrayed the Son of God?

How many times have we accepted the riches and trappings of our wealthy society, and placed Jesus on the back burner for later, after we have had our fun?   Does God extend to us his forgiveness?  How many of us have one foot into God, and the other dangling in the world?

Peter denied the Lord Jesus three times, and then went out and wept bitterly the Scripture records. Judas gave the Sanhedrin back their bag of gold, and then hung himself, so he had remorse for his actions.

How many times have we denied the Lord because we were embarrassed about our faith, or denied being a Christian?

God forgive us for being like Judas, and Peter, for the many times we have denied you, or sold you out for the pleasures of this world. Your law states that we are NOT to have other God's before you, nor worship anything, or anybody but you God, and most of the time we are sidetracked by the sparkling glitter of our materialistic society, and we forget about you. How deep is our own sin and disobedience, and how large is the depth of God's mercy? How wide his forgiveness? How wonderful his grace extended to those who by faith have received him by faith through repentance.

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