COULD OUR LORD NOT HAVE FORGIVEN JUDAS?
Sakkie Parsons
Translated from Afrikaans: "Kon ons HERE nie maar vir Judas vergewe het nie?"
Translator: Robin Barker
I want to start by simply stating very clearly that what I write here according how I understand the Word, can only be applied to a person who has accepted Jesus Christ, as their Redeemer and Saviour, because there is only one way to God Almighty:
JOHN 14:6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
JESUS CHRIST –
ACTS 4:12 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”
2 TIM1:9 He has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time,
2 TIM1:10 but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Saviour, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.
Someone asked me and I repeat the question here to the best of my abilities:
“Could God not have forgiven Judas? He can do anything and Judas did regret what he had done.”
I gladly share my answer to him with you:
It is indeed true that Judas did regret what he had done.
MAT 27:3-4 3 When Judas, who had betrayed him, saw that Jesus was condemned, he was seized with remorse and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders. 4 “I have sinned,” he said, “for I have betrayed innocent blood.” “What is that to us?” they replied. “That’s your responsibility.”
In all that I am going to say to you now, there is one fact that should be kept in mind always: People are made in the image of God and God has never made any changes and I also naturally believe that He will never make any changes.
GEN 1:27 So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
Two of the characteristics of our Lord which every person who was ever born, who is born and who will be born, whether you are a reborn child of our Lord and whether you worship something different. Yes, even if the person worships satan or is an atheist, it is part of being human and that is:
Like God, I am immortal and like God I have a will of my own.
Every person who was ever born and who will be born, will either live forever with our Lord in Heaven, or will die in hell for eternity and never actually die.
By exercising my will, to accept Jesus as my Redeemer and Saviour, or to exercise my will not to do so, I also determine where I will spend eternity.
Returning to Judas:
To have remorse is good but remorse without confessing your sin towards our Lord and asking Him for forgiveness, means nothing.
I mean of course truly remorse, truly repent and truly asking for forgiveness.
It will for example definitely not work, if I went about it like a man did years ago when he approached a girl friend of mine with a proposal.
He was married and so was she.
He told her at that time, that he was very much in love with her and that they should have a relationship.
As she explained to me, she was of course very shocked, seeing that they were both very active in the community.
She then asked him what he thought, our Lord thought of his proposal.
To which he answered:
“We must simply ask God for His forgiveness and then He will forgive us and then all will be fine.”
With great respect I say; God is not an idiot.
Even with true remorse, or even great sadness about what I had done, without correcting the matter with our Lord, it will mean absolutely nothing:
2 COR 7:10 Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.
If I have true remorse, our Lord will very, very eagerly forgive me!
That is why Jesus gave His blood and His life for us on the cross.
So if someone is now reading this writing of mine and you truly have remorse about the sin in your life – confess it to our Lord and ask Him to forgive you. Accept His forgiveness, because our Lord, who does not lie, says:
ISA 1:18 “Come now, let us settle the matter,” says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.
I must not walk around with remorse like Judas without taking it to our Lord, because I could also be like Judas only having my remorse about my sin, when I one day walk into eternal hell.
1 JOHN 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
I close off where I began –
There is only ONE from whom we can receive true forgiveness and peace from: JESUS CHRIST.
Jesus is talking here:
JOHN 10:8 All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them.
JOHN 10:9 I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture.
The King James Version reads as follows:
JOHN 10:9 I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.
Greetings,
Sakkie