I had a great statement said to me by a mentor of mine, Dr. Joe Martin from Real Men Connect, and I felt pushed by the Holy Spirit to share my take on his statement through this blog.
Most of us know the story of Judas who betrayed Jesus on many levels, but the statement Dr. Joe gave to me opened my eyes a little more on the lesson behind the story of Judas. Through the below two sentences that Dr. Joe said to me, I gained a bigger revelation of the story of Judas that I had never truly had prior to this, and I am blessed to be able to share this with you through the vast connectedness we have in the world today.
The statement from Dr. Joe was:
"Judas failed when he betrayed Jesus, but he quit when he didn't return to Jesus. We are all going to fail at times, but don't ever quit."
The amount of revelation I received in my understanding of the Judas story from these two simple sentences is amazing. God is definitely beginning to open my eyes, ears, and mind to a Spirit of discernment or maybe it's that I've finally opened up my heart enough since coming to faith that I'm allowing Him to bless me more; either way, I feel so blessed and honored for this experience from God.
As a parent as well as a child of God, I have grown to understand the meaning of how we relay importance of understanding a lesson to our children through repetition. God gives us repetition in His word because He is stressing the importance of the lesson to us. With the story of Judas being mentioned in all four gospels in the New Testament (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John), I truly feel that God is repeating Judas’ story intentionally for us to truly understand the lesson behind his story. Now that I have heard this statement from Dr. Joe, I am beginning to understand just how important Judas’ story is to believers.
In each of the Gospels of the New Testament, Judas is introduced and described essentially as a traitor who betrayed Jesus:
Matthew 10:4 (HCSB) – “…Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed Him.”
Mark 3:19 (HCSB) – “…and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed Him.”
Luke 6:16 (HCSB) – “…and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.”
John 12:4 (HCSB) – “Then one of His disciples, Judas Iscariot (who was about to betray Him)…”
All of this negativity in advance about Judas, which Jesus obviously knew as He is God in the flesh, y-et, Jesus continued to use him as one of His actual disciples until the very end. You see, Judas had a purpose throughout his life and Jesus knew long in advance that Judas would be the one to deliver Him to the cross in a sense yet still made him a disciple and used him for His good works for as long as Judas was willing to.
Isaiah 1:19 (HCSB) – “If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the good things of the land.”
Matthew 26:41 (HCSB) – “Stay away and pray, so that you won’t enter into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
The problem here had absolutely nothing to do with Judas’s betrayal as he was essentially destined to be the betrayer of Jesus. The problem was that while he was willing to betray Jesus in the flesh, which is weak, he remained in the flesh after that betrayal, never to allow the spirit to give him a willing heart ever again. Judas failed multiple times, but throughout those failures initially he never quit because he was willing to return to him. Although he was destined and at a certain point even determined to betray Jesus, he continued to stay by his side and do as Jesus asked him to do until his destined moment.
John 12:4-6 (HCSB) – “Then one of His disciples, Judas Iscariot (who was about to betray Him), said, ‘Why wasn’t this fragrant oil sold for 300 denarii and given to the poor?’ He did say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief. He was in charge of the money-bad and would steal part of what was put in it.”
Matthew 26:14-16 (HCSB) – “Then one of the Twelve—the man called Judas Iscariot—went to the chief priests and said, ‘What are you willing to give me if I hand Him over to you?’ So they weighed out 30 pieces of silver for him. And from that time he started looking for a good opportunity to betray Him.”
Mark 14:43-46 (HCSB) – “While He was still speaking, Judas, one of the Twelve, suddenly arrived. With him was a mob, with swords and clubs, from the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders. His betrayer had given them a signal. ‘The One I kiss,’ he said, ‘He’s the One; arrest Him and take Him away under guard.’ So, when he came, he went right up to Him and said, ‘Rabbi!’ –and kissed Him. Then they took hold of Him and arrested Him.
Judas’ biggest mistake in his faith walk had nothing to do with his prior failures as we all fail. The only person in the flesh who never failed in God’s eyes was Jesus Christ. In the end, it had everything to do with him quitting on Jesus instead of going back to him for forgiveness from his sinful ways. Once his betrayal was done, he never asked for forgiveness due to his own shame and guilt. Ultimately, he would allow the shame and guilt get to him to the point of taking his own life.
Matthew 27:3-5 (HCSB) – “Then Judas, His betrayer, seeing that He had been condemned, was full of remorse and returned the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders. ‘I have sinned by betraying innocent blood,’ he said. ‘What’s that to us?’ they said. ‘See to it yourself!’ So, he threw the silver into the sanctuary and departed. Then he went and hanged himself.”
Giving up on his faith was his ultimate mistake. All of the failures prior to giving up, he was still allowed to remain by Jesus’ side through grace and forgiveness. We will fail in this life. Since coming to faith, I have failed more times than I can count and far more than I’d like to admit, but I have never quit. I may have been stuck in my sorrows, my pity, my shame for extended periods of time but I have always returned to my Father in Heaven.
I know that God is my redeemer and no matter how many failures I have in this life, He will always be there with arms wide open ready to embrace, comfort, and forgive me. No matter what life brings before you, don’t ever give up on your faith. Although God’s faithfulness to us is perfect, we must remember that He will only forgive us for the things we ask Him to forgive us of. If we do not bring it to Him, then we will never be free from the self-inflicted prison we’ve produced for ourselves. Stay blessed!
1 John 1:9 (HCSB) – “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
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