Home Topics Index Download
Transcript 444B — Was Judas Destined to be Lost?
HC: Good evening. Welcome to Open Forum.
CALLER: I have a question in John 17, with regard to what Jesus says about Judas, in verse 12: "None have been lost except the child of hell, so that scripture would be fulfilled." What I want to know is, was Judas destined to be lost?
HC: Was Judas destined to be lost?
CALLER: Did he have a choice to be saved like everybody else?
HC: Did he have a choice to be saved? Did Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus, have a choice to be saved like everyone else? Yes, he did.
CALLER: Then what is the scripture that's referred to? It says, "so that the scripture might be fulfilled." And I couldn't find a scripture anywhere that said that.
HC: You see, Judas is no different than anybody else. The whole human race, to the last man, woman and child, is given the offer of salvation. But the whole human race, just like Judas, does not want to be saved. There's nobody who wants to be saved, of themselves, because as human beings we are dead in our sins. The Bible says we're in rebellion against God. We like our sins. We don't want to be saved.
Now the only ones who actually become saved are the ones whom God chooses, whom He elects to be saved. If there was no elective program, then none of us would be saved. And it just happens that Judas was not one of these who had been chosen by God to be saved.
Judas didn't want to be saved. He was with Christ for three and a half years, just like the other apostles, and he didn't like the kind of salvation that Christ was presenting. He didn't want this. And so he ended up under the wrath of God, just like everyone else who refuses to be saved.
CALLER: But I got the impression that there was a particular scripture that predicted that there would be a person, one individual, that would have to betray the Lord.
HC: For example, in Psalm 55 it speaks of the one who would betray Jesus, that "my own familiar friend will betray Me," and so on. It is true that the Bible does speak of someone who would come along and betray Him. For example, where it's really talking about the Messiah, it says in verse 5, "And they have rewarded Me evil for good and hatred for My love. Set thou a wicked man over him, and let Satan stand at his right hand. When he shall be judged, let him be condemned and let his prayer become sin. Let his days be few, and let another take his office." This is talking about Judas. "Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow." In other words, Judas committed suicide, of course, because he was sorry that he had betrayed Jesus. He was not sorry unto salvation. He was sorry only that he had done such a dumb thing.
CALLER: It seemed to me like he repented, though.
HC: Well, he repented in the sense that he realized that he had done something very wrong. But repentance is not salvation in itself. Repentance is an element of salvation. It is what we expect when someone is being saved. But repentance by itself is not the equivalent of salvation. If he had become saved, he not only would have repented of his sins, but he would have trusted in Christ as his Savior. He would have come to the Lord and sought His forgiveness, and received His forgiveness. But he didn't do that.
CALLER: Well, when Peter betrayed the Lord three times, that was a different kind of betrayal then, right?
HC: Oh, yes. It was sin, just like with Judas. But Peter was a child of God, and so of course he came back to Christ. He sought the Lord's forgiveness
We see this already at the time he betrayed Christ. You remember he looked at Jesus, and Jesus looked at him, after the cock crowed. Then Peter went out and wept bitterly. He realized what a horrible thing he had done, and he was broken before God. Later on, when Jesus said to Peter, "Lovest thou me?" that is, "Do you have that agape love that is from God?" Peter didn't dare answer, "Yes, I have that." He had lost his arrogance, his self-confidence. He simply answered, "I have that love," but it was the word phileo that he used, which means "I love you as a friend." Peter had become humbled.
As we see him again in Acts 2, of course, he stands up and confidently proclaims the salvation of the Lord Jesus Christ. Peter was an entirely different kind of a person, you see.
CALLER: It sounded like he didn't have a chance. And I was under the impression that God gives everybody a chance.
HC: Everybody has a chance. There is no human being that does not have a chance. The betrayer Judas had a chance just like everyone else. But just like everyone else, if God does not intervene in our life, we will go to our deathbed rebelling against God. We don't want the salvation that God offers us.