Judas and Us

We don’t know.

Because no matter how we try to phrase it, relegate, explain our intentions or manipulate the statistics, God knew the heart of Judas. He knows our hearts, too. God, being the gentleman that he is, let Judas have his way. Even though Judas felt like it was the right thing at the time. We can justify it all we want. We can be told to guard our hearts, but we can go with what seems logical, or pressing, and not have the patience to see this thing through.

And evil enters. I’m not going to debate the age-old question of “Was Judas damned from the beginning?” I’m going to tell you, no. Just like we are not. God doesn’t predestine anyone to sin. We get the choice to get there. Judas lived with, and died with, the consequences.

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We know the rest.

My final thought in closing is this.

This is your life.

You sitting at your desktop, scrolling on your phone or tablet, (or if by some miracle, staring at the page of a book), this is your life.

You were made for such a time as this.

We are called, but we can stumble. Stumbling is a part of this life- this Christian life.

That’s why I said earlier- we repent, again. Sometimes, like author Jon Acuff says, we’ll need a do over, like when we were children. God is happy to hand them out.

Failure is going to be the rule, not the exception; God knows this full well, and he still says yes to us. He still sent his son for you and me. If we run with this, as Paul said- “Shall we go on sinning so that grace might increase?” No. We see the weight of what Christ did on the cross and we see the painful love he showed and we respond to that love. “He really loves me. I can’t do this,” should be our response; there is no coercion from God. He gives us the freedom to sin and the freedom to love him fully.