Who Was the World's Biggest Loser?

I've written about sanctification but I only touched on what happens when it doesn't happen. The world's biggest loser, as John MacArthur has pointed out, is Judas Iscariot.

From all outward appearances, this disciple seemed to be a good man. But Jesus wasn't fooled. John 6:70 and 71 (BBE) records, "Then Jesus said, 'Did I not make a selection of you, the twelve, and one of you is a son of the Evil One?' He was talking of Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. It was he who was to be false to Jesus--one of the twelve."

Even so, he partook in everything Christ did. Any time the disciples went to do something, he never was excluded nor did he excuse himself. The only exception we know of was when he betrayed the Lord.

Judas even feigned outrage when a woman poured expensive perfume on Jesus. John 12:3-6 (BBE)records, "Then Mary, taking a pound of perfumed oil of great value, put it on the feet of Jesus and made them dry with her hair: and the house became full of the smell of the perfume. But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot (who was to give him up), said, 'Why was not this perfume traded for three hundred pence, and the money given to the poor?' (He said this, not because he had any love for the poor; but because he was a thief, and, having the money-bag, took for himself what was put into it.)"

But how could a person be in Christ's presence for so long without becoming truly devoted to him? The answer is in 1 John 2:19 (BBE) which explains, "They went out from us but they were not of us; if they had been of us they would still be with us: but they went out from us so that it might be made clear that they were not of us."

And even though Judas repented of his decision to betray Christ, he never asked forgiveness of the Lord. As we read in Matthew 27:5 (BBE), "And he put down the silver in the Temple and went out, and put himself to death by hanging."

I hope to point out Judas' huge mistake in my next book, You Think You're Going to Heaven? Even the worst of sins can be forgiven, except blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. I'll explain what that blasphemy is in my book as well.

The song I'll post about on Saturday is a beautiful portrayal of God's creation and how it renews itself each spring.