When I can’t sleep at night, I often listen to my Bible app. Last night, I heard the account of Peter denying the Lord. After declaring three times that he did not know Jesus, Luke 22:61-62 tells us: “And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the saying of the Lord, how he had said to him, ‘Before the rooster crows today, you will deny me three times.’ And he went out …”
If I had never heard the story before, I would have been holding my breath. What was he going to do?!
Back in Matthew 26 and 27, we read of Judas betraying Jesus. Matthew 27:3 says that, when Judas saw that Jesus was condemned, Judas changed his mind and returned the money to the chief priests and elders. They had what they wanted, though, so they weren’t going to give up the man they had been waiting for for so long.
Upon hearing this, verse 5 says about Judas, “throwing down the pieces of silver into the temple, he departed, and he went … and hanged himself.” How sad! He could not live with the guilt of knowing he had betrayed an innocent man so he ended his life prematurely.
Peter, on the other hand, had a different outcome. Instead of hanging himself, Peter “went out and wept bitterly.” He too felt the depths of his sin but, instead of giving in to despair, he chose to live. Because of this, God was able to use him, and he became a bold witness of the One he had once claimed to not know.
I doubt there is a person alive who has not failed the Lord at some point or another. Some give up and decide there is no point in even trying, while others fall on their knees in repentance and then get up, wipe the dust off, and move on, growing stronger than ever before.
Who are you more like? Judas or Peter? When you make a mistake, do you crumble and give up, or do you ask God for forgiveness and then set out to fulfill your calling once again? Let me encourage you to learn from Peter. God is there and ready to forgive a repentant heart. Sometimes it is through failing that we learn our humanity and turn to Him like never before. He loves you. Don’t lose sight of just how much.
Christ Alone Wyoming 
Reblogged this on Talmidimblogging.
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Amen Sister.
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I posed the following question to an adamant libertarian free will advocate, Would God leave His singular plan of salvation to random chance to the hands of fallen men? Was Christ’s crucifixion a result of mere chance? Was Christ’s betrayal a matter of random chance?
Was this all not prophesied hundreds of years earlier? Was not Judas also an unrepentant thief? John 12:4-6. Did not Jesus know who would betray from the start. John 17;12. Did not Judas take blood money to betray Jesus? “Those who have left us never were of us”, therefore Judas being lost to perdition was never really of the Apostles. Does not “son of perdition” refer to eternal damnation? Can any prophecy ever go unfulfilled.
I am troubled by the suggestion that Judas would have even been able to repent.
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No where does Scripture teach that Judas could have repented had he chosen to do so. This fallacy was born in an Arminian’s mind and not the mind of Christ to which the following Scriptures indicate:
1) John 17:12. Jesus calls Judas the “son of perdition” and tells us of the prophesy concerning him found in Psa. 109:1-13, the latter portion (v.6-13) telling us of the fate of Judas and his posterity.
2) John 6:70 “Did not I choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?” Judas was chosen on purpose for the express reason that he-Judas-would be a fulfillment of prophecy and the instrument of betrayal to Christ.
3) Matt.26:24 “…It would have been good for that man (Judas) if he had not been born.” Not even a hint that repentance was possible, muchless in Judas’ future.
4) John 13:27 “Now after the piece of bread, Satan entered him (Judas)…” To say that Judas “could” have repented in the same manner as Peter is the same as saying that a Christian may be simultaneously indwelt by the Holy Spirit and the spirit of antichrist. If that is your conclusion/contention, please show us where that occurs from the Scriptures.
Knowing that you are guilty of something and repenting of it are two entirely different things. Esau knew he was guilty and even sought repentance but could not find it (Heb. 12:17). Why? Because he was hated by God (Rom. 9:13) just like Judas was as shown in Psa. 109:1-13. To hint that Judas could have repented despite the prophesies to the contrary is a page taken from the Arminian playbook, may has the innate ability to seek God on his own and therefore to choose Him without His intervention. It’s commonly called ‘decisional regeneration’ with the “free-will” of man trumping the Sovereignty of God’s will. I hope you will reconsider your unbiblical contention (mostly wishful thinking) in light of the above Scriptures.
Darrel
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