Repentance and faith — in a nutshell, this is what it means to be saved.
So we’ve talked about how —
1) God’s sovereignty and human free will need to always be held in tension and we see this in Judas’ choice to betray Jesus.
2) Judas is condemned because he lacked repentance and faith.
3) And lastly, Judas sinned not only against Christ, but also the body of Christ.
I’ll be brief on this point. I am only going to introduce this point and it’s your homework to pray over it for the next few weeks leading up to Good Friday. It’s interesting that the context for the Lord’s Supper is the Last Supper. I knew that but I kind of missed the significance of this fact until recently.
This was Jesus last meal with his disciples. It was an intimate setting. Earlier that evening, Jesus had washed his disciples feet. This was a closed door, private meeting. No crowds. No sick people looking to be healed. Just Jesus and his closest disciples. During that meal, Jesus was burdened because he was going to the cross. Time was running out to spend with the people he loved. This is true to life because if you have been with someone close to the end of their life, all they want is to be surrounded by their loved ones.
Jesus knew the suffering that awaited him. At Gethsemane, he prayed, may this cup pass from me, but not my will, but your will be done. Jesus was God but he was also fully human so even he wished there could be another way, yet he yielded to the will of God. He was not being reactionary. He was not pushed into the corner, nor was he caught off-guard so he had no choice but to die on a cross. No, Jesus was in total control. He voluntarily surrendered his life and the events surrounding his passion unfolded precisely as it was prophesied in the Old Testament. The sovereignty of God and Jesus’ voluntarily chose to lay down His life, both of these need to be held in tension.
It was meal time. The Last Supper, the last meal together on this side of eternity. The bread that was broken at the start of the meal were pointers to Jesus own body that would soon be broken by whips, by a crown of thorns, by nails in his hands and feet, and a spear piercing his side. He was going to take the full weight of God’s wrath upon himself. He was going to be smashed literally like a jar of clay so that we could be spared. Christ’s body was broken for us. And symbolized by the drinking of the wine during the meal, his blood was going to be shed so that by it, we can be cleansed and forgiven.
And I don’t know what burdened Christ more — the imminent physical suffering and death on the cross or the emotional suffering, the abandonment, the shame of the cross, the loneliness and the burden he felt toward people, starting with the imminent betrayal and eternal condemnation of one of his own, Judas.
In reference to Judas, it says, it would have been better if he had never been born. That’s his punishment — death and eternal separation for his sin of betrayal. If we refuse to repent and we keep trying to atone for our sins on our own, then we, too, will die in our sins. Whether through good works, or trying to live a good, moral life, or giving money to charity, or beating ourselves up when we sin — these are all vain attempts to atone for our own sins. If we choose the path of self-atonement — either good works or remorse — we will destroy ourselves.
In addition, I want to highlight something else in light of Jesus instituting this ordinance of the Lord’s Supper during this Last Supper. We tend to focus on Judas’ betrayal of Christ and thereby we make Good Friday and every Lord’s Supper a very individual event. But I’d like to point out that not only did Judas betray Jesus but he also betrayed all of his brothers. So it was a sin against Christ directly, but the betrayal was also a sin against the body of Christ. Christ as the head and we as his body — these should not be separated in our minds.
Sin is at the core relational so the sins we commit against Christ are often manifested in our relationships with others. The reverse is true, too, that our sins against our brother or sister is also a sin against Christ. Many Christians wrongly conclude that their faith is a private matter. So our confessions tend to be things we did against the Lord directly in our hearts. Wrong motives. Wrong thoughts. Private, personal matters. But the Bible is very clear — if you say you love God yet hate your brother, then you are a liar because the love of God is not in you. Therefore, the Lord’s Supper is a time for self-examination — in addition to the sins that I commit against Christ, how have I sinned against His body? Examine yourself during the weeks leading up to Good Friday. Start with the local body of Christ here. Examine your relationships. Then, examine your relationships with the universal body of Christ, brothers and sisters at other churches or from your past. Seek reconciliation.
This is why the Lord’s Supper is so important. This is the Gospel re-enacted. It is the Gospel dramatized and by partaking in the Lord’s Supper, we, in a symbolic sense, are brought around the last supper meal. And it is a meal that is to be shared with our closest fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. It was never meant to become merely a ritual that is performed in a church where you don’t know anyone so that by default, it becomes a personal event. Let’s remember that the Lord’s Supper is grounded in this intimate Last Supper, a meal shared between Jesus and his closest disciples. As much as it is a personal event and we do confess sins committed against Christ, the Lord’s Supper is also a communal event and we have to examine sins committed against others in the body of Christ. When we remember Christ’s death through partaking in the Lord’s Supper, we are affirming our commitment to one another as a church. The act of communion is our symbol of our unity and we are saying, I commit to loving these brothers and sisters and I am deciding to walk hand in hand with this particular body of Christ.
We are going to be having our next Lord’s Supper as a church on Good Friday. To make that a meaningful experience, I think it would be fitting to meditate on the Last Supper. The intimacy. The betrayal. Sins done against Jesus as well as sins done against this community of faith. And then brothers and sisters extending outside this body. Let’s examine our relationship with Christ, but also let’s not neglect to examine our relationships with others in the body of Christ, both local and universal. Pray that any sins among us, God would bring to our attention. And if we have sinned against someone or stumbled another believer, let’s seek them out and ask for their forgiveness. So that unity and reconcilation can be restored. And maybe you have to start with, you are here, but you are not really connected to other brothers and sisters. That would relegate the Lord’s Supper to a personal event and that was never its intention. The first sin that we may have to repent of is a lack of love for other brothers and sisters here. We can’t say that we love Christ while we hate, or may I add, while we don’t even care about, our fellow brother or sister for whom Jesus died.
To sum up,
1) God’s sovereignty and human free will need to always be held in tension and we see this in Judas’ choice to betray Jesus.
It was prophesied that Judas would betray Jesus hundreds of years prior, but we also recognize that it was Judas’ choice and he is ultimately held responsible for that choice.
God wants everyone to be saved. Some will not be saved because they will choose until the very end to reject Christ. Jesus will never force anyone to believe in him. But as people are going to hell, Jesus says, Over my dead body. I know you are not worthy to be saved. I know you are all enemies, I know you are all traitors, but I will die for you. You deserve to be smashed like a clay jar but I will take your place and allow my body to be broken for you. You may go to hell, but you will have to do so over Christ’s dead body. May we all stop and consider our response to Christ’s love for us.
2) Judas is condemned because he lacked repentance and faith.
Instead, he tried to atone for his own sins through remorse and taking his own life. If we try to atone for our sins on our own and we distort the gospel and make it a gospel of works, then we will kill ourselves spiritually in the process. Repent. Turn away from yourself. Then faith. Turn toward Christ. Receive the finished work of the cross done for you, his death and atonement for your sins. Put your faith in him. Trust him to lead your life. Repentance and faith are the signs of true salvation.
3) And lastly, Judas sinned not only against Christ, but also the body of Christ.
As we prepare for Good Friday, let’s examine not only our personal sins against Christ, but also sins committed against our fellow brothers and sisters.