The word
"saved" in the Bible is polysemantic. Judas was temporarily saved in the sense that he was a chosen disciple of Jesus. However, Judas never had eternal life in him, John 6:
Judas was a devil even when he was a disciple with Jesus, John 17:
NIV, Matthew 26:
Jesus knew
Judas would never repent.
I believe Judas is now, or will be, saved and enter into eternal life for the following reasons:
The soul of Judas was and is owned by God (Eze 18:4). Jesus tells us that God is not the God of the dead but of the living, for all live to Him (Luk 20:38). Judas will live to God, for all live to Him, and this includes Judas.
Paul tells us that Judas, as well as
all things, were created
in Christ and unto or
for Christ (Col 1:16, Gk text). The very being of Judas is held together and
consists in Christ (Col 1:17). Paul further tells us that
all, including Judas,
live, move and have their being in Him (Act 17:28), and all are
His offspring (Act 17:28-29). This testimony of Paul is universal in scope and application and includes all human beings, such as sinners, the faithless, reprobates, blasphemers, traitors, betrayers and deniers, workers of iniquity, sodomites, friends of Judas and Judas too. Not simply some, but rather all, including pagans that worship unknown gods (Act 17:23). The term
all includes Judas.
Jesus tells us that He hand picked Judas (Luk 6:13) to betray Him (Joh 6:71) as the lost son of perdition (Joh 17:12). Jesus also tells us that He came to save the "lost" (Luk 19:10), a title given to Judas by Christ. Jesus calls Judas the lost "son of perdition" (Joh 17:12), a title Judas was also given to fulfill scripture.
Judas simply did what he was ordained to do (Luk 22:3, Joh 13:27), and Judas did so according to the flesh (Rom 8:5-8).
Regarding Judas and Mat 26:24: The text does not say "better for him had he never been born", as you quoted it, but rather "καλὸν ἦν αὐτῷ εἰ οὐκ ἐγεννήθη ὁ ἄνθρωπος ἐκεῖνος", translated as: "better would it be for him if not had been born that man".
The emphasis of Mat 26:24 is not regarding the birth of Judas, per se, but rather with respect to what God had ordained Judas to do. It would have been better for Judas not to have been born "that man". It would have been better for Judas had he not been ordained by God to betray Jesus. That is what the text in Mat 26:24 actually says.
Regarding Eternal Life and Judas: Paul tells us that Christ justifies the ungodly (Rom 4:5), a description that Judas certainly meets. Judas was justified to life in Christ, by Christ's one act of righteousness for him (Rom 5:18).
Paul tells us that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself (2Co 5:18). Judas certainly meets that criteria too (Joh 17:12). Judas was reconciled to God, in Christ.
Again, Judas was created in and for Christ (Col 1:16), in-order that God will be all in all (1Co 15:28). All means all and includes all of Christ's enemies, Judas himself being subdued and made subject to Christ also (1Co 15:25-28).
As for Judas being unable to repent. Judas' death accomplished his repentance, that is his "change of mind". When the soul is divided at death (ie: body from spirit), the mind of the flesh (death) returns to dust (it perishes by destruction) and the mind of the spirit (life and peace) returns to God, (Ecc 12:7 and Rom 8:6).
They found a replacement for Judas, Acts 1:
Judas did not belong to heaven.
Was Judas Iscariot saved?
No, not for eternal life.
Regarding Act 1:25: The scriptures tell us that Judas went to his own place (Act 1:25). Solomon tells us where that place is, here:
Ecc 12:5 they are afraid also of what is high, and terrors are in the way; the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper drags itself along and desire fails;
because man goes to his eternal home, and the mourners go about the streets;
Ecc 12:6 before the silver cord is snapped, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher is broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern,
Ecc 12:7 and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and
the spirit returns to God who gave it.
Judas' eternal home is, and always will be, with God in Christ according to the spirit, and as dust that returns to the earth, according to the flesh.
And not only, I also believe that Judas will confess that Christ is his Lord (and do so in the Holy Spirit) to the glory of God the Father (Php 2:10-11).
