Judas was already a child of perdition when he was called and I'm convinced Jesus called him.
We believe and know that You are the Holy One of God.” Jesus answered them, “Have I not chosen you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil!” (John 6:69-70)
When you think about it, the book of John really focuses on discussions of Jesus. He has just confronted a group that wanted to make him king because of the miracle of the loaves. When Jesus insists that they must believe in him, many of them turn away and will not follow him anymore. Charged with emotion he turns to his Apostles and asks, will you leave also. Peter says, where would we go, you have the words of eternal life. Then Jesus makes this ominous statement, one of you is a devil, doesn't that just send shivers down your spine. In the Upper Room Jesus tells them one of you is going to betray me, of course the group raises objections, of course eleven of them would never do such a thing. There is no indication this man was ever saved and the Biblical accounts indicate he was a child of perdition when Jesus called him, what better way to train ministers of the gospel then to show them how to deal with false brethren. He washed this mans feet, gave him the seat of honor at the Last Supper and got up and sold him out for 30 pieces of silver, which btw, was prophesied.
Jesus called Judas for a reason, certain men will creep in unawares as Jude warns us. I mean have you never had a friend stab you in the back? I read a miserable story about a man who had a ministry partner, together they founded a church and everything was going along great until his partner had him pushed out. Strangely he wasn't bitter and went to pursue other ministry opportunities but that has got to hurt.
That's one of the hazards of ministry, one Jesus faced on purpose. Jesus turned the other cheek, Judas had done him wrong before, Jesus overlooked it. I'm sure he could have confronted him for dipping in the till, most of us would, but Jesus never did. He could have looked at Judas and said I know what your going to do, I'm not going to let you get away with it. But that wasn't the purpose of calling him in the first place, the gospel first reveals sin then gives you the choice of sin or righteousness. Judas had already made his choice, Jesus never tried to talk him out of it or confront him, he just let him do what he always knew he would.
It ended badly for Judas, you know he probably hung there for days after he hung himself. No one wanted to defile themselves because of Passover and a couple of automatic Sabbaths. That's probably why his bowls gushed forth when he was cut down, he was bloated from hanging there for several days. So while Jesus was being raised from the dead Judas was swinging from a tree. These devils come to a wretched end, I think that is probably the most important lesson from Judas.
Grace and peace,
Mark