The title of this blog may have you intrigued. How could someone Jesus called “a devil” be comforting to us? Isn’t Judas Iscariot the man whose guts were spilled out on the ground after he hung himself (Acts 1:18-19)? I mean, how can one whose death was so gruesome inspire us to comfort in any way? Well, with the right perspective, the account of his life and demise are very comforting, indeed.

So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.”

Jesus said these things in the synagogue, as he taught at Capernaum. When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?

It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all.

The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”

After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”

Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you, the twelve? And yet one of you is a devil.” He spoke of Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, was going to betray him.
-John 6:53-71

In v53-60, it becomes apparent that Jesus’ disciples struggled with the concept of eating His flesh and drinking His blood. The reason, as Jesus pointed out, was they were thinking He spoke of physical consumption, not spiritual (as He intended). He then made a profound statement, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all” (v63). This was Jesus’ way of redirecting their thinking. He then made a practical distinction, “The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe” (v63-64).

Just because someone is a “disciple” of Jesus doesn’t mean they have placed saving faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. As in this scene in John 6, there are many today who follow Jesus, but share the destiny of Judas Iscariot. Again, how is this comforting, you ask? Hold tight, we’re almost there, I promise.

When Jesus uttered the pride-shattering statement, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father” (v65), there was a turning point in the lives of many of His disciples, who, “turned back and no longer walked with him” (v66). Where unbelievers become uncomfortable with Truth, leaving Jesus behind, we believers find our comfort, gathering unto our Great Shepherd all the more.

These disciples, though they spent time with the one and only Messiah, heard His voice, and even witnessed miracles, defected from His ministry when their pride was wounded. The capstone example of this was Judas Iscariot, who eventually betrayed Him, even though he had the privilege of being one of the original twelve apostles!

The fact that Judas spent so much time with Jesus and yet never believed is the crux of this blog. Jesus’ ministry was about three years long. Can you imagine spending that much time with the God-man, the Messiah, our Lord and Savior and not believing??? How is this possible? It seems that surely after witnessing a few miracles, seeing the love Jesus had for fallen men, and being around someone supernaturally endowed with perfect integrity to God our Father, one would be convinced! Surely, just looking into the eyes of Jesus would soften the hardest of hearts, right? Not always.

It is in Judas’ supreme ability to be so close to Jesus and still die an unbeliever that we find our comfort. It is Judas’ personal unwillingness to believe in Jesus for salvation in the face of maximum evidence that proves to us that God is the one who ultimately opens our hearts and our minds to the Gospel. It is God who breaks through the stony heart of man. Judas is the testimony we need in order to fully understand how great our own conversion is. We were once like Judas, with unbelieving hearts.

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
-Ephesians 2:1-10

The reason why Judas’ life is so comforting to us believers is that he represents the power of fallen man’s heart to reject the Gospel. No one today has ever had the privilege Judas had. No one today has ever been a part of Jesus’ personal ministry during His incarnation. No one today has ever been as close to Jesus as Judas was and rejected Him. Judas’ testimony is to the fallen nature of man.

It is a great comfort knowing that God saves – we don’t save ourselves.

This is very good news because if we really were responsible for generating saving faith (Ephesians 2 says even faith/believing is a grace gift) we’d be doomed to the same end as Judas.

As evangelists and lovers of others, may we be comforted knowing that God’s choices are perfect and righteous. May we be comforted by the knowledge Judas’ life imparts to us - that even in the very presence of Jesus Christ, Himself, an unbeliever’s heart will remain unchanged unless God supernaturally intervenes. In God’s perfect wisdom, He chose not to save Judas (ala, “So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills” - Romans 9:18). So, when He does intervene to save us, may we rest assured that, despite our Judas-like natural inclinations, our hearts will be opened to His so great salvation!

What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory.
-Romans 9:22-23

Love in Christ,

Ed Collins