Judas: ‘The Son of Perdition’ John 13:18-30

Text:  “I speak not of you all; I KNOW whom I have chosen; but that the Scripture might be fulfilled, He that eateth bread with Me hath lifted up his heel against me.  Now I tell you before it come, that, when it is come to pass (His betrayal), ye may believe that I am He (the promised Messiah).”

John 13:18-19.

Good morning, knowing Christian!  The Lord God Whom has chosen you and called you into the Kingdom of His dear Son, Christ Jesus, has granted you and I the indwelling of God the Spirit, and revealed His will to us in His written Word, that we too might come to know all things necessary for our Eternal Salvation.  Wow!  What a generous and wondrous Lord God!

“But the anointing which ye have received of Him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in Him.”  (1 John 2:27)

True and genuine Spirit-led, regenerate, Christians are all- knowing!

The Lord Jesus in today’s selected Bible reading in our Journeying With John series of study, clearly states the fact that He, as the Son of God, is what we call omniscient: He knows all things.  Past, present and future events and people are already known to the Lord God Almighty, for He is a Divine Sovereign and an Eternal Being.

We, as Spiritually regenerate, born from Above Christians, have been selected (or elected) by Him in Eternity to be ‘…vessels of mercy…’  We are individually known souls who will, in time, receive God’s gift of faith in order to believe the Gospel message of Salvation in Christ alone, and through His Atonement Sacrifice on the Cross alone, and be saved.  Hallelujah!

“Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord KNOWETH (knows and continuously knows) them that are His.  And let everyone that nameth the Name of Christ depart from iniquity.” (2 Timothy 2:19)

Contrary to popular yet erroneous belief, not all sinner’s born of woman shall be saved.  To believe that would be to embrace the pernicious heresy of what we theologians call Universalism: basically, “…the heresy of the ultimate Salvation of every man.  Some universalists have held that at death all are perfectly restored to God, while others have held that such restoration follows a period of future purgatorial punishment…The Bible teaches that the wicked perish Eternally, and this effectively demolishes universalist beliefs.”  (Dictionary of Theological Terms, by Alan Cairns, page 424, Ambassador Productions, Ltd.) (Revelation 20:10-15)

Today’s Scripture passage sees the Lord Jesus actually manifesting His omniscience, by telling the other disciples that Judas was in fact not chosen to be saved, but rather to fulfill the Scriptural prophecy written hundreds of years before in Psalm 41:9. 

Judas would betray Christ Jesus, ’…lift his heel up against…’ Him.  Judas was, therefore, foreordained by our Sovereign Lord God to play the part of ’the son of perdition’, who would betray Christ, the only begotten Son of God.

“Yea, Mine own familiar friend (Judas), in whom I trusted, which did eat of My bread, hath lifted up his heel against me (betrayed Me).”  (Psalm 41:9)

Judas, like countless others from the beginning of time, were “…ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men/women turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Jude 4)

Jesus clearly states this fact again as He relates, later in John’s Gospel, and as part of His prayer to God the Father:  “While I was with them in the world, I kept them (those that God selected in Eternity) in Thy Name; those that Thou hast given Me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the Scriptures might be fulfilled.”  (John 17:11-12)

The bottom line in this teaching on God’s Sovereignty is this: God is at all times God, and He does just whatsoever He desires to do with His creatures.  God is God.  You and I are not God.  God is in total control.  Praise God it is so!  Amen.

“But our God is in the Heavens; He hath done whatsoever He hath pleased.”  (Psalm 115:3)  Praise and all glory to His Holy Name!

“In Whom we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him Who worketh (works and continually works) all things after the counsel of His own will.”  (Ephesians 1:11)

Thought:  As Christians, we have God’s Word on all things pertaining to life in Christ.  Let us trust our all-knowing Lord God Almighty and rejoice in Christ.