Was Judas saved? Did God love him enough to forgive him?

Judas made the deal with the Jewish leaders that led to Jesus being arrested, and eventually dying on the cross. But, was Judas saved? Did God love Judas enough to forgive him? Those are questions that seem to come up quite a bit when talking about Judas. Of course, we won't know for sure until the next life. After all, God can do anything, can't He?

I've wanted to write this for a long time. Finally, it happened.

Some people probably want Judas to be saved.

Others, probably not.

But then, it's not really up to us, is it? It's up to God.

Rather than decide for ourselves, maybe we should look to see what we can learn from God in the Bible. Then we can make a more reasoned, rather than emotional, conclusion. After that, there's probably something we can learn from both our research into the question, and our conclusion.

In other words, if we conclude Judas was saved, why is our conclusion Biblically based? What can we learn from Judas' actions and God's response?

Or, if we conclude Judas was not saved, why is our conclusion Biblically based? And what can we learn from Judas actions, or inactions, and God's response to them?

Was Judas saved? Did God love him enough to forgive him?

Right upfront, there are some problems with my opening statement. Do you see them? I believe it's important that we know what they are. That we learn to recognize things like them. And that we understand why the assumptions in my opening aren't right. Aren't Biblically based.

God can do anything, can't He?

God can do anything, can't He? Actually, no, God cannot do literally anything. For instance, God cannot make a square circle. A square circle is an oxymoron. A square and a circle are two very different things. By definition, there's no such thing as a square circle. So, even God can't make a square circle.

God also cannot do things that are against His nature.

Here's a more "official" way of saying those things.

Each of God’s attributes mutually qualify one another, so that they are never abstract or considered in isolation. For example, to say that God is “all powerful” (omnipotent) does not mean that he can do anything, but that he is not constrained by something or someone greater than himself. God cannot deny his own nature, but he can exercise his sovereign will in whatever way he chooses.  ¹Bray, G. (2018). God’s Attributes. In M. Ward, J. Parks, B. Ellis, & T. Hains (Eds.), Lexham Survey of Theology. Lexham Press.

That means, as we go through our research, we must take into account the "nature of God'. His characteristics, things He has said about Himself, and be sure that we don't reach any conclusions that conflict with God's nature.

The other problem with the opening statement

What's the other problem with the opening statement? I just gave you a huge clue. But we won't get into it yet. It's coming though.

Let's move forward now, with that as a backdrop for looking into whether God forgave Judas.

What is forgiveness?

Forgiveness has different meanings, depending on whether we're talking about between two people or between God and people. With that in mind, let's take a look at the Biblical meaning of forgiveness. There are a number of referenced verses below. I'm not going to get into any of them, but you can use the links to read them.

FORGIVENESS - the act of excusing or pardoning others in spite of their slights, shortcomings, and errors. As a theological term, forgiveness refers to God’s pardon of the sins of human beings.  ²Youngblood, R. F., Bruce, F. F., & Harrison, R. K., Thomas Nelson Publishers, eds. (1995). In Nelson’s new illustrated Bible dictionary. Thomas Nelson, Inc.

We'll get more into the differences when God's involved shortly.

No religious book except the Bible teaches that God completely forgives sin (Ps. 51:1, 9; Is. 38:17; Heb. 10:17). The initiative comes from Him (John 3:16; Col. 2:13) because He is ready to forgive (Luke 15:11-32). He is a God of grace and pardon (Neh. 9:17; Dan. 9:9).  ³Youngblood, R. F., Bruce, F. F., & Harrison, R. K., Thomas Nelson Publishers, eds. (1995). In Nelson’s new illustrated Bible dictionary. Thomas Nelson, Inc.

We see something different right away. First, Christianity is the only religion that teaches that God completely forgives sin. So this isn't just a difference between God and people, it's a difference between Christianity and any other religion.

Sin deserves divine punishment because it is a violation of God’s holy character (Gen. 2:17; Rom. 1:18-32; 1 Pet. 1:16), but His pardon is gracious (Ps. 130:4; Rom. 5:6-8). In order for God to forgive sin, two conditions are necessary. A life must be taken as a substitute for that of the sinner (Lev. 17:11, 14; Heb. 9:22), and the sinner must come to God’s sacrifice in a spirit of repentance and faith (Mark 1:4; Acts 10:43; James 5:15).  ⁴Youngblood, R. F., Bruce, F. F., & Harrison, R. K., Thomas Nelson Publishers, eds. (1995). In Nelson’s new illustrated Bible dictionary. Thomas Nelson, Inc.

Now we see sin is is a violation of God’s holy character. Therefore, something must happen in order to overcome that violation. To make things right again between the sinner and God. In our case today, between Judas and God. The two things are:

• A life must be taken as a substitute for that of the sinner (Lev. 17:11, 14; Heb. 9:22)
• the sinner must come to God’s sacrifice in a spirit of repentance and faith (Mark 1:4; Acts 10:43; James 5:15) Youngblood, R. F., Bruce, F. F., & Harrison, R. K., Thomas Nelson Publishers, eds. (1995). In Nelson’s new illustrated Bible dictionary. Thomas Nelson, Inc.

At first glance, things aren't looking good for Judas. But let's keep going. We don't want to jump to any rushed conclusions.

Forgiveness in the New Testament is directly linked to Christ (Acts 5:31; Col. 1:14), His sacrificial death on the cross (Rom. 4:24), and His resurrection (2 Cor. 5:15). He was the morally perfect sacrifice (Rom. 8:3), the final and ultimate fulfillment of all Old Testament sacrifices (Heb. 9:11-10:18). Since He bore the law’s death penalty against sinners (Gal. 3:10-13), those who trust in His sacrifice are freed from that penalty. By faith sinners are forgiven-"justified" in Paul’s terminology (Rom. 3:28; Gal. 3:8-9). Those who are forgiven sin’s penalty also die to its controlling power in their lives (Rom. 6:1-23).  ⁵Youngblood, R. F., Bruce, F. F., & Harrison, R. K., Thomas Nelson Publishers, eds. (1995). In Nelson’s new illustrated Bible dictionary. Thomas Nelson, Inc.

This feels more than ironic. Forgiveness in the New Testament is directly linked to Christ, His sacrificial death on the cross, and His resurrection.

Judas led the authorities to arrest Jesus. That arrest led to His death. And that very death was needed to forgive Judas! Does this mean Judas was forgiven?

Was Judas forgiven, based on the definition of forgiveness?

Let's look at what happened when Judas was "filled with remorse". If there was a time when forgiveness was possible, this might be it. Let's review the passage that spoke of his remorse.

Judas Hangs Himself

Mt 27:1 Early in the morning, all the chief priests and the elders of the people came to the decision to put Jesus to death. 2 They bound him, led him away and handed him over to Pilate, the governor.