Title: 13
Author: JBG
Last saved by: Matthew C. Lawson
Company: Auth CO

© 2001  Joe Griffin

01-04-15-B.JSH-468 /

The Inscrutable Question: The Grace Orientation of David toward Ahithophel & Jesus toward Judas
11.	Before his death David chose to recognize those who had served him during his reign as king of Israel.  In 2 Samuel 23:8-39 we find the Roll Call of David’s Mighty Men.  Listed among them is Ahithophel in 2 Samuel 23:34.
12.	Likewise, even when Judas Iscariot was in the process of betraying Jesus, our Lord referred to him in Matthew 26:50 as His “friend.”
Psalm 41:9 - Even My close friend, in whom I trusted, who ate My bread, has lifted up his heel against Me.
13.	In John 13:21, Jesus is saddened by the knowledge that Judas will betray Him but the Lord does not bear a grudge.  He views the sins of Judas as no worse than those of any other person’s sin for which He is about to become as substitutionary sacrifice.
John 13:27 - And with the morsel, Satan entered into Judas [ This is maximum reversionism.  Judas has given mental assent to demonism and the Lord allows Lucifer himself to obtain maximum influence over his soul.  Judas’s thinking is now under the complete domination of the prince of darkness.  Judas has become not only a witness for the defense, but also its bounty hunter. ] Then Jesus said to him, “Do what you have to do quickly.”
v. 28 - But no one at the table knew for what reason Jesus said this to Judas.
v. 29 - For they were assuming that since Judas Iscariot held the moneybag, he should pay expenses, that he should give something to the poor.
1.	Jesus Christ did not seek to override Judas’s free will but permitted him to follow through on the inevitability of his actions.
2.	Our Lord was obviously well aware of Psalm 41:9.  In eternity past the omniscience of God knew all about the thoughts decisions and actions of Judas Iscariot and decreed them to be certainly future.
3.	Allowing this to occur is the permissive will of God, not His directive will.  But knowing about it the Father allowed the deed to go forward.
4.	A principle emerges: the decisions of reversionistic believers play a part in the permissive will of God.  God permits what is decreed to happen to happen. 
5.	The end result reminds us of Joseph’s grace mental attitude toward his brothers when they confessed their wrongs against him following their father’s funeral:
Genesis 50:15 - When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “What if Joseph should bear a grudge against us and pay us back in full for all the wrong which we did to him!”
v. 19 - But Joseph said to them, “Do not be afraid, for am I in God’s place?
v. 20 - “And as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive.”
6.	Grace and time allow even the reversionist the opportunity to recover.  Anyone may recover from his sins, restore his soul through Bible study, and resume the double-column advance toward spiritual maturity.
7.	Unfortunately for Judas Iscariot he never made the key decision to rebound.  Instead when at the end he became guilt ridden, emotionalism drove him to return the money when all he had to do was execute a mental-attitude foot washing: confession alone to God alone.
John 13:30 - Then having received the piece of bread, Judas Iscariot went immediately out and it was night.
8.	There is no harmony between light and darkness.  In the environment of spiritual darkness, Judas Iscariot turned his back the Light of the World and entered into the night of the devil’s world in order to perform his cosmic deed.
9.	Judas had eaten the Lord’s bread, the matzo dipped in the bitter herbs at the last Passover.  This hors d’oeuvre was made a part of the original Passover so that it would bring to the mind of the participant the bitterness of Egyptian slavery, which was compared theologically to the bitterness of slavery to the sinful nature.
10.	There was also an additional application of this portion of the Passover.  The unleavened matzo represented the impeccability of Messiah Who would, as a substitutionary sacrifice, be “dipped” into the world’s laver of bitter sins and be judged for them.
11.	The dipping of the matzo into the bitter herb is an illustration of the baptism of the cross.  The matzo is maintained in the Christian Eucharist which was instituted by our Lord in:
Luke 22:19 - And when He had taken some bread and given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”

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