In the Bible, Judas Iscariot was one of the twelve disciples of Jesus. He betrayed Jesus by going to the chief priests and agreed to turn Jesus over to them in exchange for thirty pieces of silver (Matt. 26:14-16).
Later, when Judas saw that Jesus was condemned to death, he felt guilty about what he did. Judas tried returning the money to the chief priests and admitted that he had sinned by betraying innocent blood.
The chief priests responded, What is that to us? That’s your responsibility. At this, Judas threw the money down and went and hanged himself (Matthew 27:1-5).
One of the things I was meditating on when I read about Judas Iscariot, is that if he had turned to Jesus in repentance, Jesus would have forgiven him. Christ could have given him a new start. But instead, Judas condemned himself and missed out on eternal life.
Perhaps you feel somewhat like Judas Iscariot. Maybe you betrayed Jesus in order to gain something in this world, or maybe you did something so bad that you think Jesus wouldn’t forgive you. That isn’t true! Regardless of what you did, Jesus is willing to forgive you and give you a new start if you truly repent.
To repent means to confess your wrongs and turn away from doing them. You can do this right now by confessing to God what you did and asking Him to forgive you.
Self-condemnation will not help you to make things right with God. Only turning to Jesus Christ in repentance and faith will.
1 John 1:9 KJV
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.Psalm 32:5 KJV
I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the LORD; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah
