Basic HTML Version
If Judas Had Repented, September 15
He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me.
John 13:18
.
It was in the power of Christ to deliver Himself. When He spoke the
words [in Gethsemane] “I am He,” immediately angels surrounded Him, and
that throng had all the evidence they could or would have that Christ was the
power of God. When that murderous throng was sent reeling, catching the
air as for support, and falling heavily to the ground, it would have been an
easy matter for Christ to have kept them helpless and prostrate, and pass out
of their midst unharmed. By the flashing forth of His brightness and glory He
could have extinguished them. Judas expected this, for many a time Christ
had escaped....
It is not a marvel that Judas, even then, should hold on to his hatred and
his purpose to the last. If then he had repented, if he had confessed at this
last moment, if his traitor’s heart had broken, he would have received pardon.
But satanic resistance increases in proportion to the light given and resisted.
The appeals, the warnings of dangers and perils to come, did not change the
purpose of Judas, because his heart was unchanged. In the face of light and
evidence he determined to follow his own course, and do his own will. The
longsuffering of Christ, the reproof kindly given, coming to him at last from
the divine lips, does not break his stubborn heart. He hardens his heart by his
long resistance. He sees where his footsteps are tending, but satanic agencies
are all around him, and he has no power to save himself from their snare. The
human attributes so long held, the refusal to yield to the light, now makes
him blind to all consequences.
Judas is not the only man who has passed over this ground....
Judas was a man who possessed valuable qualities. But he was not
teachable....
When one has had connection with those who bear the message from
heaven, and hears but does not practice the truth, that truth is brought down
to mean nothing worthy of attention to him. Thus it was with Judas.
Man must believe the truth; he must change his own course of action,
coming into harmony with the light shining upon him.—
Manuscript 100,
September 15, 1897
, “The Arrest of Christ.”
[268]
274