Peter, Judas, repentance and suicide

 

I want to look at some of the differences between Peter and Judas.  There was something of betrayal in what both men did, but there were also significant differences.

I want to consider just two.  First, the difference in the character of their sin and then second the difference in their response.

First their sin.   Judas’ sin was premeditated.  We are first introduced to the exchange of money.  He agrees to betray Jesus for 30 pieces of silver.  Next we find him at Passover with Jesus and there Jesus issues His warning.  He deals graciously with Judas even sharing the elements of the table with him 0 everything calculated to reprove Judas.  But Judas, who had already made his decision, proceeds to betray his Lord.  

So this was not a spur of the moment decision.  It wasn’t made in the heat of anger or fear or some other passion.  It wasn’t sin breaking out as it sometimes does in the life of a believer.  It was planned.  Here was a sin that had all the marks of purposeful premeditation.  Judas planned to sin. He planned to betray Jesus, and he carried the plan through.

With Peter it was very different.  He had actually planned exactly otherwise.  He promised to be faithful, he wanted to be faithful, but when the time came he failed.  Sin seemed to break out. The decision to deny Jesus seemed to happen in an instant; and it was very likely prompted by his fear and embarrassment.  

Do you see the difference?  With Judas you have a man setting out to carry out a plan - a plan which he did in fact carry out.  But with Peter you have a man so sure he will not deny His Lord because the thing seems unthinkable.  He is loyal, he loves his Master, he thinks he is brave, and so he sets out sure of what will happen. And in his case he is, in a sense, surprised and overtaken by sin.

Of course, Peter still sinned badly against the Saviour.   And he could blame no one but himself.  He should never have neglected prayer, he should never have allowed that first compromise of following from a distance.  He should never have put himself among the servants.  Paul says that bad company corrupts good morals. But the difference between this sin and the sin of Judas is the lack of premeditation. 

And so with us there is a great difference between sin premeditated and sin that breaks out in the passion of the moment.  

We have learned that there are a variety of ways of categorizing sin.  There are sins of commission and sins of omission. We also know that there are sins against the letter of the law and sins against the spirit of the law.  To sin against the letter of the law is more serious than to sin against the spirit of it. We also know that there are some sins which according to God’s law received the death penalty and other sins which didn’t. So there are degrees of sinfulness. And the glorious truth is that where sin abounds God’s grace abounds even more. The Bible is full of gospel hope to sinners of all kinds. 

But here’s the exception:  the Bible offers nothing in the way of hope to those who are premeditating sin.  It doesn’t work that way.  Men who are premeditating sin are skirting with blasphemy against the Holy Spirit - its deadly ground to walk on. I am not saying that sin that has been premeditated once repented of cannot be forgiven. I am saying, rather, that anyone in the act of premeditating sin is offered nothing in the way of gospel hope. There is no guarantee that you will find mercy afterward.  There is no guarantee that God will grant you the gift of repentance at a later day. You carry out your sinful plan and the Bible offers no reason to believe there is any coming back.  Instead of promises and encouragements the Bible is full of warnings to those engaged in willful sin. 

We are living in a licentious age.  Sin is dismissed as just sin.  We’re excused as "just forgiven sinners;" and then excuses are made when people are found in sin.  The truth is that Peter did find mercy, but his sin was not premeditated.    His was not wilful presumptuous sin.  So let us thank God for the mercy shown Peter, but let us never forget Judas.  His life and death stand as a lasting warning to the Church.

Second, their response.  Like David Peter did not repent immediately.  It took three denials and the sound of the cock crowing to startle him back to reality.  That is often our way.  We are sometimes slow to repent.  However, when the reality of what he had done came home to him the Bible says he wept bitterly.   We will see in a moment that Judas, too, was unhappy.  Whether there were tears or not we aren’t told.  But this raises an important distinction.  It is a good sign when we people are truly broken and contrite to the point where they are shedding tears.  We aren’t all built the same, but if you’re the type that can shed tears over a dead relative you should be able to shed tears over your own sin. Some people’s confession of sin is like the kid forced to tell his brother he’s sorry.  It is anything but sincere. With others the confession of sin is all too carefree. They know it was wrong, but there’s nothing of bitter weeping.  We need more of that that genuine sorrow over sin. But - of course - sorrow itself isn’t useful if its end is death.  The Bible speaks of two kinds of sorrow: 

• The one leads to life
• and the other to death;

And it comes down to repentance. Peter repented and Judas despaired.

 

So two men may be overcome with grief and regret at what they have done.  So far so good. But it is at that point that everything hangs in the balance. A key question remains. What are they going to do with that grief?  One broken hearted man may go home justified, while the other (similarly broken) goes home condemned. The one cries out to God for mercy, he repents of his sin and puts his trust in Jesus and everything is forgiven.  The other - guilty of the very same sin - also stricken with remorse and sorrow remains unrepentant and unbelieving and so is condemned for his sin.  

Judas was already in a bad way when he began to premeditate sin. But, humanly speaking, when did it become too late for him?  When he committed suicide. 

There is a finality to suicide that cannot be overstated. Once done there is no going back.  Note, then, the vast difference between these men in terms of how their stories end.  Both were disciples, both professed an attachment to Jesus, both were labourers for the kingdom, both badly dishonoured and betrayed Jesus, but one landed in hell while the other is in heaven.

And what was the difference?  Repentance.   Grief over sin is a precious thing. The bitter tears Peter wept were entirely appropriate. But the difference wasn’t the tears. It was the repentance.  And so with you.  Conviction and sorrow and tears over sin are one thing. Repentance is another.  Many spend their years either trying to drown out the voice of the conscience but their end is always misery. Some like Judas take their own lives. Godly sorrow, on the other hand, leads to repentance: a complete turning away of sin - renouncing it and forsaking it.  

Reader, I want you to consider what this episode says about man and then second what it says about God. 

First, what it says about man. 

Man is weaker than he thinks.  We are often like Peter making promises, sure of our ourselves and, then, like Peter coming short.  Whether we make our boast in ourselves or in someone else we admire, that boasting is always going to end in shame.  Pride comes before a fall. And men sooner or later disappoint themselves and others.  

The immature Christian is always impatient with everyone else because like Peter he is so sure of what he’s going to do. Ohers may be offended, others may scatter but not him. The immature Christian hasn’t been Christian long enough to get to know himself, whereas the mature believer has seen more of his own heart and so is inclined to be more patient. The mature believer has been tried and discovered he is not so sturdy and faithful as he thought he was.

The other thing about the immature Christian is that he tends to rush to judgment. Again, he doesn’t himself very well yet. He takes up a view of the Christian life that is overly simplistic, and its driven by his own self-confidence which has yet to be broken. Think of the young man and woman who haven’t any children. Watching other parents they are seeing mistake upon mistake, and they are sometimes impatient with the imperfections they are observing. They’ve got it all planned and figured out until they have children of their own and realize just how hard it is. In much the same way young believers are sometimes quick to find fault, and quick to reach judgment because of their confidence in themselves. But the fact is, they haven’t been tried yet. They haven’t found out what is in their own hearts.  

We all need to be taught what is in our hearts; but pray that you do not learn as Peter learned.  Learn from what you find here. Be careful of putting confidence in man, whether yourself or someone else. You will inevitably be disappointed to one degree or another. No one is good but God.

Second, a man can fall a long way and still not be totally lost.

With Peter the fall wasn’t one that took place over the course of months and years. It happened within a relatively short span.  And this was not like what we are seeing happen in the Church today with various Christian leaders saying they are no longer Christian or saying they no longer believe the Bible. Again, this was not premeditated, and it wasn’t indulged in for very long. But that said, it happened three times in succession. Three times Peter denied Jesus; and each time he was more emphatic.  So that by the time he’s through and the cock has crowed you might think, "this guy is not a Christian at all.  Whatever he was before he is surely lost now…"

But he found grace.  God had mercy on him.  He was restored and went to be used mightily of God.   

We need to remember that as we deal with one another. While there is nothing here to encourage anyone who is living in rebellion and premeditated sin, I hope you may learn from this not to give up too quickly on professing believers. Love not only believes all things it hopes all things.  

Too often we take each other for granted. Which means, on one hand, that we don’t cherish one another as brothers and sister. We we don’t realize what we have.  But on the other hand, we often don’t do the hard work of calling each other to repentance. And when we do that hard work we often fail to come in a spirit of meekness so as to restore. Instead, we tend to write each other off. We see things in other believers we don’t approve of - and it may be very well be that you have spotted sin - but instead of hoping all things and, then, in meekness seeking to restore one another, the tendency is to essentially give up on the person.

I am grateful we find nothing of that spirit in Jesus.  He was not through with Peter, and though Peter would badly fail Him Jesus had begun a good work and would finish it. And so here is Peter in his lowest moment and still Jesus loved Him.  And it was that look of love from the Saviour that melted him and broke his heart.  

Oftentimes it is the love of Christ more than anything else that causes men to weep bitterly over their sin. It is the realization of what they have done despite grace that breaks them. It is as they contemplate how they have dishonoured Jesus and done so in the face of love that causes the heart rending grief that leads to repentance. May we have more of that in the Church of Christ: more of the love of Christ constraining us toward one another not just in times of faithfulness but also in faithlessness.