Did Judas Iscariot Repent as the Bible Commands?

The question in the title is dealing with whether Judas Iscariot repented as the Bible commands after betraying Jesus. Though the answer is obviously no, some say otherwise. There are important lessons in analyzing this question.

Matthew 27:1-5: “When the morning was come, all the chief priests and elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put him to death: And when they had bound him, they led him away, and delivered him to Pontius Pilate the governor. Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, Saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, What is that to us? see thou to that. And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself.”

Doesn’t the Bible say Judas repented? It doesn’t say that he really turned around and repented towards God. It says no more than that he changed the way he felt about betraying Jesus. The Greek text confirms this. Being overwhelmed with guilt and regretting a specific action do not mean that someone is repentant in the way that the Bible commands.

It should be considered that Judas was a thief before he betrayed Jesus (see John 12:1-8). Moreover, Judas was also obviously a covetous lover of money. He was willing to betray Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. Moreover, he was a hypocrite in the most literal way. He was even pretending to be a sincere disciple of Jesus among His other disciples at the Last Supper after he had agreed to betray Him.

There is no good reason to believe that Judas was not a righteous man and a genuine disciple when Jesus had first selected him to be among the twelve. Yet Judas eventually became a devil. He is called one directly in John 6:70. Some might point to what was said a few verses back to try to claim he was never a genuine righteous disciple.

John 6:64: “But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him.”

Yet this only says that there were other disciples whom Jesus knew believed not from the beginning, and that Jesus knew who should betray Him. There were many other disciples of Jesus which were not of the twelve which were leaving Him at that time. It doesn’t say Judas believed not from the beginning.

Authentic Christians are warned repeatedly in the Bible about the possibility of turning away from Jesus unto damnation- especially due to the love of money (read 1 Timothy chapter 6). Many who say that Judas wasn’t genuine when Jesus first called him are trying to justify their own false belief that a real Christian can never fall away from Jesus unto damnation.

Judas had exercised his heart in covetous practices.

2 Peter 2:14-15: “Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: an heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children: Which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness…”

This is specifically said of false teachers whose great swelling words of vanity seduce real Christians back into sin and into a worse spiritual state than they were in before their conversion.

2 Peter 2:19-22: “While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage. For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.”

Judas had taken the same course.

There are strong indicators that Judas was even beyond any hope of repentance after he had agreed with the chief priests and elders to betray Jesus to them.

Matthew 26:20-25: “Now when the even was come, he sat down with the twelve. And as they did eat, he said, Verily I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me. And they were exceeding sorrowful, and began every one of them to say unto him, Lord, is it I? And he answered and said, He that dippeth his hand with me in the dish, the same shall betray me. The Son of man goeth as it is written of him: but woe unto that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! it had been good for that man if he had not been born. Then Judas, which betrayed him, answered and said, Master, is it I? He said unto him, Thou hast said.”

John 17:12: “While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.”

People who mock God and harden themselves in sin can come to a place where they cannot repent- especially when they mock Him after they’ve really known Him and had begun to walk in the truth.

Again, 2 Peter 2:21: “For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.”

In relation, don’t assume Ananias and Sapphira, who were killed in judgment in Acts chapter 5, were never true born-again believers in Jesus.

Acts 5:9-11: “Then Peter said unto her (Sapphira), How is it that ye have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? behold, the feet of them which have buried thy husband (Ananias) are at the door, and shall carry thee out. Then fell she down straightway at his feet, and yielded up the ghost: and the young men came in, and found her dead, and, carrying her forth, buried her by her husband. And great fear came upon all the church, and upon as many as heard these things.”

Some would say that true believers should not have been in fear- but they are out of line with the Apostles of Christ.

Though it is hard to know the exact timing of Judas’ self-inflicted demise, it seems likely that it was before Jesus was actually crucified. He certainly saw that the Jewish leaders had condemned Him to death- but the Romans had not necessarily done so yet. If Judas had really been repentant as the Bible commands, he would have tried to get to Pilate to tell him the truth. He might have been risking being crucified himself by admitting what he had already done to the Romans. So be it. Especially malevolent and otherwise destructive sins are harder to repent from. Really no longer justifying oneself and doing what is right become harder in accordance with the deeper pit which is dug through sinning. No longer justifying oneself wherever one is in the wrong and doing works fitting for repentance must be done in order to repent as the Bible commands. It is truly agonizing for anyone.

James 4:7-10: “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.”

Isaiah 1:16-18: “Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”

Isaiah 55:6-7: “Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.”

As difficult as real repentance is, it is possible. Some say that absolutely no one can repent as the Bible commands. Yet that is a lie. Only those who have already hardened themselves past the point of no return are incapable. Calvinism treats all sinners as confirmed, utterly hardened sinners.

2 Corinthians 7:10-11: “For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death. For behold this selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge! In all things ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter.”

Yet it cannot be said of Judas that he had cleared himself in all things in all the matters that he had despised and mocked God in.

Even if Jesus had already been crucified when Judas threw down the silver in the Temple, Judas could have and should have at least gone to the Romans, told them what he had done, and told them everyone he could name in the wicked plot to falsely accuse Jesus and have Him wrongfully executed. Those priests and elders which he threw down the silver before should have been arrested and executed themselves. They were guilty of perjury and murder through their false accusation. Maybe the Romans would not have arrested and executed them. They may or may not have punished Judas. We’ll never know for sure. But Judas should have gone to the authorities and done whatever he could do to cause justice to be accomplished. He rather took what he saw as the easy way out at the moment. Those who end like this will not inherit God’s kingdom.

Revelation 21:7-8: “He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. But the fearful (i.e. the cowardly in regard to righteousness), and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.”

These things are lessons for the living.