Judas, the betrayer, said, Surely it is not I, is it, Master? He said to him, You have stated [the fact]. – Matthew 26:25, Amplified Bible

We are no better than Judas.

At the last supper, Judas Iscariot looked Jesus in the eyes and asked, as if he didn’t know, whether or not it was he who would betray Him. Of course, Jesus knew the answer to the question, and He knew that Judas knew the answer to the question. At Jesus’ instruction, Judas left the congregation to complete his betrayal, selling out the God of Heaven for thirty pieces of silver.

Judas betrayed the Innocent Blood in the end, and we do the same each time we look to Jesus in prayer, ask Him to deliver us from a sin, and then proceed to commit that sin within hours of our prayer time. Is God so weak that He is unable to deliver us from our tendency to sin? Of course not! We sin not because God failed us, but because we failed Him. We wanted that sin more than our Savior. We simply played lip service to our Savior during our prayer, intending fully in our heart to do exactly what we wanted to do.
Jesus isn’t fooled by our false prayers any more than He was fooled by Judas’ false question. And just as Judas’ sin led to Christ’s death, so has every one of our betrayals. Christ died to pay the price for all of mankind’s sins, past, present, and future. Although our sins are occurring more than 2,000 years after Christ died, each sin we commit now added strength then to the soldiers’ hammer blows. It is almost as if we drove the nails into the cross ourselves.

Thankfully, Christ forgives and cleanses. As 1 John 1:9 (KJV) reminds us, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Without this promise, our fate would be the same as the remorseful Judas – dejected, rejected, and without hope. With this promise, we have salvation, fellowship, and hope.

The next time you betray your Savior – and you will – recognize it and repent of it. Confess your sins, be cleansed, and be restored!