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 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW

GRACE IS AVAILABLE

Matt 27:3-5

3 When Judas, who had betrayed him, saw that Jesus was condemned, he was seized with remorse and returned the thirty silver coins to the chief priests and the elders. 4 "I have sinned," he said, "for I have betrayed innocent blood." "What is that to us?" they replied. "That's your responsibility." 5 So Judas threw the money into the temple and left. Then he went away and hanged himself.

NIV

Remorse is a terrible feeling. But it is the result of guilt over doing that which should not have been done. In the case of Judas, it was betraying Jesus for the sake of money. Surely Judas was there when Jesus said that you cannot serve two masters, God and money. It is a fact you will love the one and despise the other. We know Judas had a temptation with money, being the keeper of the purse and helping himself to some of the support money given for the ministry of Jesus. Now over thirty pieces of silver, Judas finds himself full of regret and wants to rid himself of this reward for betraying Jesus. It is had to say just how much that much silver was worth in those days, but most scholars are of the belief that one silver coin was about days wages. This would have meant one month of wages, which would have been enough to buy some land. But guilt overshadowed it all, and now Judas was told that it was all on him by those who paid for his giving Jesus over to them. He could not handle the guilt and threw the money away and went and took his own life. We are so blessed to not have that guilt and shame because we are under the grace of our Lord. Sure, we sin, and we repent. Well, maybe not repent, as that would be changing the way we think, and even though we seek forgiveness and receive it we still are going to fail again at some point and time. Repentance is that one-time change of thinking which brings us from living in sin to living in the grace of God. We change the way we think about God and about Jesus and we know that we can have his grace. Sure, we do not want to sin, we try not to sin, but the fact remains that as long as we are in this flesh, we are going to sin, somehow, sometime. But we do not need to feel the guilt and shame because as we confess that sin, God is faithful and forgives us our sin and cleanses us from all unrighteousness. We do not have to be so filled with remorse that we end our life, as Judas did. If only he could have sought out Jesus, even as he hung on that cross and asked for forgiveness, Jesus would have done it, and Jesus would have forgiven Judas, just as he asked the Father to forgive those who did not know what they were doing. When God's grace abounds.