Remorse or repentance, the choice is ours.

Matthew 27:3-10

³ Then when Judas, who had betrayed Him, saw that He had been condemned, he felt remorse and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, ⁴ saying, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.” But they said, “What is that to us? See to that yourself!” ⁵ And he threw the pieces of silver into the temple sanctuary and departed; and he went away and hanged himself. ⁶ The chief priests took the pieces of silver and said, “It is not lawful to put them into the temple treasury, since it is the price of blood.” ⁷ And they conferred together and with the money bought the Potter’s Field as a burial place for strangers. ⁸ For this reason that field has been called the Field of Blood to this day. ⁹ Then that which was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled: “And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of the one whose price had been set by the sons of Israel; ¹⁰ and they gave them for the Potter’s Field, as the Lord directed me.”

Some people try to speculate as to the motivation behind Judas' actions of betrayal. Was it purely out of greed? Was he trying to force Jesus into rising up to become the political leader he hoped would free the nation of Israel from Roman rule? I am not sure we can ever fully know and understand. The truth though is this, Jesus came to earth to give Himself as the perfect sacrifice for all human sin. The cross was His destiny, so if not by Judas than another way would have been made to bring about the will of God .

Whatever Judas' original motivation had been the text tells us that, "when Judas, who had betrayed Him, saw that He had been condemned, he felt remorse "

Judas felt remorse. He felt conviction about what he had done. Conviction is a work of the Holy Spirit. God was still at work reaching out to the one who betrayed Jesus. Judas had a choice to make . He had to decide how to express his remorse and repent of the sin he had committed. His final act, the choice he made shows that all of the time he had spent with the Lord was lost. He never really knew Jesus. If he had he would have thrown himself at the foot of the cross when Jesus was crucified. He would have asked forgiveness from the only one who can forgive. Jesus words from the cross, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.”(Luke 23:34) and  “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.”(Luke 23:43), would have applied to even the sin of Judas if only he had repented and turned to Him. Instead Judas did what many throughout the ages and even today continue to do. He and they tried and try to pay for their sin with their own actions.

Jesus alone paid the price for sin. Nothing we can ever do, no righteous act, no amount of service, not a lifetime of regret or any act of self sacrifice can pay for our sin. Only by turning toward Jesus and seeing Him there on the cross, as we recognize that He is there to pay the price for our sin can we do the only thing that will redeem us from our sin. We say yes to Jesus as the words “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.”(Luke 23:34) and  “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.”(Luke 23:43) are applied even to our sin, evry sin past, present and future.

Ephesians 2:8-9 says  ⁸ For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; ⁹ not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.

We need to recognize and value the gift of salvation, not taking it for granted. Just because it is free to us does not mean it had no price. Our works though, are not an effort to repay God for His free gift to us. Nothing we can do could accomplish that. Rather our works, our acts of love and service to and for God are merely the only response we can rightly have to a gift so great. We love because He first loved us. Jesus paid the price for the redemption from our sin. Our response is to give our life to Him, not to repay Him, but because we love Him.

Romans 8:38-39

³⁸ For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, ³⁹ nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Judas' betrayal of the Lord, was not enough to seperate him from the love of God. The Holy Spirit was working to call him back. There is nothing that you can have done that seperates you from the love of God if you will turn to Him. There is nothing you can do to repay the cost of your sin but to look today at Jesus on the cross and say yes Lord, thank You for Your gift of salvation to me.

As we give our lives to Him in response to His gift to us we are changed.

Luke 1:37   For with God nothing will be impossible.”