When did Judas Iscariot turn sour? Only Jesus knows for sure. One thing, however, rings loud and clear about the Last Supper (Luke 22:7-16). It’s something that every one of us needs to recognize, and that is the potential for betrayal of Jesus that resides in our flesh.
When Jesus brought up the subject of betrayal, every single apostle considered himself a candidate. Self-confidence, self-reliance are enemies of faith, and inevitably lead to a fall. Peter failed to recognize this truth and he fell to the fiery dart of self-confidence.
Saints, we face real evil every single day, which is why we must redeem the time, and being fully armored, stand! But how do we stand? Only in the Lord Jesus and His might. We stand in His powerful grace. We stand in His power, not in man’s wisdom (myself at the top of the list!). We stand secure on Christ’s gospel of salvation. We stand by faith. Without Christ, we can do nothing.
Apart from the power of the Holy Spirit, I can’t even be His witness. My fleshly ego may be bruised, but the truth of the matter is that I am incredibly weak and incompetent. Ironically, realizing this weakness is the basis of the Lord’s strength in me. You see, we begin to turn sour when we falsely assess our old nature. Pride precedes the pit.
In a sense, there’s a Judas potential in each of us, and to deny it only proves the point. We, like Peter, are very “siftable”. We can only be strong in Christ to the degree that we depend upon Him. Therein is our Source of confidence.
