Peter or Judas

Who are you after you sin?

If there is one thing we can say for certain, it’s that at some point in our lives, we will all betray Christ. Even the most devout and goodhearted Christian will fall victim to sin. That’s a given. It’s the reality of Christian life.

Deep down, I believe most of us understand this, and while we can and should strive for Christian perfection, the reality is that no one ever lives a sinless life.

We have to try our hardest to eliminate sin from our lives. That’s something most of us understand. But if we know that every man will sin at some point in his life, shouldn’t we also put some thought into learning how we ought to react after we’ve fallen prey to temptation? Thinking about this is not an excuse to sin. Both things are true at the same time: we have to fight our hardest against sin, but we have to also know how to react if we lose some battles to temptation, understanding this to be a constant possibility due to our fallen nature.

Peter vs. Judas

We can look at the stories of Peter and Judas to understand the two possibilities of how a man can act after he’s betrayed Christ.

Think about it: both Peter and Judas betrayed Christ. Peter did so by denying Him three times, as Jesus predicted, out of fear of being condemned for His faith and allegiance.

“Truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “this very night, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.”
— Matthew 26:34

Now Peter was sitting out in the courtyard, and a servant girl came to him. “You also were with Jesus of Galilee,” she said. But he denied it before them all. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said.

Then he went out to the gateway, where another servant girl saw him and said to the people there, “This fellow was with Jesus of Nazareth.” He denied it again, with an oath: “I don’t know the man!”

After a little while, those standing there went up to Peter and said, “Surely you are one of them; your accent gives you away.” Then he began to call down curses, and he swore to them, “I don’t know the man!”

Immediately a rooster crowed. Then Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken: “Before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.” And he went outside and wept bitterly.
— Matthew 26:69-75

The betrayal of Peter is undeniable. He was even warned of it by Christ and he still went and committed the sin. Doesn’t this happen to all of us? Don’t we constantly decide to disregard God’s warnings and pursue those desires and temptations which we know will harm our souls?

Similarly, Judas too, betrays Christ, and he too, was warned of his sin before it happened:

Then one of the Twelve—the one called Judas Iscariot—went to the chief priests and asked, “What are you willing to give me if I deliver him over to you?”

So they counted out for him thirty pieces of silver. From then on Judas watched for an opportunity to hand him over.
— Matthew 26:14-16 NIV

After he had said this, Jesus was troubled in spirit and testified, “Very truly I tell you, one of you is going to betray me.”

His disciples stared at one another, at a loss to know which of them he meant. One of them, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was reclining next to him. Simon Peter motioned to this disciple and said, “Ask him which one he means.”

Leaning back against Jesus, he asked him, “Lord, who is it?”

Jesus answered, “It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish.” Then, dipping the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him.

So Jesus told him, “What you are about to do, do quickly.” But no one at the meal understood why Jesus said this to him. Since Judas had charge of the money, some thought Jesus was telling him to buy what was needed for the festival, or to give something to the poor. As soon as Judas had taken the bread, he went out. And it was night.
— John 13:18-30 NIV

While he was still speaking, Judas came, one of the twelve, and with him a great crowd with swords and clubs, from the chief priests and the elders of the people.

Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, “The one I will kiss is the man; seize him.” And he came up to Jesus at once and said, “Greetings, Rabbi!” And he kissed him. Jesus said to him, “Friend, do what you came to do.”

Then they came up and laid hands on Jesus and seized him.
— Matthew 26:47-50 NIV

Everyone knows about Judas’ betrayal. We talk about it frequently. We use him as an example of a traitor. Judas is remembered as “the one who betrayed Jesus”.

Peter, on the other hand, is remembered as a faithful servant. The first pope. He’s depicted as loyal to Christ. We often brush off his betrayal and ignore it, focusing instead on all the times he did what was right and on the legacy he preserved after the death of Christ.

Judas surely did some good things too, so why is it that, given that they both betrayed Christ, we remember one of them as faithful and loyal, and one of them as a treacherous snake?

It can’t be due to the sin itself, for they both betrayed Christ. It has to be because of something else.

What Do You Do After You’ve Sinned?

If we look closely, we can see that the main difference between Peter and Judas is not that one was a traitor and a sinner and the other one wasn’t, but rather that after having sinned, one of them repented, gained forgiveness, and went on to advance God’s Kingdom, while the other one fell into despair for his sin, and killed himself.

The difference between them is that Peter came back to Christ and was forgiven. Judas didn’t, and was damned for all eternity.

Not sinning is, obviously, of critical importance. You have to fight or flee from sin as if your life depended on it, because it does. But, even more important than that is being humble and faithful enough to return to Christ after you’ve betrayed Him, so He can forgive you, which He will.

Peter understood this. Judas didn’t. Peter had enough faith in Jesus’ promises to repent for what he’d done and earn the gift of forgiveness. Judas thought himself already damned after he’d betrayed Christ, which led him to despair and his eventual demise.

The point is this: As much as the devil wants you to sin, what he really wants is for you to lose all hope of salvation. He wants you to descend into the pits of the darkest despair, and cloud your judgment so you’ll think of your sins as unforgivable. Because it’s only at that point, when you lose all hope, that you give your soul to him, instead of surrendering it to God.

The lesson here is that like Peter, even if you sin, you can, and must, always come back to Christ. He’ll be waiting for you.

God bless you and keep you.

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