Commenting
on Judas and whether he was ever in a saved state or not, Protestant Peter
Leithart wrote:
Ultimately, as Jesus Himself said, Judas was
a “son of perdition” (Jn. 17:12). He was reprobate, described as a “traitor” as
soon as he is introduced in the gospel story (cf. Mt. 10:4) and as “a devil”
(Jn. 6:70).
Yet, Judas accepted the call of Christ to be
a disciple. He participated in the ministry of the Twelve. Like the other
disciples, he was given “authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and
to heal every kind of disease and every kind of sickness” (Mt. 10:1, 4). He was
appointed among the Twelve to be “with Him” and to “preach” and to “have
authority to cast out demons” (Mk. 3:13-15). When a town or house received
Judas, they received (Mt. 10:40). He had the authority to pronounce “peace” to
those who accepted him, and to shake the dust from his sandals in curse against
those who rejected him (Mt. 10:13-15). Judas was among the disciples who distributed
bread to five thousand and picked up twelve baskets of leftover fragments (Mk.
6:30-33; Lk. 9:10-17). He was among those whom Jesus promised would sit on
twelve thrones judging the tribes of Israel (Mt. 19:28).
He was one of those whom Jesus “wanted” and
therefore whom Jesus “called” (Mk.3:13). This is the language of election:
Judas was among those whom Jesus “willed” to be a disciple (Greek, ethelen). And it is the language of calling
(proskaleitai). Luke uses the verb “choose”
(6:13), the same verb John (15:16) and Paul (Eph. 1:4) use to describe the
sovereign choice of election. Obviously, this is not talking about an eternal
and permanent choice. We know the end of the story, and Judas does not end
well. The choice is a calling to apostolic ministry. In that sense, though,
Judas was “elected” and “called.”
But Judas’s was not merely an “external” and “official”
call, since Mark says Judas was called according to the will of Jesus to be “with
Him” (Mk. 3:14). Until he went to the priests to betray Jesus, he stood on Jesu’
side in the various conflicts with Pharisees and scribes that wracked Jesus’
ministry. Did Judas have a “personal relationship” with Jesus? Yes, of course,
he did. He was “with Him” not only in proximity but in intimate personal
relationship. Judas heard Jesus speak in public and heard His private
explanation of parables (Mk. 4:10). Judas was one who was “given the mystery of
the kingdom of God” (Mk. 4:11). He was an “insider” and not an “outsider” (Mk.
4:11), one of the few to whom Jesus revealed His coming suffering and death
(Mk. 10:32-34). Judas ate with Jesus (Mt. 26:20) and traveled with Jesus. He
was among those for whom Jesus spoke when he said, “we have believed and have
come to know that You are the Holy One of God” (n. 6:69). Even when he came to
Jesus in Gethsemane, Jesus greeted him as “friend” (Mt. 26:50). He wasn’t
kidding: Judas had been a chosen friend, a fact that made the pain of betrayal
all the more agonizing.
We simply things unnecessarily and illegitimately
if we say that Judas’ relationship with Jesus was purely “external.” (Peter J.
Leithart, The Baptized Body [Moscow,
Idaho: Canon Press, 2007], 95-96)
