July 28, 2024

Passage Read: Matthew 9-10
Meditation Verse: 10:4

Thought

Judas Iscariot received authority to cast out demons and to heal every kind of disease. He went in partnership with another apostle to preach the gospel of the kingdom and perform miraculous signs. Yet he became the one who betrayed Jesus. He didn't simply lose faith and walk away; he turned against Jesus and betrayed him for money. He went to the chief priests and negotiated the price to betray Jesus, they didn't seek him out. His heart turned so completely against Jesus that he wanted to hurt Him. He knew firsthand the power of God in Jesus, but that didn't stop him from turning against Jesus. How does someone have so complete a transformation? The only thing we know for sure is that he was doomed from the beginning and Satan finally took hold of his heart.

Application

If Judas could literally taste the power of God then turn to betray Jesus, how much more can someone like me who has not experienced anywhere near as much as Judas? If I have not been chosen by God from the foundation of the world, there is no hope for me, no matter what I experience of God in this life; at some point I will abandon Christ, perhaps even turn to attack Him. Hebrews warns that for such people it is impossible to bring them back to repentance! It also says that "We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly to the end the confidence we had at first." That initial faith, that initial trust and belief in Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, that confidence that changed my life, holding firm to that is what proves and confirms salvation. The church at Ephesus had stumbled because they lost sight of that first love, though everything else was right, according to Jesus's message to them in Revelation. That first love, that first faith, I can't lose that but need to hold it close and fast, remember it regularly and let it be the drive and motivation behind anything and everything else I do for Christ.