How far can you push God?

While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled (John 17:12).

How far can you push God before He turns His back on you?  How much can you sin before God gets fed up with you?  How long will God tolerate your bad behavior?

These are important questions.  From the Bible, we know two things about God: He is holy and He is loving.  His holiness cannot and will not tolerate evil.  His love moves Him to set aside His anger and forgive those who are sorry for doing wrong. 

The Bible is full of examples showing God’s anger over sin.  When the earth was filled with wicked behavior and only Noah’s family still feared the Lord, God sent a great flood to destroy everyone not protected inside the ark.  When men started building a monument to their pride at Babel, God dispersed them by changing one language into many.  When Pharaoh refused to release God’s people from slavery, the Lord afflicted Egypt with ten devastating plagues.  When the Israelites grumbled about God’s leadership, He condemned them to 40 years living in the wilderness instead of letting them enter the Promised Land.  God has no tolerance for sinfulness, even among those who believe in Him.

But the Bible is also full of examples of God’s love for us.  When Adam and Eve disobeyed God and were cursed with death, God eased the pain with a promise—one day a Savior would come, a man from heaven who would rescue God’s children from sin, death and hell.  When God met with Moses at Mount Sinai, He laid out plans for a temple and the sacrifices that were to be offered there; this system provided God’s people with a way to be forgiven their sins.  God sent prophets who warned people against wickedness and promised God’s mercy for all who repented.  Throughout the centuries, God has repeatedly reached out in love to offer mankind His undeserved mercy.

Nowhere is this more clear than in the life of Jesus.  Jesus is the Son of God; He shares His Father’s priorities.  Jesus hates sin.  When merchants set up business in the Temple courtyard to take advantage of visiting pilgrims, Jesus got angry; he made a whip out of cords and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables.  To those who sold doves he said, "Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father's house into a market!" (John 2:15-16) Jesus had no patience for people who twisted religion to make themselves look good; Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean.  In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness (Matthew 23:27-28). 

But Jesus also showed loving compassion.  He healed the sick.  He spoke words of love and hope to everyone, regardless of past mistakes.  When He was nailed to the cross, Jesus prayed for His tormentors: Father, forgive them, because they don’t know what they’re doing (Luke 23:34).  When the criminal dying next to Him asked for mercy, Jesus answered him, "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise"(Luke 23:43). In fact, the whole reason Jesus went to the cross was out of love for us.  He suffered the punishment we deserve from God for being sinners.  He suffered in our place to shield us from the awful justice that we deserve.

In Jesus, we see both natures of God—holiness and love.  The Lord expects perfection from us—be holy, because I am holy (Leviticus 11:45).  Yet God also knows that perfection is beyond our limited abilities; without outside intervention, all mankind would be doomed to hell.  But God wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth (1 Timothy 2:4).  How do you resolve the tension between the punishment that holy justice demands and the forgiveness that perfect love wants to offer?  In Christ, we see God’s answer—Jesus willingly bore the brunt of holy wrath in order to spare us.  On the cross, Jesus suffered the hellish sentence each of us has deserved for our wicked thoughts, careless words and hurtful deeds.

This is what the Scriptures teach about God’s holiness and His love.  So what are we to make of Jesus’ comment in today’s Gospel lesson?  Speaking of the traitor Judas, Jesus said None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction.  What does Jesus mean?  Did He deliberately pick Judas as a disciple just so Judas could later betray Him?  Or was Judas a helpless puppet, set up by God to make sure Jesus was betrayed as Scripture foretold?  Neither interpretation seems to square with the behavior of a holy and loving God.

It comes down to a matter of free will.  Did Judas have free will?  If he didn’t, is it fair that God sent him to hell for his actions? 

God gave each of us the ability to make decisions.  Sadly, our ability to make good decisions has been severely hampered by sin.  Sin blinds us; when considering a course of action, we only see those choices which are tainted with darkness.  Sin doesn’t let us see the righteous ways of God or accept them as the preferred choice.  In 1st Corinthians Paul tells us, natural man does not welcome what comes from God's Spirit, because it is foolishness to him; he is not able to understand it since it is evaluated spiritually.  We don’t choose to believe in Jesus—faith is a gift from God.  Jesus said, You did not choose me, but I chose you (John 15:16).  Paul writes, no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, "Jesus be cursed," and no one can say, "Jesus is Lord," except by the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:3). 

When it comes to matters of faith, we only have free choice in one direction—we can choose to walk away from God.  The New Testament gives several examples of believers who wandered from the Church never to return. In the Parable of the Sower (Matthew 13), Jesus warns that shallow faith will die in times of adversity because it has no root; He also warns that the worries and distractions of life can choke faith and kill it. Paul takes up this thought in 1st Timothy where he writes, the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.  If we take our faith for granted; if we push God into a corner because we’re too busy with other things; if we don’t make worship and Bible study and prayer an important part of our lives, faith can shrivel away to nothing.

Sadly, this is exactly what happened to Judas.  Jesus chose him—chose him to be one of the 12 disciples, men selected to learn and pass along the mysteries of God, men who would be the first leaders of the Church.  This high position made Judas a prize target for Satan.  It started small; John writes he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it (John 12:6).  Like any addiction, the hunger for money grew stronger and stronger until Judas was so lost to greed that he was willing to betray Jesus for a pile of coins. 

Scripture had long predicted that the Messiah would suffer betrayal resulting in death.  Did Jesus choose greedy, weak-willed Judas to make prophecy come true?  Not at all.  In the first place, Judas had three years at Jesus’ side, seeing miracles and listening to the words of life that come down from heaven.  Also, consider this: on the night of the betrayal, Jesus warned Judas no less than three times to reconsider his plan before it was too late.  First Jesus washed everyone’s feet, including Judas; as He finished up, Jesus said "You are clean, though not every one of you."  For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not every one was clean (John 13:10-11).  Then, while seated at the table, Jesus said The one who has dipped his hand into the bowl with me will betray me.  The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born (Matthew 26:23-24).  Following this second warning, Judas said, "Surely not I, Rabbi?" Jesus answered, "Yes, it is you" (Matthew 26:25). After this Satan took control of Judas, and he left to arrange Jesus’ arrest (John 13:27).

For three years, the Son of God walked with Judas, ate with Judas, shared His knowledge and love with Judas.  On their final night together, Jesus warned him three times not to follow Satan’s lead.  Tragically it was all in vain.  Judas chose money over the Son of God.  Satan took ownership of his soul and the next day Judas committed suicide, the money having lost all value to him. 

Scripture says that Jesus would suffer betrayal.  But Judas wasn’t set up to fail; Jesus loved that frail little man, loved Him more than we can possibly imagine.  Judas was lost by his own terrible choice.  Judas was doomed to hell as a consequence of his evil decisions. 

But it didn’t have to be.  When Judas finally understood the ramifications of his betrayal, he went to the Temple, trying to return the money in exchange for Jesus’ life.  He did not get the kind of reception he was hoping for. "I have sinned," he said, "for I have betrayed innocent blood." "What is that to us?" they replied. "That's your responsibility."  Crushed by guilt, Judas threw the money into the temple and left. Then he went away and hanged himself (Matthew 27:4-5).  Judas knew he had done a terrible wrong.  He wanted forgiveness.  But when the priests turned him away, Judas made his final mistake.  He committed suicide because he believed there was no hope for him.  It never occurred to him to leave the city and go to the cross where Jesus was slowly dying.  He chose to kill himself because he didn’t believe that Jesus would forgive him.  Tragically, Judas was wrong.  Jesus forgave the men who were nailing Him to the cross, who were taunting Him in His agony.  If Judas had asked for mercy, he would have received peace for his tortured soul.  But Judas’ faith was dead; he no longer believed in the forgiving love of God.  All he had left was fear of God’s righteous judgment.

How far can you push God before He turns His back on you? In Romans chapter 7 Paul writes, I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong.  I love God’s law with all my heart.  But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me.  Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death?  Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: in my mind I really want to obey God’s law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin.  God understands that we are compulsive sinners; that’s why He sent Jesus to bring us forgiveness.

How much can you sin before God gets fed up with you? Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?" Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times" (Matthew 18:21-22).  With these words, Jesus shows that He doesn’t keep count of how often He forgives us.

How long will God tolerate your bad behavior?  Peter writes, The Lord…is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9).  The ark that God designed took Noah 120 years to build; the sinners of that time had more than a century to repent and reserve cabin space, although none of them did.  God gave Judas three years to decide who he would stand with—Jesus or the devil.  God is patient, but no one knows how much time is left on the clock.  This is why Paul speaks to us with such urgency: We are workers together with God, so we beg you: do not let the grace that you received from God be for nothing. For God says, “At just the right time, I heard you. On the day of salvation, I helped you.” Indeed, the “right time” is now. Today is the day of salvation (2 Corinthians 6:1-2).