The Decision Point: Peter v. Judas

In everyone's life, there are crucial points of decision. For me, this especially has happened when I was stuck in repeatedly making mistakes. At that point I had the option of acknowledging these mistakes and changing or surrendering to the mistakes and giving up.

To illustrate this point, I was just reading an excerpt from a spiritual book that was discussing the denying of Jesus by Peter. For some reason one of the things that I thought of immediately was Judas Iscariot. Interestingly, both of them denied Jesus to a huge degree. Peter denied Jesus to the point of cursing people who accused them of knowing each other. Judas betrayed Jesus and handed him over to his death. Ultimately at the time of Jesus's death, both Judas and Peter had deserted Jesus. Jesus was dead thanks in part to both of them. They had hit a point of decision. Peter and Judas had the decision. Do they own up to their mistakes and turn to Jesus or give up? If you know the story, they made completely different decisions.

Judas thought, he could never repair the wrongs that he committed. He believed that committing this sin meant that he had no chance for eternal life, that there could be no forgiveness for his sins. He felt that he had done the most horrible thing he possibly could have done. Ultimately, Judas gave up. He committed suicide to end this pain and hung himself on a tree.

I believe Peter felt the same way as Judas, feeling like he had done an unforgivable sin. But he refused to give up. Peter never allowed himself to go into isolation. And this is the KEY point right here. Instead of staying in his sin, he decided to turn back to Jesus. Jesus welcomed him with open arms and Peter ended up being one of the greatest disciples Jesus ever had.

Peter's story is so inspiring to me because it gives hope. Even after denying Jesus, saying that he never knew him the point of cussing, Jesus gave Peter the grace to become who God had intended them to be. Peter chose to go to Jesus and to admit his weaknesses. Whereas Judas's story is so disheartening because he gave up hope believing that he could never become reconciled with God again; Peter's story helps us realize that we cannot fall so far as to be out of the reach of God's grace. He is ALWAYS there for us waiting for us to come to him. 

The moral is found in this verse of Scripture: "for He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." (Hebrews 13:5b)

I know that this is true. There are two choices when we sin: to give up hope like Judas or turn to Jesus like Peter. I know that God will welcome you with open arms as he has welcomed me. Jesus has changed my life by filling my heart with the love of God, in spite of the fact that I have spent much of my life betraying him. I am grateful that He brought me, this prodigal son home.