Jim Gallagher

Matthew 27:5

“Then he threw down the pieces of silver in the temple and departed, and went and hanged himself.”

While I do not want to tackle the subject of the eternal destiny of Judas, I do see in him an illustration of how the Christian often deals with personal failure or sin. After the initial pleasure received from sin, we are filled with remorse or guilt. That guilt can become overwhelming and lead to discouragement, depression, and even despair. Too often, we follow the example of Judas attempting to remove our guilt.

First, like him, we attempt to undo our failure. Since this cannot be done, we spend time wishing we could go back, wishing twe had that moment in time again so we could do things differently.

Second, we often attempt to deal with the remorse by going to others. Would Judas have been any better off spiritually…