“The Traitor” (Luke 6:16)

“And when it was day, He called unto Him His disciples: & of them He chose twelve, whom also He named apostles... & Judas the brother of James, & Judas Iscariot, which also was the traitor” (vs13, 16).

Christ controlled all that happened to Him by submitting to the Father (Luke 6:16).

He did the Father's will and not His own, even if it meant suffering for us. He who did no sin was betrayed by wicked sinners, and He WILLINGLY went to the cross the pay for crimes He didn't commit, crimes God charged to Him for us.

Bless His holy name. He wasn't merely a Friend in good times, but He bore the wrath of God to be friendly with us eternally (Prov 17:17). He is the GREAT God and Savior because He saves, because He controls, and He gives us privileges, using even the wicked for us.

First, God is great because He saves. The Lord Jesus chose the apostles, and He chose one named Judas, who would betray Him (vs13). To die, He must be MURDERED, and to be murdered, He chose a friend to do the deed, to show that man REJECTS the mercies of God. He says, “For my love they are my adversaries: but I give myself unto prayer” (Ps 109:4). I look at Noah's ark, and I see room for “whosoever will”, and yet Noah condemned his generation by building an ark, preaching righteousness, and only eight souls entered in. Everyone else had mercy preached to them, not in word only, but also in life, and they WOULD NOT come in.

Secondly, He saves SOVEREIGNLY, by working all things after the counsel of His will. If you think the cross is merely the reaction of God to sin, then you are wrong. The cross is God's plan A for this world, the remedy for sin before sin was every committed, “according to a purpose of the ages, which He made in Christ Jesus our Lord,in Whom we have the freedom and the access in confidence through the faith of Him” (Eph 3:11-12).

All that He does is to save. It may be painful, it may be by betrayal, etc, but it will redound to the glory of God and the good of the church. Men mean it for evil, but God means it for good, “as it is this day, to save much people alive” (Gen 50:20).

Thirdly, the Lord teaches us to believe on Him. The wicked are not controlling anything. Sin is not out of control and unpunished. It is a Day coming when restitution shall be made, but it is NOT in the earth.

Believe on the Son of God, don't betray Him as Judas, and know that He works all to save. Take every painful tear and drop it into His bottle, knowing that He cares. Ps 56:8-9 says, “You number my wanderings; Put my tears into Your bottle; Are they not in Your book? When I cry out to You, Then my enemies will turn back; This I know, because God is for me.”