text: Matthew | sweet williams faith
  Posted on March 6, 2012 by sweetwilliams
  If you have ever doubted God's love like I have, this is for you.
  I am working through the last few days of my Beth Moore study, Jesus the One and Only, and I am right in the middle of Jesus's betrayal by Judas in the Garden of Gethsemane. What really struck me this time through Matthew, was how Jesus responded to Judas during the betrayel. As described in Matthew 26, Judas kisses Jesus as a signal that He is the one to be arrested. Jesus, knowing all along that Judas would betray Him and now in the thick of that betrayal says to Judas: "Do what you came for, friend." (Matthew 26:50)
  Jesus knew Judas was the catalyst to the cross. The same cross that caused Jesus's "soul [to be] overhelmed with sorrow to the point of death." (Matthew 26:38) Yet in the midst of it all Jesus calls Judas friend! I can barely wrap my head around that. Even as Judas was betraying Jesus, he used the term friend, showing love and endearment toward His betrayer. In this new light, I am certain that God never stops loving us. No matter what we have done, He says . . .
  Folks, we deserve to go to hell with Judas. To sin is to be an enemy of God. Yet, because of the cross, we are considered His friend, whom He died for. By not accepting the cross, we can choose hell, as Judas chose. But I don't think that even then, God ever stops loving us. The fact that He called Judas friend (after his choice had been made), showed the love He felt for him still.
  Like the Apostle Paul, I too "am [now] convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. {Romans 8:38-39}
  Filed under love and tagged betrayal, friend of God, God, Jesus, Judas, Matthew, Romans |	Leave a comment