Judas, satan, and forgiveness

A thought came to me the other day and I wanted to get it out on the screen.  I think it came from either a FaceBook or Twitter post, but the question was: Is God's forgiveness strong enough to wash satan of his sins?


The short answer: yes.

It's obviously yes, even the amount of evil satan has done, is doing, and continues to do, is forgivable, but the issue with this is that there must be a desire to want to be forgiven.  Will satan even stop being jellous of God?  Maybe, but who am I to be a prophesier about these kinds of things.  I mean, I'm not a member of Family Radio.

With horrible zings aside, the idea of Satan, at the end of his time, before the sea of fire is locked up for good, could come to God and repent.  It's possible, as all things through Christ is possible.

This then made me think of Judas.  Actually a lot of the following came from after reading a book to my daughter called "The 12 Dudes Who Did."  It's about Jesus' disciples and it mentions Judas, and I started to think about something.

Judas' actions lead to Jesus' arrest, in turn his crucifixion and death.  Without the suffering on the cross, his death, there would be no resurrection.  So, what happened to Judas after his suicide?

Without Judas, who else would have turned Jesus in that would have had such an impact.  Even though Jesus knew of Judas' impending betrayal, it still must have been painful.  To know one of your closest friends is turning you over for believing in such a power and life changing message.

In that same tune, Judas was the catalyst for the Resurrection.  Is there a place in Heaven for him?  Did he go to hell due to his actions, due to his suicide, or was Judas one of Jesus' chosen one, to join Him in Heaven?

It's hard to think of friends never knowing Jesus the way I do.  I don't believe a sentence like that sounds pompous.  I'm lucky to have such a strong community of people in my life who have such strong relationships with Jesus.  Are there stumbles? Yes.  Are there hardships? Yes.  Are there times I want to just bite my thumb at the whole lot of them? Yes.  I'm imperfect and broken but I love them all the same.  Okay, I may have a favorite or two.

It may sound cheesy but when was the last time you prayed for an enemy or even prayed for the enemy?  When was the last time you asked God "Change satan's heart like you changed mine!"  All is possible through Jesus.  Miracles do happen.

Grace and Peace,
Jesse