Truth For Life

Bob Lepine: Are we always responsible when we sin? Is it possible that God sometimes programs us to do things we otherwise wouldn't do in order to fulfill His overarching purposes? We'll think that through together today on Truth for Life Weekend. Alistair Begg is teaching from Luke chapter 22.

Alistair Begg: Now as the readers of the Gospel of Luke, we've known for some time what the people around the table do not know, at least the majority of them do not know, namely that Judas Iscariot is going to betray Jesus.

Back in chapter 6, which was a long time ago, we read these words: "When morning came, Jesus called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles." And then Luke gives to us the list. There was Simon, whom he named Peter, his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, Simon who was known as the Zealot, Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.

So way back in chapter 6, we are led in to an advanced part of this unfolding drama. We are made aware of the fact that somewhere along the line of this story, Judas is going to step up and betray the Lord Jesus. In fact, in chapter 22, we have already seen in verse 4 and following that the ball has been advanced considerably up the field. Judas has gone to the chief priests, the officers of the temple. He's discussed with them how he might betray Jesus. They've agreed upon a fixed fee for the betrayal, and he is now in the position of watching for an opportunity when he might hand Jesus over to the religious authorities but at a time when there isn't a big crowd around.

What a treachery this is. I mean, if someone had come from the outside to do this, it would have been bad enough. Somebody who perhaps was disappointed with the fact that Jesus, when he had done his miracles, left them out. Maybe one of the fellows who was at the pool when the water stirred and the man got in and he was healed, and this chap didn't get healed, and it had annoyed him ever since. And he said to himself, "You know, if I get a chance, I'll betray that Christ. I'll hand him in." It would have been bad, but not treacherous like this.

The psalmist in an almost prophetic way says, "Even my close friend whom I trusted, he who shared my bread has lifted up his heel against me." This is somebody who has been in the company of the Lord Jesus routinely, not on a monthly basis but on a daily basis, has enjoyed the privilege of his care, has listened to his instruction, has seen the wonderful, powerful deeds that he has performed. And the betrayer is about to come out of this company.

But the first thing that we ought to note is simply this: when Jesus says what he says in verse 21, "the hand of him who is going to betray me is with mine on the table," notice the response in verse 23. It doesn't say, and all eyes turned to Judas. They hadn't a clue. What happened was that they began to bicker with each other, or they began to question among themselves, which of them it might be who would do this.

Apparently, Judas was adept at disguising what was going on inside. Judas had been able to move around in the company of these men, and for whatever length of time, however limited, since it had occurred to him in his mind, since he had made the shift to give up on Christ, he had managed to disguise it from those who were nearest and dearest to him. There's a warning in that, incidentally. Now along with that, isn't it quite striking that Jesus was prepared to have Judas at this table at all? If we had known what Jesus knew, I wonder if we'd been as gracious.

The fact that Judas was in the place of friendship, the fact that he was apparently involved in the fellowship is also a solemn reminder to each one of us. Each of us, apparently, the friends of Jesus, each of us involved in the activities of Jesus. We like the sermons, we attend the talks, we go there, we're part of this. Whatever it is, the real issue is in the heart of all of that, is there a genuine living personal encounter between you and the living God with the Lord Jesus? Or does Jesus look upon us and say, "I'm sorry, I don't know who you are and frankly, I don't know where you're from"?

So here we have it. Jesus says the hand of the one who's going to betray me is on the table with me, and there is no apparent evidence that's pointing to the suspect. So the question that is asked is, which one of us then is the betrayer? It's troubling, isn't it? Because if we could immediately set it aside and say, "Aha," then it would make most of us feel a lot better. But apparently, what's going on is this: it is suggesting to us that any one of the people around the table is capable of breaking faith with Jesus. When they look in their own hearts, they don't say, "Oh, here it is." They look in their own hearts and they say, "I wonder is it me? Surely it isn't me. Is it possible that out of the core group will come the one who betrays Christ?" Yes.

How does Jesus respond? He responds in one of these puzzlingly enigmatic little statements. Verse 22: "The Son of Man will go as it has been decreed, but woe to that man who betrays him." The Son of Man will go as it has been decreed. What is this? This is the sovereign purpose of God unfolding. But woe to the man who is going to betray him. What is that about? Well, it sounds as though the man who betrays him is absolutely responsible for the betrayal, doesn't it? And is absolutely culpable as the betrayer. But the first part of the verse, "he will go as has been decreed," sounds as though this has been something that God has foreordained. And it is.

So now we're back at the same question that you get in every question and answer session that you've ever done in all of your life. How do we manage the juxtaposition between the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man, especially in this most classic instance? Was Judas responsible for what he did, or was he able to say, "I was programmed to do this, therefore I'm not responsible"?

In Ephesians chapter 1, and not only in Ephesians chapter 1, but let me just give you as it were a cornerstone verse from which I want to build what I'm going to say. In Ephesians chapter 1 and in verse 11, it says, "In him, that is in Christ, we were also chosen, having been predestined," now notice this next phrase, "according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will."

Our very being in Christ is according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will. So what it says is that God who created the universe, this is biblical truth, God who created the universe is working out absolutely everything according to his eternal plan and counsel. The theologians refer to this as foreordination or the preordination of God, if you want the terminology.

What he's saying is this, that God has foreordained whatever in all of life ever happens. The tree that falls on the roof, the sparrow that is landing in the gutter, the cat that is run over by the jeep, the putt that lips the cup and makes you the runner-up rather than the champion. Everything is according to God's foreordination.

There are absolutely no exceptions to it. Every occurrence lies under his wise and loving control. Every free moral choice that a man or a woman makes lies underneath the working of the will and purpose of God. Yes, and even the sinful actions of men lie under God's foreordination.

Throughout the development of theology, those who have affirmed this truth have wanted immediately to surround it with three cautionary notes. And these cautionary notes will emerge in the mind of any thinking person. Three caveats, all right? I'm not going to go through them all. I'm going to emphasize one because it is germane to what we're doing here.

The first caveat is this, that given what we said about God foreordaining whatever comes to pass, the first caveat is God is not and never can be the author of sin. He is not and cannot be the author of sin. Now that's enough to keep you up all night, that God foreordained sin without being the author of sin, without being the one who tempts to sin. That is a black hole down which many theologians have gone, never to be seen again. But that is the first important caveat: God is not the author of sin.

The second caveat is this, that God's foreordination does not eliminate contingency. That God's foreordination does not eliminate contingency. That's why a putt, you see, if we can use golf, or the throw of a dice, but a putt, we'll use a putt at the moment, a putt is contingent so far as human observation is concerned. And divine foreordination does not eliminate that fact.

And the third caveat, and it's the one that I want to highlight, is simply this, that God's foreordination does not eliminate, does not cancel human freedom. Listen and listen carefully. God's foreordination does not eliminate human freedom. It does not take away our liberty or absolve us of responsibility for our personal actions.

Judas Iscariot betrayed the Lord Jesus Christ, and he betrayed him by God's determinate counsel and foreknowledge. In other words, God foreordained that Judas would betray Jesus. But God also foreordained that Judas would betray him freely, that he would choose to do it, and that he would desire to do it. God's foreordination does not mean that his whole purpose moved in and forced Judas to this particular act. Rather, God foreordained that without compulsion or coercion, Judas would freely, volitionally, and with all the moral force of his own personality express himself in betraying the Lord Jesus Christ.

In light of this, it is of paramount importance to grasp the synthesis between foreordination on the one hand and freedom and responsibility on the other. Foreordination, says the Westminster Confession, does not destroy liberty. In fact, it establishes it, and therefore it is worth glorying in it. I am free because God foreordained my freedom. I'm not the plaything of pressure and circumstance or even of internal and endocrinological factors. I am free. I make my own decisions. I am the cause, the ultimate answering cause, the responsible cause of my own decisions.

First of all, what it says is that there is a teleological element to the universe, that this is not time plus matter plus chance. That Sartre is dead and finished and many of his silly ideas with him. That we do not authenticate our existence in the way that he suggested in some existential moment, pursuing angst, but rather that everything is under the control of a God who created the continental divide, who established the mountains, made the streams, had the rivers flow where they flow. And indeed, this is the basis of all scientific thought: the notion of causality, the notion of order, the notion of function. From whence cometh it if it is just simply an amoeba in a slimy pond?

No. In other words, you don't have to go out today and say, "Oh, I wonder what's going on in the details of the universe." God has it under his control. Everything is happening according to his eternal counsel and will. What's going on in the vastness of the universe, the nations warring against one another, every day we're told, "Oh, look at this, dear, look at that," and so on, as if somehow or another it is all tenuous. No, it is all under his sovereign control.

But it also means that I can't play the game with my sin. "Oh, well, the reason I slept with her was because I was supposed to. I was foreordained. The reason I did what I did was because I was foreordained. This is God's fault, this isn't my fault." It's your fault. It's my fault. It's your sin. It's my sin. It's the betrayal of Judas, not God operating Judas as if he were some kind of puppet under divine machinery. No, in the foreordination of God, he ordained that Judas would act entirely according to his own responsibility and therefore acting in such a way as to make him entirely culpable.

The same is true incidentally in coming to faith in Jesus Christ, and this is an aside, but I'll make it as it comes to my mind. People say, "Well, you know, it's all God." Well, yes it is all God, but it's not all God. God does not believe for you. God does not believe for you. You must believe. How does that work? I'm not exactly sure, but I know that both things are true. God authors faith but does not do so in a vacuum, nor does he believe on our behalf but works in such a way that we, exercising our free moral choice, will do what God has foreordained.

The very juxtaposition of these things is focused in the death of Jesus, not only in his betrayal but also in his death himself. When Peter preaches on the day of Pentecost, he says to them, "This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge." This was according to God's foreordination. "And you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him on a cross."

Why does this matter? Well, look at what we find in the passage. God has factored Judas's activity into the scheme of his redemptive program, the scheme of his redemptive calculus. That in the logarithmic explication of God's purposes, somehow or another this works. That's what the Bible says. God has factored even human sin into this divine unfolding.

Secondly, Satan is powerfully influential in the event. Verse 3: Satan had entered into Judas. Thirdly, Judas is still responsible for his own choices. So the foreordination of God and the activity of the devil do not let us off the hook when it comes to our own decision-making.

Go back to the story of Joseph and read it this afternoon and think these thoughts along with it. You know the story, and where do you finally get? You finally get to the great denouement when the brothers come and they reveal themselves to Joseph. Of course, he knew that it was them before they knew it was him. And he says to them, "I am Joseph." And they cower in fear from him. And remember what he says: "Guys, you intended this for evil, but God intended this for good." Your free moral choices were your free moral choices, but God in his divine redemptive calculus was planning from all of eternity to ensure that the people of God would have a supply of food, and he determined that he would do it without violating any of the freedom that was part and parcel of Jacob, Joseph, and all the brothers and Pharaoh and the whole Egyptian court. And even in the very death of his Son, you see the same thing.

So what do you know? You know this, the fact that God overrules the evil that bad men do in bringing his purpose to pass does not make the men any less evil. Judas acts against his own conscience, he does so freely, and therefore he remains responsible. He is guilty. He is culpable.

And from that, there is much that we can learn. But with this I leave you. Judas is the classic example of the man who believes that he can never sin himself out of the grace of God. Judas is the classic example of the individual who thinks that he can get to the point and decide for himself when he's going to stop sinning, failing to recognize that sin deceives, that sin hardens, that sin blinds us to the warnings that come our way.

We can hear the story of God's amazing love, of the sacrifice of his son for sinners. We can recognize that when the Bible speaks to the issue of sin, it speaks to us. And yet we say to ourselves, "But you know, I don't need to deal with this today. I know when I can stop this stuff. I'll stop when I'm ready, you know." At what point was it that the shift took place? So that one day Judas would not repent, and the next day Judas could not repent? Because sin hardens, sin deceives, sin blinds. Do you get this? Go home, think about it. Think about it in relationship to how we do evangelism. Think about it in relationship to how we try and absolve ourselves of guilt. Think about it in relationship to how we do our counseling. Think about it in terms of how we teach science. Think about it. Just go ahead and think.

Bob Lepine: You’re listening to Truth for Life Weekend with Alistair Begg. You know, as Easter is approaching and you’re preparing to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus, I want to encourage you to request Alistair’s booklet, The Man on the Middle Cross. This brief book tells three stories about life-altering encounters with Jesus. Each individual had a need, but the greatest need each of them had was for their sins to be forgiven. And everyone who reads this book will discover that that remains the need of every person. Jesus offers forgiveness to all who come to Him. When The Man on the Middle Cross was first published and released back in the fall, it was so popular as a way to share the Gospel that we sold out quickly, faster than we expected. And now we are excited to let you know that the book is back in inventory at Truth for Life, available today as a three-book bundle. To find out more about The Man on the Middle Cross, visit our website at truthforlife.org.

I’m Bob Lepine. Thanks for taking time out of your weekend to study the Bible with us. If you’ve ever tried to determine your significance by comparing yourself to others, well, you’re in good company. Next weekend, we’ll learn how Jesus addresses the prideful inclinations of His apostles. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life, where the learning is for living.