Peter or Judas?

"I know of no more poignant contrast between two human destinies than that of Peter and Judas. Both assumed leadership within the group of Jesus' disciples. Both saw and heard wondrous things. Both went through the same dithery cycle of hope, fear and disillusionment. As the stakes increased, both denied their Master. There, the similarity breaks off. Judas, remorseful but apparently unrepentant, accepted the logical consequences of his deed, took his own life, and went down as the greatest traitor in history. He died unwilling to receive what Jesus had come to offer him. Peter, humiliated but still open to Jesus' message of grace and forgiveness, went on to lead a revival in Jerusalem and did not stop until he reached Rome." -from The Jesus I Never Knew

I quoted the above paragraph because I recently finished reading Philip Yancey's The Jesus I Never Knew, and though I had often thought about Judas and Peter as individuals, I had never before considered them as just two of a group.

We tend to focus on Judas, because we judge his betrayal to have been the worst. Judas sold Jesus for thirty pieces of silver, and kissed him in order to identify him to those who came to arrest him, but Peter denied him three times. And, pardoning John, the rest of the disciples fled. Those who had sworn to follow him to death (Matthew 26:35) abandoned him at the first sign of trouble.

Before God, all sins are equal. A 'small' sin separates you from God, just the same as a 'big' sin. So in Jesus' sight, Judas and Peter were equally in need of forgiveness, and he would have forgiven them both, had both of them been willing. As it was, Judas was not willing. He chose death. Peter, however, was forgiven. When Christ asked for his love, Peter gave it. He chose forgiveness.

We have all betrayed Christ, in our own way. Perhaps our betrayal was not like that of Judas, or even that of Peter, but it was betrayal all the same. Before we were Christians, and since becoming Christians, we have all turned our backs to Christ and gone our own way. But, having sinned and betrayed Christ, how will we respond?

I pray that we will respond as Peter did, with repentance, putting the sin and betrayal behind us and devoting ourselves to loving obedience, instead of choosing Judas' response: death. There are really only two options.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son."

-John 3:16-18