I have covered this topic before but wanted to explore the "commonality" issue as well between these two states. It is sobering to think that the son of perdition; Judas Iscariot himself was so burdened by his betrayal of a "righteous man" that he hung himself. There are a lot of things we can learn from this. He obviously used to his advantage the notoriety of Christ to pilfer moneys that may have been donated anonymously; and perhaps even followed along feeling that it earned him prestige to be able to see such miracles in the presence of Jesus and the other Apostles. Even the enemy of our souls isn't so stupid as to try to directly attack Christ or go beyond what he is granted; but will lead the world to attack Christ at His return. Pride is what causes a fall; in Judas' case; he could have been like Peter and wept because he abandoned Christ; or like the thief on the cross who made a last minute plea at the site of his death a short time later. Pride it would seem kept Judas from confessing his sin to the rest of the Disciples; or asking God for forgiveness. It is possible that he genuinely felt bad for seeing the suffering that was inflicted on Christ from a human level or perspective. Many professing Christians may not even have such emotions that they should about Christ's suffering as a man.
We all; of course to be saved have to have Godly sorrow which takes into account God's Holiness and Christ being the Son of God; part of the Godhead and what He had to condescend to and suffer more than any other in our behalf. It is LOVE that brings us to true repentance; where His Spirit testifies with our spirit that we are children of God. In that sense then it is the only way we can truly love ourselves; because we recognize it is He who lives in us. He grants us life before we can ever be made righteous. We all should feel SOMETHING emotionally as a response but only He can free us from ourselves.
I have covered this topic before but wanted to explore the "commonality" issue as well between these two states. It is sobering to think that the son of perdition; Judas Iscariot himself was so burdened by his betrayal of a "righteous man" that he hung himself. There are a lot of things we can learn from this. He obviously used to his advantage the notoriety of Christ to pilfer moneys that may have been donated anonymously; and perhaps even followed along feeling that it earned him prestige to be able to see such miracles in the presence of Jesus and the other Apostles. Even the enemy of our souls isn't so stupid as to try to directly attack Christ or go beyond what he is granted; but will lead the world to attack Christ at His return. Pride is what causes a fall; in Judas' case; he could have been like Peter and wept because he abandoned Christ; or like the thief on the cross who made a last minute plea at the site of his death a short time later. Pride it would seem kept Judas from confessing his sin to the rest of the Disciples; or asking God for forgiveness. It is possible that he genuinely felt bad for seeing the suffering that was inflicted on Christ from a human level or perspective. Many professing Christians may not even have such emotions that they should about Christ's suffering as a man.
We all; of course to be saved have to have Godly sorrow which takes into account God's Holiness and Christ being the Son of God; part of the Godhead and what He had to condescend to and suffer more than any other in our behalf. It is LOVE that brings us to true repentance; where His Spirit testifies with our spirit that we are children of God. In that sense then it is the only way we can truly love ourselves; because we recognize it is He who lives in us. He grants us life before we can ever be made righteous. We all should feel SOMETHING emotionally as a response but only He can free us from ourselves.
Agape.
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