Another Excerpt from "Our Lord Prays for His Own"

This excerpt continues in John 17:12 with the phrase “the son of perdition is lost, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.”

There is something unutterably mysterious about the person and character of Judas Iscariot. The Lord says he was “the son of perdition.” The only other place in the New Testament, indeed in the Bible, where this expression occurs is in 2 Thessalonians 2:3, 4 in speaking of the antichrist.

The Lord also declares (John 6:70) that he was “a devil.” As God was in Christ, so Satan was in Judas, But, of course, we only express an opinion. It is a remarkable fact that the Lord should call him by the same name that Antichrist is styled by, and that He should also say of him that he was “a devil.”

Judas Iscariot never fell from grace, for he never had it, he was “the son of perdition,” he was “a thief,” he was “a devil,” and the Scripture was fulfilled in his fall, for long ago it had been foretold. And the Lord Himself alludes to the fact,

“I speak not of you all: I know whom I have chosen: but that the Scripture may be fulfilled, He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me.” (John 13:18)

He did fall from an exalted office, and a successor was appointed to take “part in this ministry and apostleship, from which Judas by transgression fell.” Judas had a high and an exalted office in the Church of God. Oh! Let us remember that it is one thing to have an office in the church, and quite another thing to be saved. Judas had unspeakable privileges; for years he had been the constant companion of Christ, he had seen Him, handled Him, he had been taught from His own lips, yet he was not saved. I have heard people rash enough to say that if the Church of God did its duty, the whole world would be brought to the knowledge of Christ. That is not so; did not Christ do His duty? Will anyone say Christ was not a faithful minister? And yet one of His twelve apostles was lost. Judas had great gifts, for it is very evident the Lord made no exception with reference to him when He sent them forth “to heal the sick, to cast out devils, and to preach the kingdom,” and if there had been any difference with regard to Judas Iscariot, when the Lord said at supper, “One of you shall betray me,” suspicion would at once have fallen upon him, but each disciple said: “Lord, is it I?” No one thought of suspecting Judas, which would not have been the case if the Lord had made any difference in His dealings personally or relatively between him and the other disciples, as to his office, privileges, or gifts; here, then is a most solemn fact: we might have the highest office possible in the Church of Gid, and be lost; we may sit under the most privileged ministry, and be lost; we may see what patriarchs and prophets desired to see and never saw; we may hear what patriarchs and righteous men desired to hear and never heard, and be utterly lost.

Excerpt from “Our Lord Prays for His Own” by Marcus Rainsford, Moody Press, 1950, page 210-211