Chosen

I am not speaking of all of you; I know whom I have chosen (John 13:18).

Because Jesus is the Christ, fully God and fully man, He retained the attributes of deity in His humanity. One attribute that He retained was His omniscience. I will not say He knew all things, because He didn’t, but He did know all that the Father revealed to Him in His human consciousness. For instance, nearly all New Testament scholars agree that in Matthew 24 Jesus foretold two judgments - the first on Jerusalem and the Temple in A.D. 70 (Matthew 23:38; 26:61), and the second at the end of the age with His second coming (Matthew 24:3,14,23–27). And yet as to the day and hour of His second coming He said He didn’t know. Why? The Father had not revealed that to Jesus’ human consciousness (Matthew 24:36). As Son of Man, Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man (Luke 2:52).

And yet, as the Son of God, Jesus knew many things in ways humans cannot know. He knew Nathanael before He ever met him (John 1:48). He perceived the wickedness in the hearts of the Pharisees (Matthew 22:18). He knew the thoughts of the Pharisees when He cast out demons from a blind and mute man (Matthew 12:24). He knew what they were thinking when He healed the man with the withered hand (Luke 6:8). And He knew Judas was a devil from the very beginning (John 6:70) and would betray Him (John 13:10-11).

This was the point Jesus wanted to make with His disciples at the last Passover. Each disciple was specifically chosen by Jesus to fulfill a specific role as a disciple, then as an apostle - including Judas Iscariot. Jesus was not caught off guard or surprised by Judas’ treachery. He was chosen to be a disciple for that purpose so that the Father’s plan for our salvation could be carried out through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. “But didn’t you say Judas could have repented and turned to Jesus for forgiveness before betraying the Lord?” Yes, I did. But Jesus knew he wouldn’t repent of his sin of betrayal. How? The sovereign omnipotence of the Father did not conceal that from Jesus as He did the day and hour of His second coming. If we have a problem with that, we can only appeal to the fact that some mysteries of the Godhead are not revealed to us; we don’t need to know some things in the holy counsel of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Jesus specifically chose Judas Iscariot to be a disciple in order to fulfill the Scriptures. (John 17:11-12) Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. This was known in the counsel of the Godhead centuries before Jesus was born. (Zechariah 11:12-13) Then I said to them, "If it is agreeable to you, give me my wages; and if not, refrain." So they weighed out for my wages thirty pieces of silver. And the LORD said to me, "Throw it to the potter" - that princely price they set on me. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the LORD for the potter (see Matthew 27:3-10). Amen.

Pastor