A Couple Of “Both/And”‘s

TUES., AUG. 1, 1995, 8:54 PM
FARM, STUDY

As you read the Scripture passage from John that will be your study focus for tomorrow you initially are troubled, again, by the question of whether Jesus is really going to die… and whether Judas actually betrayed Him. As expected, I tell you it only “makes sense” with both/and thinking.

With either/or thinking I will die or I won’t. The crucifixion is essential to My sacrificial death, the propitiation for your sins. So… I must actually be going to die. But then there is the statement in this passage… I shall be with My Father. That doesn’t sound like death, and in a spiritual sense no statement could better represent life than the affirmation of being with God, the Father. So, you’re left with the reality that I will die… but I won’t. My death is going to be real… and, then it won’t be.

Judas’ role in this drama is equally apparent only as a “both/and.” In this passage I speak of Judas as the one who will betray Me, and I use this term as I speak to John. I give Judas the first and choice piece of bread and then tell him to go and do what he must. I don’t confront him and tell him not to betray Me. I don’t tell the disciples in a way that would have them restraining him and preventing him from “doing his part.” I tell him to go so that I will be identified, arrested, and taken to court, as I know I must be.

The passage says that satan enters him, and he responds with this apparently betraying act. But don’t I, as Jesus and as Almighty God have ultimate power over all life and all spirits? I can give up power when it is to My advantage to do so, but such is never “for good” or irrevocable. The spirit of satan has no power that I do not give or allow. Hence, I am using poor Judas as a means to accomplish My apparent death. He does not really have a choice. For what if I let him be dissuaded by the other disciples, by Me, as Jesus, and also by Me, the Holy Spirit, Who certainly was around that gathering? Then I’d have to give Myself up, and that’s not as “good” as being betrayed and arrested, as if I didn’t want this to happen.

As I’ve told you before, Judas (and satan, too) did his part well, took his own life in an act of atonement, but was forgiven by Me, in My Triune Self, in My Father’s House. Isn’t it interesting that My death is remembered as an atoning sacrifice for all sin, while Judas’ death is portrayed as a coward’s way out? Actually My death atoned for his sin… which turned out to be doing My Will. You can see how wonderfully complicated life can be, combining the physical and the spiritual. That should give you some input for tomorrow’s after-breakfast discussion.

The other “both/and” on which I’ll comment is that brought to your mind and spirit last Sunday… what about the Jews, that have been extolled as our spiritual ancestors during this Marketplace emphasis on Moses and the Great Escape? I chose them as My special people, starting with Abraham. Then there was Isaac, and then Ishmael and Jacob from Abraham’s only son Isaac. In the Biblical story I rejected Ishmael, whose ancestors were those who responded to a special servant of Mine, Mohammed, becoming the nation of Islam. And I chose Jacob, whose 12 sons became the leaders of 12 tribes, who were My “chosen people.”