Matthew 26:21

And as they were eating, he said, Verily I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me.

Why was this warning spoken? Did our Saviour, by this means and at so late an hour, try to stay the mad progress of Judas on his way to destruction? Was it to impel the heart-searching that immediately followed on the part of them all ? Was it to call attention to another notable prophecy about to be fulfilled? Psalms 41:9 prophesied, "Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, Who did eat of my bread, Hath lifted up his heel against me." Judas was pinpointed by that prophecy. He was Jesus' friend, even an apostle; he was trusted, even carrying the bag; he ate of his bread. Characteristically, Christ expanded and extended the prophecy in more detail, noting in the following conversation that it would be one "who dipped his hand" in the dish with Jesus (Matthew 26:23). Of the Twelve, only one man carried the bag and sat next to Jesus at the table.

The argument that Judas was predestined to the tragic role he played and that he was, therefore, not to blame for his conduct, is false. It was by choice, and by transgression, that Judas fell. God's foreknowledge of it did not require him to commit such a sin. God's knowledge of man's sin (past tense) does not make guilt any less; and, in the same way, God's knowledge of man's sin (future tense) does not mitigate or extenuate it. Judas was not a devil from the beginning; at first he was a noble apostle, receiving from Christ the same commission as the others to heal the sick and cast out demons (see note on Matthew 10:8).