John 13:2

And during supper, the devil having already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him.

The devil ... The great protagonist of evil on earth is a person, called here the devil, and identified as Satan throughout the Bible. He is a being of supernatural power but is himself a creature and does not share control of the universe with God. Satan has the power to suggest and motivate evil deeds, as here; but this power is effective only in those souls who have consented to evil domination. Judas had already consented to sin and readily became the instrument of Satan through an act of his own volition. See my Commentary on Matthew, Matthew 4:2; 8:26,32; 112:29; 28:11,15.

Judas Iscariot, Simon's son ...

CONCERNING JUDAS ISCARIOT

Judas was named one of the Twelve by Jesus and, along with the others, was commissioned to "heal the sick and raise the dead" (Matthew 10:7); and it must therefore be inferred that at the time of his call Judas was not evil. However, by the time of the great defection recorded in John 6, Judas had fallen. "One of you is a devil" (John 6:70), Jesus said, which is sometimes amended to read, "a devil from the beginning," which of course is not true. A deduction from the events recorded in John 6 indicates that Judas, like so many of his countrymen, expected a temporal Messiah; and the knowledge that Jesus would never be that kind of Messiah turned his heart away from the Lord. In any case, he became unsympathetic to the ideals of the Master, used the common treasury, which he carried, for his own purposes, and drifted more and more into rebellion and defiance, even betraying the Lord, at last, for thirty pieces of silver.

Judas, like all people, had freedom of the will and might have elected a more honorable course, but chose instead to betray the Lord. The thesis so often advocated that people "are not responsible for what they do,"[1] and that society is to blame for the vicious acts of criminals is negated by the record of Judas. Wherein did Jesus fail the traitor? See my Commentary on Matthew, Matthew 26:49.

That Judas was truly an apostle at first is verified by the sacred record that he "by transgression fell" (Acts 1:25 KJV). It is axiomatic that one cannot fall from an eminence that he does not have. Some have sought to extenuate Judas' sin on the grounds that he probably expected Jesus to extricate himself by some supernatural act, or upon the theory that he "atoned" for his misdeed by returning the money and committing suicide. All sins can be rationalized, and Judas might indeed have rationalized the betrayal; but all such rationalizations of criminal behavior are futile. The deed of betrayal itself was one of unique shame and ugliness.

The death of Judas and the disposition of the returned money are discussed in my Commentary on Matthew, Matthew 27:10, where particular attention is given to the alleged contradiction in the two accounts of Judas' death.