Then Judas, which had betrayed him
Before, he is described as he that shall, or should, or doth
betray him; but now having perpetrated the horrid sin, as he that
had done it.
When he saw that he was condemned;
that is, that Jesus was condemned, as the Syriac and Persic
versions read, either by the Jewish sanhedrim, or by Pilate, or
both; for this narrative concerning Judas may be prophetically
inserted here, though the thing itself did not come to pass till
afterwards; and the sense be, that when he, either being present
during the whole procedure against Christ; or returning in the
morning after he had received his money, and had been with his
friends; finding that his master was condemned to death by the
sanhedrim, who were pushing hard to take away his life; that they
had delivered him bound to the Roman governor; and that he, after
an examination of him, had committed him to the soldiers to mock,
and scourge, and crucify him; and seeing him leading to the place
of execution,
repented himself:
not for the sin, as committed against God and Christ; but as it
brought a load of present guilt and horror upon his mind, and
exposed him to everlasting punishment: it was not such a
repentance by which he became wiser and better; but an
excruciating, tormenting pain in his mind, by which he became
worse; therefore a different word is here used than what commonly
is for true repentance: it was not a godly sorrow for sin, or a
sorrow for sin, as committed against God, which works repentance
to salvation not to be repented of; but a worldly sorrow, which
issues in death, as it did in him. It did not spring from the
love of God, as evangelical repentance does, nor proceed in the
fear of God, and his goodness; but was no other than a foretaste
of that worm that dieth not, and of that fire which cannot be
quenched: it was destitute of faith in Christ; he never did
believe in him as the rest of the disciples did; see ( John 6:64 John 6:70 John 6:71 ) , and that
mourning which does not arise from looking to Jesus, or is not
attended with faith in him, is never genuine. Judas's repentance
was without hope of forgiveness, and was nothing else but horror
and black despair, like that of Cain's, like the trembling of
devils, and the anguish of damned souls. It looks as if Judas was
not aware that it would issue in the death of Christ: he was
pushed on by Satan, and his avarice, to hope, that he should get
this money, and yet his master escape; which he imagined he might
do, either through such a defence of himself, as was not to be
gainsaid; or that he would find out ways and means of getting out
of the hands of the Jews, as he had formerly done, and with which
Judas was acquainted: but now, there being no hope of either,
guilt and horror seize his mind, and gnaw his conscience; and he
wishes he had never done the accursed action, which had entailed
so much distress and misery upon him:
and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief
priests
and elders:
which was the sum he; had covenanted for, and they had agreed to
give him, on condition of delivering Jesus into their hands,
which he had done: and it appears from hence, that the money had
been accordingly paid him, and he had received it. But he being
filled with remorse of conscience for what he had done, feels no
quietness in his mind; nor could he save of what he had desired,
but is obliged to return it; not from an honest principle, as in
the case of true repentance, but on account of a racking and
torturing conscience.