Why did Judas betray Jesus?
"[Jesus said,] 'But there are some of you who do not believe.' Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe. And he had known who was going to hand him over to his enemies" (John 6:64).
"One of the Twelve went to the chief priests. His name was Judas Iscariot. He asked, 'What will you give me if I hand Jesus over to you?' So they counted out 30 silver coins for him. From then on, Judas watched for the right time to hand Jesus over to them" (Matthew 26:14–16).
Judas chose to sin. He never believed in Jesus as his own Savior and he never truly became Jesus’ follower.People who truly trust in Jesus as their Savior want the things Jesus wants. They don’t want to hurt Him. Judas decided that he’d rather have money than protect the One he claimed to follow. Maybe Judas also was jealous of Jesus and wanted to take Him away from His close friends and loved ones. We can’t know for sure all of the things Judas was thinking.
Satan used Judas to accomplish his goal of killing Jesus. Satan thought that once Jesus died, he’d be in control and win his battle against God. But Jesus is more powerful than death and Satan! He came back to life and then returned to heaven.
Even though Judas did a very horrible thing—a sin that led to Jesus’ death—God made a good thing come out of this evil. Jesus came back to life, and we can trust in Him as our own Savior from our sins.
