He was numbered among us and was allotted his share in this ministry.  Acts 1:17

Did you know that the betrayal of Judas was planned into the plan of Salvation?  Now, God didn’t make Judas betray Jesus—He is not author or the cause of evil, but God planned what Judas would do into His redemptive plan.  Just like God uses godless men throughout the scriptures to bring about and accomplish His purposes, He used Judas’ betrayal. 

Peter understood this which is why he says what he does in Acts 1:16-17.  He says, 

Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus.  For he was numbered among us and was allotted his share in this ministry.

Peter says here that the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David about Judas’ betrayal.  Though Judas, like Peter, James and John—like Andrew and Thomas and the rest was called by Christ to be His disciple—though he was numbered among the 12, he was an enemy of Christ. 

Though some argue for the salvation of Judas, he was not saved.  One reason we know this is because of Jesus’ words in John 6:64.  He says,

But there are some of you who do not believe.  (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.)

Here John mentions Judas in the same breath he’s talking about those who do not believe in Jesus.  We are also told in the Scriptures that it would have been better had Judas never been born.  If Judas’ betrayal, which sent Christ to the cross led to Judas’ salvation, why would it have been better for him had he never been born?  You don’t hear that kind of language used of Peter who rejected Christ or about Paul who for a time rejected him and persecuted Christians.  The reason being they were repentant and restored to God while Judas was not.

Though Judas admitted guilt, his repentance was on the basis that Jesus wasn’t a criminal, not on the basis that He was the Son of God.  There is a difference.  In Matthew 27:4, Judas says, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.”  Notice he does not say, “I have betrayed the Son of God.”  Judas was sorry because he believed Jesus to be an innocent man—same as Pontius Pilate.

For all of those reasons and more, believers are not going to see Judas in glory and its tragic—his story is one of the most tragic in all of Scripture.  Though he was associated with Christ and His disciples and His ministry, he did not belong to Him.

There are many in our churches like that today.  Though they have grown up in the church and around Christians and Christian ministry, they have never made Christ Lord of their life and we are told that in that future day when Christ returns they will be the ones who say, “Lord, look at all we did for you!  Look at how often we attended church, look at how much we served, look at how much we gave!”  And we are told that in that day He will respond by saying, “Depart from me.  I never knew you.”  Why?  “Because you never gave your life up and over to me.”