Let us first lay out some facts.
Judas was chosen.
But Simon Peter answered Him,Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.
Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.
Jesus answered them,Did I not choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?
He spoke of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, for it was he who would betray Him, being one of the twelve.
(John 6:68-71 NKJV)
The word devil is diabalos in Greek and comes from the Greek preposition dia which means through, and the word balos which means to throw. It is the idea of throwing a dagger through someone. Judas threw a dagger through Jesus when he betrayed Him.
The father gave Judas to Jesus:
While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.
(John 17:12)
I found a list of contradictions
in the Bible on a web site.
In the list was one about Judas and the above verse,
in contradiction
to the following verse.
Jesus answered,I have told you that I am He. Therefore, if you seek Me, let these go their way,
that the saying might be fulfilled which He spoke,Of those whom You gave Me I have lost none.
(John 18:8-9)
So the contradiction is that in John 17, Jesus admits that he lost Judas,
but one chapter later He says that he lost none.
Both say those whom You gave Me...
and Judas is clearly indicated
as one of the twelve, as the son of perdition.
Let me go to another line of reasoning to establish the principle needed to resolve the above contradiction and then return and show how it is resolved right within the two verses themselves.
First let us go to another verse in the same writing, John 12:32,
And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself.
And also 1 Tim 4:10, For to this end we both labor and suffer reproach,
because we trust in the living God, who is the Savior of all men,
especially of those who believe.
These two verses and many others are quoted by those who believe that in the eternal ages all men who have ever lived or ever will live will finally be saved. This is of coarse not believed by the majority of Christians, pastors and theologians. So rather than going that far, let us confine our question to Judas first. Jesus said that He chose Judas, as one of the twelve. The Father gave Judas to Him. And Jesus said He lost none except the son of perdition (Judas). But then just a little later He said He lost none of them, without making the exception.
Let us see what Judas did after he betrayed Jesus.
When morning came, all the chief priests and elders of the people plotted against Jesus to put Him to death.
2 And when they had bound Him, they led Him away and delivered Him to Pontius Pilate the governor.
3 Then Judas, His betrayer, seeing that He had been condemned, was remorseful and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders,
4 saying,I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.And they said,What is that to us? You see to it!
5 Then he threw down the pieces of silver in the temple and departed, and went and hanged himself.
6 But the chief priests took the silver pieces and said,It is not lawful to put them into the treasury, because they are the price of blood.
7 And they consulted together and bought with them the potter's field, to bury strangers in.
8 Therefore that field has been called the Field of Blood to this day.
9 Then was fulfilled what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying,And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the value of Him who was priced, whom they of the children of Israel priced,
10 and gave them for the potter's field, as the Lord directed me.
(Matthew 27:1-10)
In verse 3 it says Then Judas, His betrayer,
seeing that He (Jesus) had been condemned, was remorseful
.
So it would seem that Judas did not expect that.
We do not know quite what was going on in Judas' mind,
but apparently he was not really wanting Jesus death,
but perhaps in some twisted way wanted something else to happen,
perhaps he tried to help God by putting his miracle working leader into a position
where he would work a really big miracle
and they could get on with the much desired business
of restoring the kingdom to Israel.
Who knows what?
But at any rate, it seems to indicate that the result
was not quite what Judas expected or wanted.
He was remorseful and brought back the thirty pieces of silver
to the chief priests and elders, saying,
I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.
Then to summarize a bit the money was used to buy the potter's field where Judas fell. And continuing in verse 9:
Then was fulfilled what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying,And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the value of Him who was priced, whom they of the children of Israel priced,
and gave them for the potter's field, as the Lord directed me.
(Matthew 27:9-10)
So when we find where such words are written in the Old Testament, we have Zechariah 11:13:
And the Lord said to me,Throw it to the potter—that princely price they set on me. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the Lord for the potter.
But did you notice the problem?
Here is another one of the contradictions
on the list I found on the Internet.
These words are found in Zechariah, not Jeremiah.
But notice that Matthew says,
... what was spoken by Jeremiah ...
, not written.
Jesus so often said as it is written
or have you not read
.
So here when Matthew wrote, what was spoken
,
he wrote exactly what He meant.
So we have no contradiction at all.
Before we go on to the contradiction
that we started with,
let us look into the matter at hand further.
If Zechariah wrote words very similar to what Jeremiah only spoke, why didn't Matthew simply quote what was written and save us all the temporary embarrassment of a seeming contradiction?
The Lord's amazing wisdom is seen again. It is most informative now to see what Jeremiah wrote on the subject of the potter. The Holy Spirit is directing our attention to Jeremiah rather than Zechariah. Jeremiah's first mention of the potter is this:
The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying:
2Arise and go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause you to hear My words.
3 Then I went down to the potter's house, and there he was, making something at the wheel.
4 And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter; so he made it again into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make.
5 Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
6O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter?says the Lord.Look, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel!
(Jeremiah 18:1-6)
Paul no doubt saw this glorious hidden truth (mystery) and therefore wrote in Romans 11:25-26:
25 For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.
26 And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written:The Deliverer will come out of Zion, And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob;
Remember that Judas is part of all Israel
, who will be saved.
Let us look at another thing that Jesus said:
Matt 18:12What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine and go to the mountains to seek the one that is straying?
Luke 15:4What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it?
Didn't Jesus say that the son of perdition (Judas) was lost, one who the Father gave Him, and He had chosen? Do you think He will not do with the one lost, just as he said in His parable?
If we understand and believe what Jesus said in all these things,
then we have our solution to the contradiction
first mentioned.
Here are the two apparently conflicting verses again: John 17:12
While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.
And John 18:8-9
Jesus answered,I have told you that I am He. Therefore, if you seek Me, let these go their way,
that the saying might be fulfilled which He spoke,Of those whom You gave Me I have lost none.
The key to resolving this contradiction
is right in Jesus own words in these two verses.
In John 17:12 He says While I was with them in the world
.
During that limited period of time, one was lost.
And indeed He did leave
the rest to find
the one He lost, and remake him into another vessel.
That is why Judas fell in the potter's field.