Remorse

Matthew 27:3-5 NLT

When Judas, who had betrayed Him, realised that Jesus had been condemned to die, he was filled with remorse. So he took the thirty pieces of silver back to the leading priests and the elders. [4] "I have sinned," he declared, "for I have betrayed an Innocent Man." "What do we care?" they retorted. "That's your problem." [5] Then Judas threw the silver coins down in the Temple and went out and hanged himself.

The root meaning of the word "remorse" is a guilt feeling that bites with excessive force.

Here we read of Judas' remorse when he realised that Jesus was to be crucified.

His guilty feeling bit him so deeply and so hard that he tried to make his own reparation, by returning the money to the instigators of Jesus' execution.

They couldn't care less about this tortured soul: "That's your problem"!

Could Judas have waited a few days and found forgiveness from the Resurrected Jesus?

All we know was that the savage teeth of remorse bit so hard that it led him to commit suicide.

A big lesson to learn when we are tortured by the vicious teeth of remorse is to run to Jesus' A & E.

He is the Divine Spiritual "Paramedic" that is always on duty.

He has the power to release us from remorse's relentless jaws and bring us to repentance and complete cleansing:

“Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the LORD, “Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool.

Isaiah 1:18

Remorse tends to twist the mind and make us unreasonable. God wants to bring us to our senses and release us from guilt through repentance and cleansing in Jesus' shed blood.

At a time where people are riven with remorse, desperation and thoughts of suicide, how we need the message of Jesus:

John 3:17 AMPC

For God did not send the Son into the world in order to judge (to reject, to condemn, to pass sentence on) the world, but that the world might find salvation and be made safe and sound through Him.