Is Judas in heaven or hell?

There has been much debate over the actions of Judas in Matthew 27:3-5.

He throws the thirty pieces of silver at the temple then goes and hangs himself.

At the very least, Judas realized those thirty pieces of silver, his idea of the better way, was far from better.

He was remorseful, but is Judas in heaven or hell?

Again, there is debate here, but I tend to agree that Judas was remorseful but not repentant. I appreciate this insight by Ray Pritchard—

“Where is Judas today? Is he in heaven or is he in hell? The Bible is very clear on that point: Judas is in hell. In Acts 1:25, Peter spoke of Judas who left his apostolic ministry “to go where he belongs.”

Literally, the verse reads “to go to his own place.” “His own place” is hell. If that seems harsh, consider the words of Jesus in John 6:70-71 when he said,
“Have I not chosen you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil!” (He meant Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, who, though one of the Twelve, was later to betray him.)
He did not literally mean that Judas was a demon, but that Judas was even then (about a year before the crucifixion) acting under Satan’s influence.

Listen to Jesus as he prays in the Upper Room on Thursday night. Judas has left to make the final arrangements. Even now the soldiers are gathering for the march to the Mount of Olives. The final act is about to play itself out. Meanwhile, Jesus is praying for his disciples: “While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled” (John 17:12).

Judas is in hell today. He has been there for 2,000 years and he will be there forever. He has paid the ultimate price for the crime of betraying the Son of God.
If someone asks, “Did Judas lose his salvation?” the answer is No. He didn’t lose his salvation because he never had it. Whatever else you can say about him, he was never a follower of Jesus Christ in the same sense as the other apostles. He was not saved and then lost. He was lost because he was never saved in the first place.

But someone else may ask, “Did Judas go to hell because he committed suicide?” Good question, and the answer is once again No. Suicide is a sin, but it is not why Judas went to hell. Judas went to hell because he never truly committed himself to Jesus Christ. His betrayal proved that fact; his suicide merely sealed his fate.

One final question. “Doesn’t the Bible say that Judas ‘repented?’” The older translations do indeed use that word in Matthew 27:3. A more accurate rendering is “seized with remorse.” Although Judas was gripped with the wrongness of what he had done, he never asked for forgiveness. There is a world of difference between those two things. Many people who truly feel sorry for their sins never come to God and ask for forgiveness.“

And I (Kim) wonder how many others will one day, after spending their lives going their own way, gut-wrenchingly realize it was the wrong way, the empty way, the lost way…the way to Hell?

Oh, I know it’s not popular to even talk of Hell much less suggest many are walking straight towards it when Jesus stand with open arms offering mercy, grace, forgiveness, life, peace, and Heaven.

But it’s true.

And we need to love others enough to be bold enough to say it.

And I believe Pritchard’s last sentence is worth repeating— “Many people who truly feel sorry for their sins never come to God and ask for forgiveness.”

Oh friends, let’s tell those we love that they can before it’s too late!

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