Yes our Lord is all about Love and Forgiveness...
And I love him Dearly
Deep sigh but yet why no forgiveness  for Judeas ....??

 Does it not a say that it would be better for that man ,
 That he shell never have been born ??? Seems pretty harsh .

And even the Pharasee s who had Our Lord Put to Death
Do not suffer the  same as Judas ...  

I'm not getting it .
God Bless us All .
Happy Easter .

Judas did not repent.

Nailed on first post. Repentance is a prerequisite to forgiveness.

Why would it have been better for him to have never been born, then, according to Jesus in Matthew 26?

Nothing is better than Heaven, and everything is worth getting there. So what could he have possibly suffered that never being born would be better: whether that is non-existence or a natural happiness such as Limbo?

The reality is, it's highly logical to believe Judas is in Hell and illogical to think he is or will be in Heaven.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gospel_of_Judas

Judas was an actor in this beautiful act of Gods love in the same way that Pilate was.

the Plan of Jesus's sacrifice for our sins and behaviors could not have occurred without his act of betrayal.

it was meant to be.

whether or not Judas repented is none of our worry.
it was God's unique plan for our salvation.

Acts 1:25 and Matthew 26:24
seem to imply that he didn’t.

To some it might be an interesting to discuss the fate of Judas and why, but to have sympathy on him after Judas betrayed Jesus to the Pharisees so He could be put to death is completely beyond me.

In John 13:21-27, the Bible says:

After he had said this, Jesus was troubled in spirit and testified, “Very truly I tell you, one of you is going to betray me.”

His disciples stared at one another, at a loss to know which of them he meant. One of them, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was reclining next to him. Simon Peter motioned to this disciple and said, “Ask him which one he means.”

Leaning back against Jesus, he asked him, “Lord, who is it?”

Jesus answered, “It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish.” Then, dipping the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him. So Jesus told him, “What you are about to do, do quickly.”

There are times when the Bible speaks in stories and other times it speaks in a matter-of-fact way. John said that Satan himself entered Judas when Judas took the bread that Jesus offered him. Not a demon, not any other evil spirit, but Satan. What was the condition of Judas' heart that allowed Satan to enter Judas right in front of Jesus? He was fully sold out to Satan. Do you think that Jesus did not see what had just happened? Of course He saw Satan enter Judas. Did He cast Satan out of Judas? No, instead He told Satan/Judas, “What you are about to do, do quickly.”

OP, sympathy for Judas? You might as well have sympathy for the Devil while you are at it.

What a strange perspective.

God is God.

We are not.

God will have mercy on those he wants to, and all others get exactly what they deserve.

God cannot (by definition of who God is) be put underneath anyone else's rules or control. He cannot be put in debt to anyone.

He owed nothing to judas except to give him what he deserved.

If that bothers us, the problem is with us, not God.

And the ability to repent is a free gift, it cannot be earned, if you could it would be something we could brag about.

Not to be pedantic, but it's "confession" that is a prereq to forgiveness.  

Repentance and confession are different things, though we often think of then going together.

1 John 1:9.

The Orthodox Church considers the Sacrament of Repentance to be the more proper term for the entire process that ends in confession, though either one may be used.

What do you think confession is?

It's when you express your repentance.

Unless it says he is in hell then why bother contemplating it? I'd be more concerned for my own heart and what such arguments say about my own heart. If I desire someone to perish then I risk my own soul. For only Christ knows his special investments in each of us, and we cannot judge before his return!


And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted up to heaven? No, you will be brought down to Hades! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Sodom, it would have remained to this day. (Matthew 11:23)

But anyone who says, 'Moros(You are Doomed)!' will be subject to the fire of hell. (Matthew 5:23)

Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men's hearts. At that time each will receive his praise from God. (1 Corinthians 4:5)

Christ has this lesson for even Churches who think they can Judge!
Then I will strike her children dead, and all the churches will know that I am the One who searches minds and hearts, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds. (Revelation 2:23)

Being a lover of money, Judas criticizes Mary's way of showing honor. What he is saying is, "Why did you not offer Him money (so that I could steal it) instead of myrrh?" How can it be that another Evangelist says that all the disciples asked this question? [Mt. 26:8-9] We may say that all the disciples did speak these words, but the others did not share Judas' disposition. The Lord does not rebuke him although He knew that he spoke with a thieving mind. He wished to avoid shaming him, thus teaching us also to be patient and long suffering with such individuals. But in a veiled manner He does chide him for his treachery and willingness to betray Him to death out of love of money. He mentions His burial to wound Judas' unfeeling heart with a pang of conscience, in order to correct him if at all possible. His next words have the same purpose: "the poor always ye have with you; but Me ye have not always, because in a little while I will go away, since you are plotting My death. If I am annoying to you and the honor shown to Me grieves you, wait a short while and you will be free of Me; then you will know if it was indeed for the poor that you needed the sale of the myrrh." If Judas was in fact a lover of money and a thief, why did the Lord give him control of the purse? For the very reason that he was a thief, so that he could not use his love of money as an excuse for his betrayal. He had sufficient consolation for his weakness from handling the purse, but despite this he was not faithful. He bare, which means, carried off and stole, what was put therein, committing sacrilege by taking for himself what had been given for godly purposes. (Let plunderers of sacred things take note whose fate they share.) But the culmination of his wickedness was that he betrayed the Lord. Do you see where love of money leads? To betrayal. Well does Paul call it the root of all evil, since it lead, in this case, to betrayal of the Lord, and in every other instance does exactly the same. [I Tim. 6:10] Some say that Judas was entrusted with the ministry of the funds because it was lower than the other forms of serving. To care for the funds is a lesser ministry than teaching, as the Apostles say in the Book of Acts, It is not reason that we should leave the word of God, and serve tables. [Acts 6:2] - Theophylact of Ochrid AD 1107

And after the morsel Satan entered into him, urging and impelling him to avenge this his disgrace,—to betray to the Jews Christ who had betrayed his villainy. Satan, who had before entered into Judas for the plotting of the betrayal, as was said in verse2 , here again entered into him for its accomplishment; both because Judas, being already called by Christ and the apostles a traitor, dared remain among them no longer lest he should be ill-treated by them, and also because the hour proper for the betrayal, and appointed first by Judas, was near at hand—that hour, namely, when he knew that Christ would, after His wont, go out to pray on Mount Olivet, where He could easily be seized. Wherefore there was no need for John to point out Judas to Peter when Christ pointed out the traitor to him, for Judas soon betrayed himself both by his question and by his departure. So Satan entered into Judas to take complete possession of him, and that with certainty and with a strong hold, so that he brought him soon to the halter. Not that the morsel given him by Christ put the devil into him, for this was a sign of Christ"s love by which He wanted to win the heart of Judas to love Him in return, but that Judas, ungrateful for this love of Christ, took it in bad part, thinking that Christ was giving him the morsel out of hatred and a desire to injure him and make his crime known to the apostles.

Wherefore, bidding farewell to the apostolate of Christ, he went away to the household and the bondage of Satan and of the Jews as a deserter and apostate. So S. Chrysostom, S. Augustine, and Cyril, who observes that a kindness hurts those who are ungrateful not of itself, but through their fault and ingratitude. S. Ambrose (De Cain et Abel, bk. ii. ch4) says—"When Satan put himself into the heart of Judas, Christ went away from him, and in that moment when he received the former he lost the latter." The devil entered into Judas for three reasons. First, for his ingratitude, says S. Augustine; for Christ having discharged all the offices of love towards him, and he not being moved even by these, was left to be fully possessed by the devil. Then again, because the devil knew from the words of the Lord and from outward signs that he was stubborn in his evil will, and given over by the Lord, says Chrysostom (Homily71). Thirdly, because Judas himself understood that he was now found out, and, as it were, separated from the disciples and from their Master; so he became hardened in evil, and, as if in desperation, gave himself over entirely to the devil; and so it was that he went out, unable to bear the looks of his Lord and of the disciples, or, says Euthymius, following S. Chrysostom, fearing lest he should be torn to pieces by them. So Ribera. Notice here in the case of Judas how a man who deserts Christ is palpably deserted by Christ, and when deserted is attacked by Satan—possessed by him, and, when possessed, hurried into every crime, and then into the abyss. Just as Judas from an apostle became a devil, so Lucifer from the fairest of angels became the darkest of evil spirits,—as the sourest vinegar is made from the sweetest wine, and the heretic—Luther, for instance—nay, the heresiarch, is made from the monk.

And Jesus said to him: What thou doest, do more quickly—more quickly, that is quickly, as the Syriac translates it; the comparative is put for the positive. Christ is not precipitating the treason of Judas, but He permits it. He says as it were: Think not that thy doings are hidden from Me; I know that thou art meditating treason. He did not tell him to commit the crime, says S. Augustine, but He foretold it, not so much in wrathful desire for the destruction of the villain, as in haste for the safety of the faithful. He permitted it, saying, as it were: Do what thou hast begun, finish what thou didst intend; in a thousand ways could I hinder thee, but I will not; rather do I leave thee to thy free will. Do what thou hast planned in thy heart. Thirdly, S. Chrysostom says they are words of reproach. I know that thou art working great evil against Me, from whom thou hast received so many gifts; are these the injuries thou repayest Me for so many kindnesses? But do what thou hast to do. For even though I have made known thy crime, yet have I not done so as fearing it, nor would I wish to hinder it; for if I wished I could do so; but in order to cast before thine eyes thy malice and thy shamelessness, and to reprove thee. Fourthly, they are the words of a lofty mind that despises all the machinations of Judas. St. Leo (Serm1 , On the Passion) says, "It is the voice of one who commands not but permits, of one not fearing but prepared, who, holding all time in His power, showed that He allowed no delay to the traitor, and that He so followed out the will of the Father for the redemption of the world, as neither to prompt nor fear the crime that was being matured." Fifthly, they are the words of one excluding Judas, as incorrigible, from His family and the fellowship of the apostles. Since thou wilt sever thyself from us, I exclude thee from My table, from My house, My apostolate, and My companionship; get thee gone, then, to thine own Jews and to Satan, to whom thou hast sold thyself. So S. Ambrose (De Cain et Abel, bk. ii. ch4). Cyril (bk. ix. ch17), following Origen, interprets in a novel fashion, taking these things as said by Christ not to Judas but to Satan, who was entering into Judas. He says that, "Just as if a mighty man against whom some one advances with hostile intent, trusting in his own might, doubts not but that his adversary shall fall, and, with loud and threatening noise, speaks: What thou doest do quickly, that thou mayest know the strength of my right hand. Such words we would not call so much the words of one in haste to die, as of one who knew before that his adversary must fall. So our Lord bids the devil run quickly to the things he has made ready, that being conquered and bound he may the sooner relieve the world of his tyranny." But from what we have said it is clear that this was said to Judas and not to Satan, as the Fathers and interpreters generally hold. - Cornelius a Lapide AD 1637

The Son of Man indeed goeth, &c. Good were it for that man if he had not been born. For "far better is it not to exist at all, than to exist in evil. The punishment is foretold, that him whom shame had not conquered, the denunciation of punishment might correct," says S. Jerome. He threatens him with the woe of damnation. For far better is it not to be, than to exist only to be endlessly miserable, as I have shown on Ecclesiastes 4:2-3. Wisely does S. Jerome say (Epist. ad Furiam), "It is not their beginning which is inquired about in Christians, but their ending. Paul began badly but ended well. Judas" beginning was commended, but his end was to be condemned as a traitor." Goeth. "By this word," says Victor of Antioch, "Christ showeth that His death is like rather to a departure or passing away, than to real death. He signifies, likewise, by it that He went voluntarily to death." Moreover, the betrayal of Judas was an act of infinite sacrilege, perpetrated directly against the very Person of Christ and God. Thus it was true deicide. Wherefore it is exceedingly probable that Judas abides in the deepest pit of Gehenna, near to Lucifer, and is there grievously tormented. And this seems to be indicated by the word woe, which Christ here pronounces upon him above the rest of the reprobates. Blessed Francis Borgia was wont, in meditation, in the depth of his humility, to place himself at the feet of Judas, that is to say, in the lowest pit of hell, exclaiming that there was no other place fit for him, neither in Heaven, nor in earth, nor under the earth, as the due reward of his sins. - Cornelius a Lapide AD 1637