When Hell Needed Permission

Late last night I was watching something that suddenly brought a few pieces into sharp focus.

Think about that moment in John 13 when Jesus tells Judas, "What you are doing, do quickly." There is more going on there than resignation. John has already told us that Satan had entered Judas. In that light, Jesus is not wringing His hands, not losing control, not being swept along by dark forces. He is speaking with absolute authority, even over the evil that is driving the betrayal forward.

That is what struck me. Satan is never a free agent in the ultimate sense. He rages, schemes, deceives, and destroys, but he does not operate outside of divine sovereignty. In Job, Satan could not touch a thing without permission. Here again, at the threshold of the cross, evil does not lunge forward on its own terms. It moves only as far as God permits.

And if that is what is happening in this scene, then it becomes one more quiet but thunderous witness to Christ's deity. Jesus is not merely predicting betrayal. He is sovereign over the whole dreadful event, giving leave to the adversary to carry out what will, by the wisdom of God, become the very instrument of redemption.

That will preach. The cross was never Satan's victory snatched from a helpless Christ. It was the outworking of the will of God, executed under the authority of the Son, who was Lord still in the very hour of His betrayal.