QUESTION: If Jesus knew that Judas was going to betray him, why did he continue to permit him as disciple?

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 6:70-71 - Bible Gateway passage: John 6:70-71 - New King James Version

 

Christ chose Judas to be not just a disciple, but also an Apostle. There may be a number of reasons why.

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Here are several possibilities:

 

1. every individual must personally trust Christ for salvation (Judas never did)
Holding a high office in church is no guarantee one is saved
It is possible to hoodwink Christians, but not Christ (Judas was the treasurer)

 

2. Having an enemy in the group day and night who could bring no evidence of wrong doing against Him in a hostile, prejudiced court attests to the sinlessness of the Savior

 

3. Judas death by his own hand dramatically demonstrates that no amount of remorse for crimes against Christ can replace saving faith in Him.

Christ had earlier warned of the danger of the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit and said there was no forgiveness for that crime “in this life or the life to come.”

Judas committed that damning sin. The sin itself is calling God the Holy Spirit a liar. God the Holy Spirit testifies to all people with irrefutable evidence, Jesus is God in the flesh.

 

Judas saw the miracles, heard the teaching, saw the impeccable life of Jesus daily and rejected the truth daily for some three years. Efforts to make Judas a victim, misunderstood, perhaps saved after all, find no basis in Scripture.

 

4. Why was Judas even needed to betray Christ since crowds of people had seen Him? 
He evidently was quite common in appearance in spite of religious art to the contrary. He could easily blend into a crowd unless He was addressing them.

The presence of a crowd was a problem for the authorities since He was a popular figure. Both the Pharisees and the Roman authorities did not want to instigate an embarrassing riot which would have to be explained in Rome. The Sanhedrin had conspired to kill Jesus several times but “feared the crowd”, the common people, who “heard Him gladly”.

So Judas help was needed to arrest Him away from crowds and at night.

The darkness, illuminated only by torches, also required the help of Judas to correctly identify Jesus among the disciples.

 

Jesus primary mission was to die as a sinless sacrifice for our sins. Interestingly, early on He called Peter, who speaking form uninformed love, tried to keep Him from going to the cross, “Devil. 

 

Yet Judas, who was a Devil, was called “friend”, as he opened the door to the crucifixion. Such was the commitment of our Savior to justify us by His death, as He “set His face as flint” to go to Calvary.

 

have youpersonnu trustdd Christ and therefore know you have eternal life? John 5:24