In fact, the intensity of Christ’s love broke all their trust in themselves, and caused them to be ashamed and penitent that they confessed their lack of goodness and righteousness, resorting to the grace of the Lord Jesus who could keep them from the evil deed.
Christ also said this self-examining statement to Judas that he might repent. But the traitor’s hand trembled when he heard Christ’s reference to his hand, which dipped the sop in the dish of sauce together with the hands of Christ and the other disciples.
The Savior, who had earlier proclaimed the covenant with God, expresses now the divine woe to him who would trample on this covenant willfully. The torment and destruction of this man will be horrible and beyond understanding, for he took the Lord’s Supper cautiously, bore Christ in his heart, and then denied him, hated him, and betrayed him. Satan himself kindled the hellfire in his conscience, and therefore hope disappeared in him.
Christ saw his own way with divine clearness, from the beginning to the end, consistent with his Father’s will. In order to redeem the evil world, he came to death willingly, and fulfilled his assignment. Yet at the same time he suffered for Judas, the lost sheep whom the fullness of grace became his, but he trampled it under his feet.