COMING back to these two verses the next word or phrase to notice is the word 'betrayed'. Jesus said here “The Son of man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men.”. We all know that Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus, and that he betrayed Jesus into to the hands of the Jewish leaders and rulers. What we do not so often consider is the awfulness of this act and the source of the act.

Judas planned to betray Jesus. Why he planned to do it was because his heart was still in the world even though he lived as a disciple of Jesus. Deep in his heart he followed the world and not Jesus. This reveals the condition of the human heart which is not changed by Christ. The heart is deceitful above all and desperately wicked. The heart is far from the Lord. The heart is at enmity with God. Judas did this terrible thing of betraying the Lord of glory, but the same spirit is in every human being unless they receive new birth through faith in Christ. Like the Jewish leaders people disown Christ, and it is just as real if it is simply done by excluding Jesus from their lives, and not wanting to think of him, hear of him, or come to him. In John 13 we read that Jesus indicated that Judas would betray him by dipping bread in water and giving it to him. What perhaps we miss is verse 27 where we read that after Judas had received the sop Satan entered into him. Judas' betrayal of Jesus reveals the condition of all humanity outside of Christ. They are under the dominion of Satan, and they do not realize it. This is just as true even for those who appear upright, moral and good people. In spite of this if they reject Christ, they are under Satan's dominion. This is true even of people who are church members but have not applied to Christ truly for the cleansing of their sin, and the renewing of their lives. The fact of Judas betraying Jesus opens to us the drastic and ugly condition of the human heart outside of Christ. Judas was one of the twelve disciples of Jesus, yet he betrayed Jesus.

Then we read that Jesus was betrayed into the hands of men. These men were the Jewish leaders, but it reveals that they were agents of Satan. Their hate of Jesus was because, in spite of outward appearances of religion and serving God, they at heart were agents of Satan. Here again this is the truth about humanity. A person is either an agent of Christ by faith, or and agent of Satan. This accounts for all the trouble we see in the world today, and the trouble we read about all down history.

“They will kill him”. This is not just an exposure of the wickedness of the human heart, but more importantly that Jesus knew he was going to die. In fact it was not just that Jesus deduced from how things were going in Palestine at that time towards him, but rather that he was expressing the purpose of his coming into the world.

Many people today seem to think that Jesus had no more knowledge of his future in his earthly life than any other person, and that he was overtaken by events, which he began to see developing, and in love accept this because he loved people. This is not how the Bible speaks of his death. Peter in his sermon on the day of Pentecost says that Jesus was “handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge” (Acts 2:23-24). In 1 Peter 1:20 we read “He was chosen before the creation of the world” and this choosing is seen in the context to be a choosing to be a sacrifice on the cross as a lamb without blemish, so that sinners could be washed clean of their sin by his precious blood. When Jesus, at the age of 12, told his mother that he must be about his Father's business, he meant God's business, and there is no doubt that he was speaking of his work to save sinners by his death for us. Though Jesus was killed by the hands of men, and they were responsible, his death was the purpose of God, so that God could be just when he justified the ungodly. This is why being counted just before God is only received through Christ, and faith in him.

In this declaration of Jesus here in these two verses in Matthew Jesus is telling them and us that his death was at the heart of his work, and that he had to die, because without his death he would not become the Saviour of sinners. The death of Jesus is the corner stone of saving religion. It is only by the death of Jesus for the sins of the world, that we sinners can be saved from our sin and its deserving of everlasting death and misery in hell.

Then lastly Jesus speaks of his resurrection. He spoke of the necessity of his death, but he also spoke of his certain victory over death. Jesus was to die for our sins, but he was going to do it, and did it perfectly and completely and made full atonement for our sins, and this is testified to by his rising from death. The punishment for sin he was suffering came to an end when he rose from death, and why was this? It was because he had finished this great work of making atonement for sin, and now the punishment of sin which is death could cease.

We are told in the New Testament that God raised Jesus from the dead, by this we see that the resurrection of Jesus was God's testimony, as judge of all the earth, that Jesus had met all the holy demands of his law and justice on behalf of sinners, and so in Jesus the punishment had been finished, and so Jesus could be delivered from death and rise again.