What does "Satan entered into him" mean regarding Judas in John 13:27?

Now we get an important statement; after the sop, Satan entered into Judas. There is much in that; there is a familiarity with Christ in an outward way, which where the heart is wrong is a deadly inlet to Satan's power. Satan had already gained Judas's lusts, and suggested the evil; but here he takes possession of him in a personal way, Satan enters into him. He hardens his heart against every natural feeling.

(V. 27). Already lust had opened the heart of Judas to the devil's suggestion, now Satan himself takes possession of Judas. If there was any stirring of conscience left in Judas, any sense of shame, any shrinking from the sin he was about to commit, all is silenced with the entrance of Satan. With Satan there is no hesitation, and henceforth Judas becomes the helpless instrument of his designs. For Judas there is now no turning back, and thus the Lord can say to him, "That thou doest do quickly."

It will be profitable, therefore, before examining these profound words, to point out the circumstances under which they were uttered. The Lord had been teaching His disciples, through His own blessed example, and placing them thereby. under the obligation, to wash one another's feet: "If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you" (vv. 14, 15). Thereupon He proceeded to draw back the veil which concealed the traitor in the midst of His own. And with what infinite sorrow and compassion for this poor slave of Satan He did it! Yea, we read that after He had recalled to them the scripture, "He that eateth bread with Me hath lifted up his heel against Me," He was troubled in spirit, and testified, and said, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, that one of you shall betray Me." It was not simply one of you, but it was one of YOU. Ah! it was that which troubled the Lord in spirit, that one of the twelve, one of His chosen companions, one of those who had heard His blessed words of grace and seen the miracles of His power, one of the objects of His fostering care — that such an one should have yielded to the incitements of Satan to betray Him. Then, in answer to the question of the disciple who was lying on Jesus' breast (Peter could not, and was conscious that he could not, ask it), Jesus said, "He it is, to whom I shall give a sop, when I have dipped it. And when He had dipped the sop, He gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon." Then we have the solemn statement that after the sop Satan entered into Judas. Morally, it was all over with him from this moment. Hitherto Satan had led this poor man, governed him through his lust for money, and thereby hardened his heart against all the gracious influences of the Lord's presence, of His words and works, but at this juncture, as if his day of grace were past, Satan entered and took full possession of the man, leading him captive for the accomplishment of his will. All this is surely implied in the words of Jesus, which were not understood by the other disciples, "That thou doest, do quickly." What a threefold revelation is thus made: first, that nothing was hidden, nor could be hidden, from the eyes of the Lord; secondly, that man's heart is capable of all iniquity; and lastly, that Satan spares no artifices in his ceaseless activities for the destruction of souls.

Jesus points out Judas by the sop, which would have checked any other, but which to him was only the seal of his ruin. It is indeed thus in degree with every favour of God that falls upon a heart that rejects it. After the sop Satan enters into Judas. Wicked already through covetousness, and yielding habitually to ordinary temptations; although he was with Jesus, hardening his heart against the effect of that grace which was ever before his eyes and at his side, and which, in a certain way, was exercised towards him, he had yielded to the suggestion of the enemy, and made himself the tool of the high priests to betray the Lord. He knew what they desired, and goes and offers himself. And when, by his long familiarity with the grace and presence of Jesus while addicting himself to sin, that grace and the thought of the Person of Christ had entirely lost their influence, he was in a state to feel nothing at betraying Him. The knowledge he had of the Lord's power, helped him to give himself up to evil, and strengthened the temptation of Satan; for evidently he made sure that Jesus would always succeed in delivering Himself from His enemies, and, as far as power was concerned, Judas was right in thinking that the Lord could have done so. But what knew he of the thoughts of God? All was darkness, morally, in his soul.

And now, after this last testimony, which was both a token of grace and a witness to the true state of his heart that was insensible to it (as expressed in the Psalm here fulfilled), Satan enters into him, takes possession of him so as to harden him against all that might have made him feel, even as a man, the horrid nature of what he was doing, and thus enfeeble him in accomplishing the evil; so that neither his conscience nor his heart should be awakened in committing it. Dreadful condition! Satan possesses him, until forced to leave him to the judgment from which he cannot shelter him, and which will be his own at the time appointed of God — judgment that manifests itself to the conscience of Judas when the evil was done, when too late (and the sense of which is shown by a despair that his link with Satan did but augment) but which is forced to bear testimony to Jesus before those who had profited by his sin and who mocked at his distress. For despair speaks the truth; the veil is torn away; there is no longer self-deception; the conscience is laid bare before God, but it is before His judgment. Satan does not deceive there; and not the grace, but the perfection of Christ is known. Judas bore witness to the innocence of Jesus, as did the thief on the cross. It is thus that death and destruction heard the fame of His wisdom: only God knows it (Job 28:22-23).

226 So here: after the sop Satan entered into Judas. The devil had already put it into his heart, and he had agreed with the chief priests. Now he proceeds to the deadly act. We have already noticed the distinction between his putting it into his heart and his entering in the energy of active power, overcoming scruples or difficulties, and the corruption of the heart in desire, and the like answerable work of the Spirit of God in us. But we cannot too diligently study the whole position of the Church here marked out in the presence of the adversary, the betrayer; the Spirit of God and the spirit of evil, as shown too within itself; the office and operation of Christ in meek patience concerning it, which, sorrowful as it is, is the part of the Church; the spirit of intercession and loving care; the hatred of evil; the thorough washing; the spirit of communion; the spirit of service; its learning the sorrows of the Lord's mind, and the manner of them; a sorrowful learning (for it is evil) by intimacy of communion, habitual grace of affection which finds its place near Him, "leaning on the breast of Jesus."

Before conversion the flesh is under the dominion of Satan, the conscience being hardened. This was the case with Judas, who loved money and was a thief. When he had taken the sop Satan entered into him to instigate him to unbridled iniquity, and to deliver him afterwards to despair in beholding the result of his crime.

Pharaoh had power enough to keep the Israelites, and the more as they were accustomed to slavery, and latterly of the bitterest kind. Pharaoh had no real rights, any more than Satan. Meanwhile he deceives. Such is the state of the world. This is so true, that the higher one's place is in the world, the more one is really enslaved. A poor man may do many things in the street without any one taking notice of it: the rich man dares not to wound its conventionalities and usages. Our will contributes also to our slavery. If one were to tell us that we are directed, led, retained by Satan, we should not agree to it. In fact he employs the things of the world to drag us into sin. Judas was drawn into his sin because he loved money. Satan entered into his heart to harden his conscience, and to strengthen him in sin, by taking away from him all hope of the mercy of God. Thus there is first the lust, or desire; next the enemy furnishes the occasion or means of satisfying it; then he enters into us. Satan tries to retort the sin on others, and teaches us to do the same. So Adam said, "The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat," making of his heart an excuse for what his hand had done.

But this 27th verse is a very awful word. Then comes the accomplishment of wickedness; therefore he was now given up to wickedness, and could be viewed in no other light by the disciples knowing it. But they knew it not as yet. They had no business with it, but with themselves. The Lord may carefully dip a sop in love, the act of love. It turns to gall in the heart of the unbeliever. Satan enters after it, and what then is the sop but the bitter aggravation of iniquity and evil? 4 But what a dreadful thought, "Satan entered into him"! Oh, how should we dread, not in distrust of the Lord, but ourselves, the deceivings of Satan! for as the Lord can have His saints by His power where Satan's seat is, so Satan can enter where the Lord is sitting at table; after (with) the sop He gives; where the heart is ripe to receive him; and, we must remember, in the sure and infallible care of the sheep, as we have even here; for none fell but Judas, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.

There was sin in Judas's nature: which sin shewed itself in the shape of the love of money. The next thing was, Satan suggesting a way of gratifying this lust, for he loved money more than he loved Jesus. And now we find the result of outward nearness to the Lord while the conscience is unaffected - it was to make Judas reason upon circumstances. He thought, probably, the Lord would deliver Himself, as He had done before; for, when he found it not so, he threw down the money, and said, "I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood." He continues in this nearness to Christ, until, thirdly, we read that "after the sop Satan entered into him." In the condition of hypocrisy he gets his heart hardened; and then Satan gets between his conscience and all hope of pardon. Many a natural man would not betray a friend with a kiss, as Judas soon after did. His nearness served to harden him; and he actually took the sop from the hand of the Lord! Even natural feeling was silenced. So it is when the unconverted man gets into a similar position. He becomes more vile than ever. His heart is hardened. Hypocrisy, and at length despair, ensues. Such is the flesh and its end. And the flesh cannot be bettered by ordinances, even where Christ Himself is. Such is the flesh - I can hardly say, when left to itself, for man is never left to himself, he is never really independent. He has the will to be so; therefore he is perfectly a sinner, but if disobedient, he is servant to his lust, "disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures," and slave to Satan. A natural man has a conscience and shame. He will not do in the light what he would do in the dark. But the outward form of Christianity, where it has not touched the heart, only makes this difference, that his conscience is seared, and he is only more subtly the slave of Satan.

Rarely do we find it recorded in Scripture that Satan acts personally. He largely acts through his followers. However when he acts personally, we find the occasion to be of special importance. He acted personally in the Garden of Eden, possessing the body of the serpent for the purpose of approaching our first parents. He acted personally in the temptation of our adorable Lord in the wilderness. Again he acted personally when he entered into the body of Judas Iscariot, so as to drive him to the awful act of treachery in betraying his Lord and Master for the greed of thirty paltry pieces of silver, furnished of all men by the chief priests. We shudder to think of Judas being possessed of the Devil himself. The greatest act of treachery in all time was enacted that day.