It wasn't lack of sorrow. Judas sorely regretted his action. The NIV translation says he was "seized with remorse" (Matthew 27:3). He gave back the 30 pieces of silver. That is what a true penitent would do.
It wasn't failure to confess his sin. "I have sinned," he said, "for I have betrayed innocent blood." What's more, he confessed to the priests. The priests. If you can't confess to the mediator between God and the people and receive help for your condition, what then?
The act that doomed Judas wasn't even suicide.
No, the act that sealed Judas's condemnation was giving in to wrong belief.
When the chief priests rebuffed him, saying, "What is that to us? That is your responsibility," he believed their lie.
He believed he was alone in his sin with no remedy.
Judas had spent three years as one of Jesus' twelve, yet he didn't know his Master well enough to realize that if he went to the foot of the cross and cried for mercy he'd have been just as saved as the thief who went to Paradise with Jesus that very day. Had Judas known he didn't have to die in his sin, we might today read in Mark 16 that the angel said "Go, tell his disciples and Peter and Judas, 'He is going ahead of you into Galilee'" (Mark 16:7).
Those of us who think Judas was condemned because he betrayed Jesus haven't come to grips with the very depth of forgiveness Jesus offers, or the power of his blood--or, frankly, with salvation by faith and not works. If you want Jesus, but believe he can't possibly forgive what you've done, please pause and grasp this. Don't give in to the same wrong belief that sent Judas to hell.
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