Matthew 27:3-5
Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, Saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, What is that to us? see thou to that. And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself.

There was no way for Judas to make it right on his own.  His regret didn’t change what he had done.  His remorse didn’t spare Jesus from what his betrayal had led to.  His return of the silver didn’t buy back Jesus.  The priests did not care if he had changed his mind.  What was done was done, and there was no undoing it.

That is the bind that sin gets us into.  That is the place we end up when we choose to do what is wrong.  That is the result of selfishly living for ourselves in defiance of God.  Other sinful people will have no mercy.  Within ourselves, we can’t make it right.  Even Judas taking his own life didn’t really solve his problem, because there was no redemption in such an act.

That’s why we need Jesus so much.  That’s why Jesus allowed the betrayal and went willingly forward through all the things that would come hereafter.  He had to pay the price we could never pay.  He had to secure forgiveness and redemption through His blood.  He has to make us right again, because we cannot, and no one else’s pardon would ever truly set us free from the guilt of sin.

We are all sinners, and so we are all going to mess up one way or another.  We all fail and fall in various ways, but there is redemption for us.  If we look within ourselves or look to something we can do or look to someone else, we’ll be left just the same as we started, still guilty and condemned.  But if we turn to Jesus, we can find forgiveness in Him.  We can find renewal and redemption in Christ that can truly take away all our sin.