Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                 Chapter Twelve

                                                                                                                                              Verses 1-11

Six days before Jesus' last Passover on the earth, He came to visit with His friends and followers, Martha, Mary, and Lazarus. They made Him a supper. The fact that Martha and Mary and the people with them did not believe that Jesus could help Lazarus after he was dead could indicate that Lazarus happened to be the first person that Jesus raised from the dead, and He raised the widow of Nain's son and the little girl afterwards. This could mean that some length of time had passed between Jesus raising Lazarus and His visit to see them. Luke 7:11-15; Luke 8:49-56.

Mary demonstrated her great love for Jesus when she anointed His feet with a costly perfume and wiped his feet with her hair. She did that to honor Jesus and to demonstrate her faith in Jesus' prophecy that He would be crucified, buried, and resurrected. She witnessed that she believed that Jesus' body would not be corrupted, but He would rise from the dead with the perfect scent of Heaven on Him.

Judas Iscariot protested that the perfume could have been sold, and the money given to the poor. But he only wanted to steal the money because he was the treasurer. Even today, many crooks claim that they want to help the poor, but they really only want to put themselves into a position where they can enrich themselves.

Jesus rebuked Judas Iscariot, and He defended Mary for the love and worship she had shown Him. Jesus taught that His followers should always help the poor, but He would not be with them in the future in His physical human form. He meant that Mary's anointment of His body for His burial was a very special act of love. Jesus did not mean that He would not be with His believers after His ascension. His Spirit will always be with His believers. Jesus will always be with His believers saved by grace. Hebrews 13:5.

Jesus rose from the dead with a spiritual body; that is, a body that could be His Spirit or physical, or both at the same time, as He willed. Luke 24:36-43. Jesus had a limited, physical body before His resurrection, but He was still God. Before His resurrection, the entire Holy Spirit filled the body of Jesus. John 3:34. Nevertheless, Jesus could extend His Holy Spirit to influence others. The Holy Spirit actually extends from Jesus and His Father throughout God's entire creations. The Holy Spirit happens to be God's Consciousness of His creations as the objects of His Consciousness. The Holy Spirit was conscious of Jesus' earthly body as being an absolutely perfect creation of God. Whatever happens to be absolutely perfect can only be within God's Consciousness as being One with His Consciousness. After Jesus' resurrection, His perfect body and His Holy Spirit merged into One being which constitutes His spiritual body. II Chronicles 6:18; Luke 24:36-43.

Mary had worshiped Jesus as her God and Savior before His crucifixion which was a very special act of love indeed because none of His other followers had thought to do that.

Many Jews came to see Lazarus alive to prove to themselves that Jesus had raised him from the dead. But the chief priests wanted to put Lazarus also to death in order to try to cover up any evidence that Jesus was God. Many Jews believed in Jesus because of Lazarus, and so the chief priests planned to get rid of him too.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                Chapter Eleven

                                                                                                                                               Verses 45-53

All humans possess an eternal, living nature given to them by God, but all humans also possess an eternal, spiritual death that the Devil injects into them because of their weakness for sin that they inherited from Adam. Romans 5:12. Some people become saved by grace because they hear or read the gospel, become convinced by the Holy Spirit  that they are lost sinners in need of Jesus their Savior, and they listen to the Holy Spirit who awakens their latent faith that Christ has already saved them from sin, evil, and spiritual death because he took it all away with His shed blood and death on the cross. Romans 10:17; Romans 10:8-13. But most people, even if they hear the gospel and even if they see God do miracles, reject the call of the Holy Spirit to come to faith in Christ because they adhere to the influence of their evil natures. Some of Martha and Mary's friends believed in Jesus because they saw His miracle, and they became saved by His grace. But others of their friends went to inform the Pharisees about what Jesus had done because of the influence of their evil natures.

The chief priests and Pharisees gathered together into a counsel to plot how they would put Jesus to death. They admitted that Jesus had done many miracles, but their prideful, sinful natures caused them to ignore the fact that their own religion taught them that only God can perform miracles. John 9:33. They knew that the Romans had heard about Jesus and His miracles. They were afraid that the Romans would destroy their nation to keep Jesus from using His power against them. They did not know that the Romans had not thought of that.

But even in their evil counsel, a strange miracle occurred. They consulted about all of the practical reasons why they thought they had to put Jesus to death, but they did not realize that as they gave those reasons the Holy Spirit caused their good natures to make prophecies about the successful mission of Jesus and its effects on their nation and the whole world. John 5:24; Revelation 5:11-14. They said that if they did not murder Jesus, then their whole nation would believe in Him which would cause the Romans to destroy their nation, which was a prophecy fulfilled in 70 A.D. The high priest, Caiaphas, reminded them that Jesus had to die for that nation to keep the Romans from destroying it. Jesus did die for that nation to keep the Devil from destroying it. But the high priest went further in His prophecy that Jesus would gather into one people all in the world who would believe in Him. That prophecy certainly has and will come true. Christ will save the entire human race. John 12:46-47; I Corinthians 15:22; I Timothy 4:10. The counsel adduced certain reasons why they thought they had to kill Jesus, but unbeknownst to them, the Holy Spirit infused true prophecies into those reasons.

                                                                                                                                               Verses 54-57

Jesus left Judea and went to the city of Ephraim with His disciples. Jesus had to wait for His Father to tell Him that the time had come for Him to go to Jerusalem to be crucified.

While He was there, the time of the Passover drew near. Many Jews went to Jerusalem before the Passover to engage in some kind of purification ceremony. They speculated about whether or not Jesus would come to the feast. The chief priests and Pharisees also waited for Jesus, and they put out a command that any person there should inform them if they knew where Jesus was.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                 Chapter Eleven

                                                                                                                                               Verses 38-44 continued

Most Christians believe that God will not help any unbeliever after they have physically died. They believe this even though the Bible (KJB) teaches that God has Almighty Love and Compassion which can never fail. I Corinthians 13:8. They believe that God creates humans in His own image, but they ignore the fact that that means they all have a latent faith which God can always awaken. Genesis 1:31; Genesis 1:27; Romans 12:3; Revelation 5:11-14. They believe God loses unrepentant sinners to the lake of fire forever even though His Word teaches that everything He creates can only be eternal. Sinners in a lake of fire have lost their eternal life that God creates. Ecclesiastes 3:14; Psalm 111:7-8. God's Word teaches that all humans are alive to Him. Luke 20:38. Unrepentant sinners whom God must consign to the regions of death still retain the image of God that He put into them. That part of their systems belongs to God, and He will recover His creations. Revelation 5:11-14; Revelation 20:5; John 5:28-29. Jesus taught that with God "all things are possible." Matthew 19:26. They believe that God will lose unrepentant sinners even though Jesus has told them that He has "the keys of hell and of death," which can only mean that He has all power over hell and death. Revelation 1:17-18. Jesus has the power to recover that which He has created from the pits of Hell. Christ has promised that He will "make all things new." Revelation 21:5. God has created all things, including the lives of all humans. That can only mean that God will recover and recreate all human lives that have been stained by sin and evil. Revelation 4:11. Many other verses in the Bible (KJB) teach that God will eventually save all of His living humans from eternal death.

Humans do not lose their living natures when they physically die because God has created their living natures to be eternal. God will save the lives of all humans, some by His grace and all others in a great worship service near the end of the world. John 5:24; Revelation 5:11-14. That humans do not lose their living natures is evidenced by the fact that the rich man in Hell begged Abraham to send the poor man Lazarus to preach to his brothers so that they would not go to Hell. Luke 16:27-31. The rich man demonstrated that He still retained some compassion which resided in his living nature that God created. God told Eve that he had made her "the mother of all living," and God can never lose anything He has ever created. Genesis 3:20; Luke 20:38; Psalm 36:6.

Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead to save all living humans from permanent spiritual death, some by His grace and all others in a great worship service near the end of the world. John 5:24; Revelation 5:11-14. Jesus had to take away all spiritual death and the sin that causes it because humans are helpless to save themselves. Romans 5:6-8. Jesus came to utterly destroy the Devil and all his evil works, not living humans. John 12:31-32; Hebrews 2:9-15; I John 3:8. God will resurrect all living humans saved by grace in the Rapture of the Church, and He will raise back to life all of His living humans confined to the regions of death when He causes them all to repent and believe in Him as the Lamb of God in the end of the world. I Thessalonians 4:13-18; Revelation 5:11-14; Revelation 20:5; Matthew 15:13; Matthew 13:36-43.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                 Chapter Eleven

                                                                                                                                               Verses 38-44

Still in grief, Jesus went to the grave which was a cave with a huge stone that covered the entrance. Jesus commanded that the stone be rolled away. Martha protested that Lazarus had been dead for four days which showed her lack of faith that Jesus could help him.

Everyone there heard Jesus' answer to Martha. Jesus told her that if she would only believe, she would see "the glory of God." The glory of God resides within the Almighty Power of His Love.

Apparently, some of these Jews became inspired by the Holy Spirit to roll the stone away. They all had a subdued faith that Jesus was about to bring into full consciousness. Jesus lifted up His eyes and prayed. His Father had already told Him that He would raise Lazarus from the dead, but Jesus told Martha to have faith with a voice loud enough for all to hear so that His Holy Spirit could arouse their latent faith.

Jesus cried with a loud voice for Lazarus to come forth so that all around Him would be sure to hear Him. Lazarus came out still bound with his grave clothes. Jesus ordered them to "Loose him and let him go." Jesus' command symbolized the fact that He had completely liberated Lazarus from death and all evil. Jesus liberates all who come to Him in faith from death and all evil. John 5:24; Revelation 5:11-14.

The specific unbelief of Martha and Mary and the crowd around Jesus was that Jesus could not help Lazarus after he had died. But Jesus proved that He has absolute power over physical death and over the spiritual death that evil has caused. Jesus only had to arouse a little faith in Martha and Mary and the crowd. In a day to come, Christ will arouse the latent faith still within the living souls and spirits of all humans confined to the regions of death, use His fiery wrath against evil to dissolve their systems to separate their repentant souls and spirits from their spiritual deaths, raise their souls and spirits from the dead and recreate them with new bodies to live forever on His recreated earth, and He will cast their spiritual deaths into the lake of fire. Revelation 5:11-14; Revelation 20:5; I Corinthians 3:11-15; II Peter 3:9-13; John 5:28-29. Jesus came to destroy only the Devil and all of his evil works, not living humans whom He creates and loves. John 12:31-32; Hebrews 2:14; I John 3:8; I Timothy 6:13. Everything God creates can only be eternal. He can never lose to death anything He has ever created. Ecclesiastes 3:14; Psalm 111:7-8; Psalm 36:6; Revelation 21:1-5.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                  Chapter Eleven

                                                                                                                                               Verses 28-37

Martha went and called Mary out of their house, and Mary followed Martha to where Jesus was. All of the Jews who were in their house to comfort Mary and Martha followed her. Thus a small crowd must have surrounded Jesus.

Mary fell at Jesus' feet which meant she still believed in Him, but by what she said to Him, she meant to somewhat rebuke Him. She seemed to be a little angry with Jesus because she thought that Lazarus was now beyond Jesus' help, and she did not understand why Jesus had not come to heal her brother before he died.

When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews weeping with her, He groaned with grief Himself. Jesus asked where Lazarus' grave was, and He wept Himself. Being human as well as God, Jesus grieved with humanity because of the pain and suffering that sin and evil had caused in the human race. Hebrews 4:15. The Jews could see how much Jesus loved Lazarus, and they displayed some faith that Jesus could have healed him before he died.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                                 Chapter Eleven

                                                                                                                                              Verses 17-27 continued

Jesus assured Martha that He would raise Lazarus from the dead, but He also assured any believer who reads the KJB that He will raise to life all who will believe in Him after their physical deaths. Christ is life itself, and He can never lose to death any of the living humans that He ever creates. Ecclesiastes 3:14; Genesis 3:20-21; Luke 20:38; I Corinthians 15:22; John 5:28-29; I Timothy 6:13; II Timothy 4:1. The Old Testament prophesied that God will cause all humans confined to the regions of death to believe and be raised from the dead. Isaiah 45:20-25; Isaiah 66:22-24; Psalm 36:6; Psalm 107:9-21. God will fulfill His prophecies when Jesus appears to all living humans confined to the regions of death, and in a great worship service, He will cause them all to believe in Him as the Lamb of God so that He can raise them all from the dead to new, recreated lives on His new earth. Revelation 5:11-14; Revelation 21:1-5; Revelation 22:11-12; John 5:28-29.

In His second statement to Martha, Jesus assured her that whoever believes in Him while still alive in the flesh "shall never die." That was another way of saying that Lazarus was asleep. Just as Jesus had said that Lazarus was asleep, He ignored his physical death and assured Martha that Lazarus was actually still alive in his spiritual nature. But for those who read the KJB, Jesus assures them that He can give eternal life to those who believe in Him while still alive in the flesh, and He can also raise to life anyone who believes in Him after their physical deaths. Jesus then asked Martha if she believed that He had power over death, and she replied that she believed that Jesus was the Son of God and the Messiah, and by implication, that He had power over all forms of death. John 5:24; Revelation 5:11-14; Revelation 20:5.

In Jesus' second statement to Martha, He assured her that "whoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die." But in Jesus' first statement to Martha he said "he that believeth in me though he were dead, yet shall he live." Jesus could not have contradicted Himself in these two statements. In His second statement, Jesus meant that those who believe in Him will never die because their live souls and spirits go straight to Heaven after their physical deaths. Since Jesus ignores the physical deaths of His believers saved by grace, then He could not have meant by His first statement that believers saved by grace ever die. He had to have meant by His first statement that those who suffer spiritual death; that is, those He must consign to the regions of death after their physical deaths because of their sins and evil, He will eventually cause them all to repent and believe in Him, and He will raise their living souls and spirits, that He has created and can never lose, to a new, recreated life with new bodies to live forever on His recreated earth. Revelation 5:11-14; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 21:1-5; John 5:28-29.

Lazarus' body was dead, but he was still alive in spirit and soul because he was a believer saved by grace. When Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, He proved that He will raise all believers saved by grace with recreated bodies in the Rapture of the Church, but He also proved that He will raise to life all living humans confined to the regions of death because He will cause them all to repent and believe in His absolute power over physical and spiritual death. II Corinthians 5:1-5; Revelation 5:11-14; Revelation 1:17-18; John 5:28-29; Revelation 21:1-5; II Timothy 1:10; I Corinthians 15:22.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                                   Chapter Eleven

                                                                                                                                               Verses 17-27

When Jesus arrived in Bethany, Lazarus had been in his grave for four days. Many had come to comfort Martha and Mary, so Jesus had many witnesses to the miracle He was about to do.

Martha went to meet Jesus, but Mary stayed in their house. This could indicate that Mary was angry with Jesus for not coming to heal her brother while he was sick. Her attitude, as well as that of Jesus' disciples, indicated that they believed Jesus could heal the sick but not raise the dead. Martha also displayed that attitude when she told Jesus that He should have come to heal her brother before he died. But then the Holy Spirit must have imparted to Martha some of that greater faith that Jesus meant to teach them when she told Jesus that she knew that God would give to Jesus whatever He asked.

Jesus' reply to Martha had a double meaning. Jesus meant that He was about to raise Lazarus from the dead, but He also meant that He would permanently raise Lazarus' body from the dead in the Rapture of the Church.

Martha, who knew nothing about the Rapture of the Church, replied that she knew that God would raise Lazarus from the dead in a general resurrection at the last judgment in the last day in the end of the world, which doctrine was taught in the Old Testament.

Jesus specifically answered to her faith in Lazarus' resurrection in the last day. Jesus told her that He was the resurrection, and He was life itself, and that whoever believed in Him "though He were dead, yet shall he live." But Jesus also spoke to whoever would read the King James Bible. If the Greek Text states that when a believer dies then that believer will live again with a new body, then that doctrine has to be undoubtedly true. But the King James Bible, which happens to be the inerrant and infallible Word of God in English, has Jesus state that if a person who is already dead believes, then Christ will raise that person from the dead as well. God spoke the truth in both the Greek Text and in the KJB. I Thessalonians 4:13-18; Revelation 5:11-14; Revelation 20:5; Isaiah 45:20-25.

God has perfected His Word in three languages. In the Masorectic Text, God perfected His Word in Hebrew. In the New Testament Text, God perfected His Word in Greek. But when God began to spread His Word to the new world after the discovery of America, He perfected His Word in English, the KJB. Psalm 12:6-7. According to the prophecy in Psalm 12:6-7, God will perfect His Word four more times but in heavenly languages corresponding to the seven Spirits of God. Revelation 5:5-7.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                 Chapter Eleven

                                                                                                                                              Verses 11-16

Jesus told His disciples that He would return to Bethany to wake Lazarus from his sleep. In the New Testament, God often referred to His dead saints as being asleep. God had Matthew write that all of the Old Testament saints that He raised from the dead after Jesus' resurrection were actually asleep. Matthew 27:52-53. This fact can only mean that the little girl that Jesus raised from the dead whom Jesus judged to be merely asleep had to have been saved by grace. Matthew 9:24. God also had the Apostle Paul to judge saints who were dead to be asleep. I Thessalonians 4:14-15. But when Jesus raised the widow's son back to life, He did not say that he was asleep. God had Luke to write that Jesus raised him from the dead. Luke 7:11-15. These facts can only mean that if God never considers His saints to be dead, and if Jesus could raise unbelievers from the dead, then physical death cannot be a punishment for sins. God judges His saints to be asleep because they go straight to Heaven when they die, and the only punishment God has for unbelievers must be that He has to consign their dead and living natures to the regions of death when they die. Luke 16:19-23. In God's judgment, physical death merely happens to be a transition from the physical realm to the spiritual realm.

Jesus' disciples misunderstood Him. They told Jesus that if Lazarus was asleep while sick, then maybe Jesus should leave him alone and let him sleep. They had forgotten that Jesus had said that the little girl was asleep whom He raised from the dead. Matthew 9:24.

Jesus deferred to their misunderstanding, and He told them plainly that Lazarus was physically dead. Jesus then informed His disciples that He was actually glad that He was not there when Lazarus was sick so that He could heal him. Jesus disciples already knew that Jesus could heal the sick, but they had evidently forgotten that He could also raise the dead back to life. Jesus told His disciples that He had waited until Lazarus died so that He could raise their faith to a higher level. Jesus desired to give them a deeper faith.

Thomas then displayed his overconfident, manly courage when he boasted that they should all go and die with Jesus. Thomas also demonstrated the very lack of faith that Jesus desired to teach them to overcome by giving them a new kind of faith. Jesus desired to teach them that He had all power over all physical and spiritual death, Revelation 1:17-18; II Timothy 1:10; I Timothy 6:13. All of their manly courage failed when they fled when Jesus was arrested except for Peter who at least followed Jesus to His trial but then denied that he knew Him. Manly courage can fail, but faith in God never fails. John 5:24; Revelation 5:11-14.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                Chapter Eleven

                                                                                                                                              Verses 6-10

Jesus waited two days for Lazarus to die in the place where He was. Jesus waited because He wanted to instill a new type of faith in His followers. After Jesus knew that Lazarus was dead, He told His disciples that they should return to Judea.

Jesus' disciples objected. They were afraid that Jesus would be stoned to death. How often do believers in Christ as being God forget about His Almighty Power. Jesus had already told them that no human could kill Him, but they had evidently forgotten that. John 10:17-18.

Jesus answered their objection by reminding them that He had a ministry to the world that He had to fulfill. As Jesus so often did, He used everyday, ordinary occurrences to represent a spiritual message. Jesus taught that those who walk in the daytime usually do not stumble, but those who walk in the night are apt to stumble. Jesus meant that humans need light to keep from stumbling. Jesus had already taught that He is "the Light of the world." John 8:12. Those who see His Light and follow Him do not stumble; that is, they do not lose their salvation by grace. But those who walk in darkness do not have His Light and so they stumble; that is, they lead a life of unforgiven sin, and they fall into the regions of death when they die. Jesus reminded His disciples that he had to go to Judea to fulfill His ministry.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                 Chapter Eleven

                                                                                                                                              Verses 1-5 continued

When Jesus said about Lazarus that "This sickness is not unto death," He ignored physical death because He meant that He had annulled the spiritual death of Lazarus when He saved him by His grace. All the souls and spirits of living humans saved by grace go immediately to Heaven after their physical deaths. II Corinthians 5:8. All sinners not saved by grace go to the regions of death after their physical deaths, but God has provided a means to save them with a lesser form of salvation than that of grace. Revelation 5:11-14; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 21:1-5; John 5:28-29. These facts can only mean that physical death cannot be a punishment for sin but happens to be just a transition from the physical realm to the spiritual realm.

God loves all of His living humans that He creates, but when the Bible (KJB) states that Jesus loved particular individuals who were His friends and followers, that can only mean that He had saved them by His grace. John 11:5; John 113:1.

Strictly speaking, the curse means an eternal separation from God because of sin and spiritual death; that is, the Devil's attempt to utterly destroy, by eternal separation from God, the lives of all humans that God creates and loves. But God never cursed Adam and Eve or any of their descendants which means that living humans can become subject to the effects of the curse but never to the curse itself. Genesis 3:14-21; Luke 20:38; Ecclesiastes 3:14; I Corinthians 13:8. Jesus came to earth to save all of humanity from the effects of the curse and to destroy the curse itself and all of the works of the Devil and the Devil himself. Genesis 3:14-15; John 12:31-32; Hebrews 2:9; Hebrews 2:14; I John 3:8.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                   Chapter Eleven

                                                                                                                                              Verses 1-5 continued

Cain murdered his brother Abel because of his wrath and jealousy that God accepted Abel's faith but not Cain's good works, and he refused to repent. Genesis 4:8-11. God had already told Cain that if he persisted in his prideful refusal to offer the required blood sacrifice, then that would be because "sin lieth at the door." In other words, God told Cain that he would not be able to get rid of his sin that had caused his spiritual death until he offered the blood sacrifice as a symbol of his faith that God Himself would save him. Genesis 4:7. God further told Cain that sin would have "his desire" with him. God used the word "his" to indicate the desire of the Devil which was to cause Cain to go to Hell. The Devil's desire is to use sin as the means to inject spiritual death into humans so that when they suffer physical death, God must reject their dead natures and condemn their living souls and spirits together with their dead natures to the regions of death. Hebrews 9:27; Revelation 20:13. The Devil hopes that he can torture God's living souls and spirits confined to the regions of death to the extent that he can cause them to curse God and become totally evil. Should the Devil succeed, he will have destroyed a part of God's creation and thereby prove that God's Love can fail. I Corinthians 13:8; Job 1:11; Job 2:5; Job 2:9. But God's Love will never allow the Devil to utterly destroy anything God has ever created. Ecclesiastes 3:14. In fact, God promised Cain that eventually he would gain "the rule over him." In other words, God prophesied that Cain, and all sinners like him, would eventually repent and believe that only God can save them even from within the regions of death. Revelation 5:11-14; I Corinthians 3:11-15.

God further informed Cain that because he refused to repent and believe, God would make him subject to the curse "in the earth" and "from the earth." In other words, Cain would retain his spiritual death while he lived on the earth and after his physical death. Genesis 4:11-15. Cain became terribly afraid that someone would kill him because of his condition of being subject to the curse. Cain became afraid that his living nature would be completely destroyed by someone whom God knew to be the Devil. Cain also became afraid that while he lived on the earth that some of God's people would kill him because they would recognize his evil condition. But God promised Cain that no one; that is, neither the Devil nor any human, would ever be able to utterly destroy the spiritual life of Cain. God put a "mark" of mercy on Cain, and all sinners like him, as His promise that He will provide a means to save all of their spiritual lives forever from utter destruction. God did allow some of His righteous people to kill rebellious sinners in war, but He will never allow their spiritual lives, that He created and loves, to ever be utterly destroyed. Revelation 5:11-14; I Corinthians 3:11-15; John 5:28-29; Isaiah 45: 20-25; Psalm 68:18; Psalm 107:9-21; Psalm 36:6; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 21:1-5.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                  Chapter Eleven

                                                                                                                                               Verses 1-5

Lazarus fell sick, and his sisters, Mary and Martha, sent a message to Jesus for Him to come and heal him. Jesus' reply to this message indicates God's attitude toward physical death. Jesus knew that Lazarus would die, and yet, he said that Lazarus' sickness was "not unto death." Jesus' statement indicates that God does not regard physical death as being death at all. In fact, God said that He considers the deaths of His saints to be "precious." Psalm 116:15. This interpretation can only mean that physical death cannot be a punishment for sins, but only a transfer from a physical state to a spiritual dimension.

God told Adam and Eve that they would physically die, but He did not tell them that their deaths would be a punishment for sins. The only punishments for sins that God gave to Adam and Eve was that they would suffer pain and labor in their physical lives. Genesis 3:16-19. God did tell them that they would die on the same day that they ate of the forbidden fruit, but they lived for over 900 years. Genesis 2:17; Genesis 5:5. After they had sinned, Adam and Eve were ashamed and hid themselves when God came to visit with them in the evening. Their shame indicated that something within them had changed. They had become spiritually dead inside. Genesis 2:17; Genesis 3:6-13. Only the Devil has control over spiritual death; so the Devil had to have injected spiritual death into Adam and Eve and all of their descendants because the entire human race became weakened by their sins. Romans 5:12; Matthew 15:13; Matthew 13:36-43.

God killed an animal and made coats to cover the shame of Adam and Eve. God shed the blood of the animal to symbolize that He would provide a way for Himself to annul spiritual death in humans by the sacrifice of Himself. Genesis 3:15; Genesis 3:21. God accomplished this task when He shed His blood and water on a cruel cross to wash away the sins and annul the spiritual deaths of all who would believe in Him while still alive in the flesh. John 5:24; Matthew 26:28; Revelation 1:5. God provided a way for Adam and Eve and all of their descendants to believe in His sacrifice for them while they were still alive in the flesh so that He can cleanse them from their sins, and He will give them victory over spiritual death, and He will eternally save them by His grace. Romans 5:1-11.

Adam and Eve continued the blood sacrifices of animals to symbolize their faith in God's promise and so did their second born son Abel. But their first born son Cain refused to offer the blood sacrifice. Cain's stubbornness and pride caused him to try to coerce God to accept his own works which was the fruit that he grew as his means to save himself from spiritual death. Humans do not have enough spiritual strength to overcome their spiritual deaths, but God does. Humans can only have faith that Christ has accomplished that victory for them. Romans 5:6-9; Titus 3:4-7.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                  Chapter Ten

                                                                                                                                              Verses 32-39

The scripture to which Jesus referred that states that God created humans to be "gods" means He has put His image into all humans. Would God ever allow His image to be destroyed? Genesis 1:27; Genesis 1:31; Psalm 82:6. This same verse states that all humans are God's children. God loves all of His children, and since God's Love is Almighty, then the good natures that He has put into all humans can never be utterly destroyed. Jesus "shall save His people from their sins." Every living human that God ever created must be His people because He put His indestructible image within them. Matthew 1:21. Living humans can commit sins and even practice evil, but God will utterly destroy the dead, evil natures of all humans, and upon a restored repentance and faith, He will forgive and cleanse all sins. The Devil will cause excruciating pain and suffering to humans in his attempt to get even one living human to become totally evil and lost from God's Love forever, but God will not lose a single living human. Ecclesiastes 3:14; I Corinthians 13:8; Luke 20:38; Revelation 20:11-15; Revelation 20:5; Proverbs 10:12.

These same scriptures state that God will "judge the earth," and He "shalt inherit all nations." Psalm 82:8. The only judgment that God makes of the whole earth occurs with Jesus' final judgment in the end of the world. II Timothy 4:1; Revelation 20:11. Every human has the "quick and the dead" and the "tares and the wheat" inside of them. Matthew 13:36-43; Matthew 15:13. Jesus will appear to all His good, living humans confined to the regions of death, and He will cause them all to repent and believe in Him as the Lamb of God of their own free will. Revelation 5:11-14. Christ will then use His fiery wrath against evil to dissolve all their systems in order to melt them so that he can separate their repentant, good natures from their evil natures. I Corinthians 3:11-15; Psalm 75:3; II Peter 3:9-13. Christ will resurrect all of His good, living humans from the regions of the dead and recreate them all to live forever on His new earth. Revelation 20:5; Revelation 21:1-5. Christ will cast all of their separated, evil natures into the eternal lake of fire. Revelation 20:11-15. Psalm 82:8 further prophesies that God "shalt inherit all nations" which can only mean that God will provide a lesser form of salvation than that of grace to every living human that He ever created confined to the regions of death. Revelation 21:1-5; Revelation 22:11-12; John 5:28-29.

                                                                                                                                            Verses 40-42

After Jesus had caused the good natures of those who hated Him to win out over their evil natures, He returned to the Jordan river where He had been baptized by John the Baptist. There He found people who believed the preaching of John the Baptist that Jesus was the "Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." John 1:29. Jesus found some temporary rest from His spiritual battles with evil among His followers who were saved by His grace.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                Chapter Ten

                                                                                                                                              Verses 32-39

When the Jews heard Jesus' claim to be God, they took up stones to stone Him to death. Jesus told them that they had seen Him do many good works, and He asked them for what good works they desired to stone Him. Jesus was trying to make them realize that they had never seen Him do anything but good works. Jesus had used the power of the Holy Spirit to convince the Jews that they could not find one sin that Jesus had committed. John 8:46. The Jews accused Jesus of blasphemy, even though they knew that Jesus had never wronged anyone, and they knew also that Jesus had never done anything but good works. Based on these facts, they should have known that their charge of blasphemy had to be false, and since Jesus had proved Himself to be absolutely perfect, then He had to be God.

These Jews admitted to Jesus that they knew that Jesus had only done good works, but they nevertheless had to stone Him for blasphemy. They ignored the blatant contradiction in their answer. They had accused Jesus of having a demon, but they ignored the fact that demons can never do good works.

Because Jesus loved them, as He does all humans, He actually became conciliatory in His answer to them. Jesus reminded them that their own scriptures had taught them that God had made them gods. Psalm 82:6. Jesus meant that He creates all humans in His image which means He puts goodness and faith into their living souls and spirits, that all humans are His children, and that God loves all of His creations, including these Jews who hated Jesus. Genesis 1:27; Genesis 1:31; Genesis 3:20; Luke 20:38. Jesus appealed to their inner good natures to come to the realization that since He had only done good works and had never sinned, then He had to be God in human form. Every human either listens to their good inner nature; that is, the god that God put into them which is their conscience, or they give in to their evil nature that the Devil put into them. Jesus informed them that they knew that His Father had sanctified Him which meant He had to be absolutely perfect. Jesus told them that if He had done no good works of His Father, then they had every right to disbelieve in Him.

Jesus then appealed to their faith in God their Father. Jesus told them that if they could not believe that He was God in human form, then they should at least believe that God their Father had done all His good works through Jesus which could only mean that Jesus had to have come from God. Jesus knew that this kind of faith could not save them by grace, but at least this faith would arouse their good natures to win out over their evil natures that caused them to hate Him. Their hatred for Jesus obviously caused Him tremendous grief.

Jesus succeeded in His appeal to their good natures that He had put into them because He simply walked away from them, and the conviction of the Holy Spirit caused none of them to throw any stones at Him.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                 Chapter Ten

                                                                                                                                              Verses 22-31

As Jesus walked in the Temple, some of the Jews came to Him and demanded that He tell them plainly that He was their Messiah. Jesus replied that He had told them many times that He was God in human form which also meant that He had to be their Messiah. He also told them that He had performed many miracles in His Father's name to prove that He was God in human form. But Jesus did not happen to be the kind of Messiah that the Jews wanted. They wanted an ordinary human who could use the power of God to liberate them from the Romans. They ignored the fact that their own scriptures prophesied that their Messiah would be God in human form, and who would sacrifice Himself for them to provide for them a spiritual salvation. Isaiah 9:6-7; Isaiah 53:1-12.

Jesus replied that He came as their Messiah to give them a spiritual liberation, not a political one. Jesus told them that He came to call His own sheep out of the sheepfold to follow Him, and these Jews were not His special sheep because they did not hear His voice. Jesus preached His spiritual message that these Jews did not want to hear. Jesus came to change the hearts of humans to make them loving and kind, not to cause them to wage political war.

Jesus then described His spiritual message. Jesus told them that if they would only believe that He was the Son of God and their Shepherd and follow Him, He could immediately give them eternal life that they could never lose. John 5:24. Jesus and His Father would provide absolute, eternal protection for them by holding them in His hand. No one can ever break the absolute power of God's hand. Jesus again proclaimed that He was God in human form because He said that He was One with His Father which could only mean that His hand and His Father's hand had to be the same hand. Since the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are One, then the Holy Spirit can immediately give eternal life to believers in Christ in the Church Age just as Jesus could do while He was on the earth. The Holy Spirit is Jesus in spiritual form, and Jesus never changes. Hebrews 13:8. The Holy Spirit can provide a spiritual baptism which water baptism only symbolizes. Luke 3:16; I Corinthians 6:11; Hebrews 13:8; I John 5:6-8.

These Jews became enraged with Jesus' claim to be their God and spiritual Savior. They picked up stones to stone Him for blasphemy. They did not want a spiritual Savior. They only wanted a Messiah to liberate them from the Romans so that they could possess even more ability to exercise their lust for wealth and power over the people. Even today, people often become angry when a Christian tries to tell them that they need Jesus and the spiritual transformation that only He can give them. They become angry because they feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit that they are wrong, and they need to be made right. John 16:7-11.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                 Chapter Ten

                                                                                                                                              Verses 19-21

Jesus preaching caused a division among the Jews. Some of them thought that Jesus had a devil and was insane. Many think this way, especially the atheists and the materialists. They take the prideful position that they only have intelligence, and all other people tend to be stupid and gullible. They deny that miracles are possible even when they are confronted with them. They believe that devils exist in the form of superstition, but they do not believe that evil exists. Even so, many of them are perfectly willing to practice evil through murder and torture and waging war in order to bring into being their imagined, future materialists' utopia. They believe that every human should be brainwashed to think exactly like they think, and anyone who refuses to think like they think must be somewhat insane.

The other Jews knew that only someone sent from God could do miracles. But they were willing to believe that Jesus could only be some kind of prophet, not the Son of God. All of Jesus' disciples, except Judas Iscariot, believed, like Peter, that Jesus had to be the Son of God; that is, God in human form. They believed this as a revelation from the Holy Spirit. Matthew 16:13-18. In order to be saved by grace, a person must believe that Jesus was born of a virgin and that He is the Son of God and that He is that individual's personal Savior. Matthew 1:18-25; I Corinthians 15:1-4.

When a person hears or reads the gospel, even though they may never have heard of Jesus, and that person repents of their sins and believes in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus for their personal salvation by grace, they will be forever saved by the power of the Holy Spirit to bring Jesus' sacrifice and resurrection to them in spiritual form. The Holy Spirit will also empower them to believe the Word of God so that if they ever read or hear that Jesus was born of a virgin, that He led a sinless life, and He is the Son of God, they will always believe that as well. But if a person becomes saved only by the preaching of the Holy Spirit and that person never has a Bible (KJB) to read or a way to hear the Word of God preached, God will still save that person by His grace because the Holy Spirit will impute to his spirit every belief he needs to be saved. I Corinthians 15:1-4; I Corinthians 6:11; Colossians 1:23.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                Chapter Ten

                                                                                                                                              Verses 15-18

Jesus proclaimed that His Father knew Him because He demonstrated His Father's Love and power through the miracles that He did. Jesus further proclaimed that He knew the infinite power of His Father. Psalm 147:5. In other words, Jesus again asserted that He was God. Jesus then proclaimed that He, as God, would lay down His life for His sheep. The Old Testament teaches that all humans are God's sheep and that God can never lose anything He has ever created. Ezekiel 34:31; Psalm 100:1-3; Psalm 36:6; Psalm 119:89-91; Ecclesiastes 3:14. If all humans are God's servants then they all must be God's sheep. Jesus could only have meant that He, as God, would lay down His life to save the entire human race, some by His grace and all others with a lesser from of salvation.

Since these Jews believed that they alone were God's sheep, Jesus informed them that He would bring many other sheep into His sheepfold. Jesus actually informed them that the entire human race was God's one sheepfold. Jesus had to have meant this because He had told these Jews that they were God's sheep even though only His disciples among them believed to the extent of being saved by grace. In other words, Jesus told them that while it was true that they were God's sheep even though they were not saved by grace, the whole human race were also God's sheep.

Jesus then prophesied that His Father had given Him the power to lay down His life and to resurrect Himself from the dead. Because of the influence of evil in the hearts of every human, the entire human race attempted to murder their God, but they failed. Acts 4:25-28. Even so, Christ forgave them all as He hung upon the cross. Luke 23:34. Jesus does everything His Father does. God forgives in order to reconcile. Colossians 1:20. God has forgiven, and God will reconcile the entire human race to Himself. Colossians 1:15-23. Jesus voluntarily laid down His life, and He gave His Spirit back to His Father when He died on the cross. Luke 23:46. Jesus' Father sent His Spirit to the regions of death to leave behind there all of the sins and evil of that part of the human race who do not become saved by grace. Psalm 16:9-11; Acts 2:25-28; I John 2:2. Having thus become immaculate, the Holy Spirit rose from the dead to reanimate the perfect body of Jesus so that He could rise from the dead victorious over all sins and evil and spiritual death itself. I Peter 3:18; Revelation 1:17-18. All of the Old Testament burnt offerings symbolized the descent of the Spirit into Hell to save all living humans confined there. Genesis 8:20-21; Leviticus 5:10. God will bring all living humans confined to the regions of death back to faith in Him as the Lamb of God, and He will resurrect them all from the dead to a new life on His new earth. Revelation 5:11-14; John 5:28-29; I Corinthians 3:11-15; Revelation 20:5; I Corinthians 15:22.

God has abolished death itself. I Timothy 1:10. This can only mean that all living humans that God has created and loves can never become permanently dead. God has prophesied that He will "quicken all things," which can only mean that He can never lose to permanent death any living human that He ever created. Genesis 3:20-21; Luke 20:38. Everything that God creates can only be eternal. Psalm 111:7-8. God has promised to bring all living humans who become temporarily dead back to life. I Corinthians 15:22. God has plainly taught that He "is the Savior of all men, especially of those who believe," which can only mean that He will save by His grace, and He will also save all other living humans confined to the regions of death. I Timothy 4:10. Christ "shall judge the quick and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom." The quick and the dead reside within every human, and they are the exact opposites. II Timothy 4:1. Christ will use His fiery wrath against evil to dissolve every human system confined to the regions of death in order to recover and recreate His repentant, living humans and cast their separated, spiritual deaths into the lake of fire. II Peter 3:9-13; Psalm 75:3; I Corinthians 3:11-5; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 20:11-15.

God has promised "to reconcile all things unto Himself..." in earth and Heaven, and God created all things. Colossians 1:15-23. Christ has promised that He will raise all good humans back to life from their graves, and He will condemn their dead and evil natures to the eternal lake of fire. John 5:28-29. This resurrection cannot be at the Rapture of the Church because the Christians thus raised will not be all that are in their graves, and Christ will have already annulled their dead natures when they became saved by His grace. Revelation 20:5; Revelation 20:11-15. No verse in the entire Bible (KJB) states that the physical deaths of humans prevents God from saving His living humans. John 11:25; II Peter 3:9. If God wills that all living humans should come to repentance, then He will certainly accomplish His Will. No one can thwart God's Will.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                  Chapter Ten

                                                                                                                                              Verses 12-14

When Jesus spoke about the "hireling" who runs and allows the "wolf" to scatter the sheep, He meant every false preacher and every false religion in the history of mankind, including apostate Christianity. The "wolf" represents the Devil who puts false doctrines and false ceremonies into every religion, including apostate Christianity. Although true Christianity has some ceremonies and traditions, true Christianity always points directly to Christ as being the only way to obtain salvation by grace. John 14:6; John 1:29. True Christianity preaches that a person can only become born into the family of God by personal repentance, faith, and a  commitment of one's whole life to the service of Christ. Matthew 16:16; Acts 9:6. Any teaching that one must first go through the teachings of a church or a ceremony to get to Christ is a false doctrine. Any person who hears the gospel and becomes convinced by a visit of the Holy Spirit that that person is a sinner in need of Christ's salvation can make a direct appeal to Christ in faith, and Christ will hear and immediately save that person forever. Romans 10:13; Romans 10:17. Yet, because God has miraculously preserved His true doctrine of salvation by grace even within apostate Christianity, some people within these religions may come to a personal faith in the power of the blood of Christ to save them, and they will come to a commitment of their lives to Christ by the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Apostate Christianity misleads people by getting them to trust in ceremonies and traditions instead of putting their trust in Christ Himself. Some people can become saved by grace by reading the Bible (KJB), and some by reading a gospel tract that someone gives them, and others who have never even heard of Christ by a direct visit from the Holy Spirit. Christ has many ways to bring people into a personal friendship with Him.

Some persons who have never heard the name of Jesus can become saved by grace because the Holy Spirit visits with them. This certainty exists. Humans can become saved by grace only when the Holy Spirit preaches the gospel to them. The Holy Spirit can use missionaries and preachers to preach the gospel to the inner beings of humans as those preachers serve Christ. No one ever goes to the regions of death because no preacher came to preach to them. Colossians 1:23; I Corinthians 15:1-4. Nevertheless, true Christianity should obey the command of Christ and send missionaries and preachers to preach the gospel to the whole world because that happens to be one of the methods that the Holy Spirit uses to save people by His grace. In addition, Christ desires to greatly reward churches and preachers for their obedience to Him. Matthew 28:18-20. But no church should ever get the idea that people go to Hell because no preacher came to preach to them.

The false preachers flee when the Devil comes because they do not care about the souls and spirits of their followers. They only care about the controls that their false religion gives them over their followers.

The Devil can never permanently scatter the sheep that Jesus leads out of the sheepfold because He personally guards them. But the Devil can scatter the sheep within the sheepfold by misleading them with false preachers and false religions. This fact further indicates that Jesus meant that the sheep within the sheepfold represents the entire human race.

Jesus knows His sheep that He leads out of the sheepfold, and they know Him. This can only mean that they enjoy a personal friendship with Him. Since Jesus knows every one of His sheep that He leads out of the sheepfold, then it cannot be possible that anyone will go to the regions of death because no preacher came to preach to them. To preach otherwise makes the preacher a necessary part of the gospel. The only gospel is the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ as preached by the Holy Spirit. I Corinthians 15:1-4.

Jesus also knows His sheep that He created in His image that remain within the sheepfold. He loves all of them, and since His Love cannot fail, He will visit all of them who reside within the regions of death, and He will cause all of them to come to know Him as the Lamb of God who can save them and resurrect them. Christ will provide a lesser form of salvation for them because He can never lose anything He has ever created. Ecclesiastes 3:14; Revelation 5:11-14; John 5:28-29; I Corinthians 13:8; Luke 3:6; Luke 20:38; I Corinthians 15:22; Revelation 21:1-5.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                 Chapter Ten

                                                                                                                                              Verses 6-11 continued

Jesus again spoke of Himself as being the "door" by which His sheep enter into His sheepfold and come out of His sheepfold. All of the sheep who enter into the sheepfold through the "door" can only represent the entire human race. To enter through a "door" can only symbolize being created by God. All of the sheep who enter the sheepfold through the "door" can only represent the entire human race. They go into the sheepfold, and they can come out of the sheepfold to find pastures, but those pastures only represent earthly pleasures that are not sinful. These are not the special sheep that Jesus calls out of His sheepfold to spiritual pastures and waters.

Jesus again spoke about the "thief," but this time He meant the Devil himself who seeks to completely destroy the lives of humans whom God creates and loves. But Jesus came to earth to save the lives of the entire human race. He will give His abundant life to those whom He saves by His grace. Genesis 3:21; John 5:24. He will also restore the lives of all human who do not obtain salvation by grace. God has a higher and a lesser form of salvation for all of humanity. John 5:24; John 5:28-29; Revelation 5:11-14. The fact that everything that God creates can only be eternal, and God's Love can never fail, means that God puts a mandatory obligation on Himself to save all of humanity from the inner spiritual death that seeks to completely destroy them. Ecclesiastes 3:14; Psalm 111:7-8; Psalm 36:6; I Corinthians 13:8.

Jesus sacrificed Himself on a cross to save the entire human race with a higher and a lesser form of salvation. Through His death, burial, and resurrection, Jesus forever removed all humans' spiritual deaths from them, with all the sins and evil that it causes, so that He could rescue the lives of the entire human race from eternal separation from Him. He is the good Shepherd who gave His life for all the sheep in the sheepfold, and His abundant life to all His sheep whom He leads out of His sheepfold. John 5:24; John 5:28-29; Revelation 5:11-14; Isaiah 45:20-25; I Corinthians 3:11-15; I Corinthians 15:22; Hebrews 2:9-15; I Timothy 6:13; I Timothy 4:10; Colossians 1:15-23; Revelation 21:1-5; Revelation 22:11-12; John 11:25; Matthew 13:36-43.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                  Chapter Ten

                                                                                                                                              Verses 6-11

Those who heard Jesus speak this parable about the sheep did not understand it. But in Matthew 13:10-16, Jesus explained to His disciples exactly why He often used parables when He preached. God knows all of His works from the foundation of the world. Acts 15:18. Jesus knows every human who will become saved by His grace, and every human who will not. Jesus often spoke in parables to those who would not believe to be saved by grace precisely because they would not understand. Jesus had the future in mind when He spoke in parables. Jesus commended His disciples for seeing and hearing His parables although He knew that they too did not understand much about them. But Jesus' disciples did at least understand that Jesus put some spiritual meaning into His parables. Jesus' disciples opened their hearts to God. Matthew 13:16. Those who rejected or ignored Jesus' parables would never be able to complain because they were given an equal opportunity to believe, but they closed their hearts to God. Jesus knew that His disciples would be faithful to write His parables in His Word so that in the future His Church would be able, through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, to at least partly understand them, and in the end of the world, the whole human race will come to understand at least as much as humans are capable of understanding. The greatest blessings of the parables come to believers when they pray and strive to understand them, not when they believe they have understood them.

Jesus again asserted that He is the very "door" of the sheepfold. He is the only way into the sheepfold and the only way out. When Jesus spoke of Himself as being the shepherd of the sheep, He called His own sheep out of the sheepfold to spiritual pastures and waters. But when Jesus spoke of Himself as being the "door" of the sheepfold, He spoke of Himself as being the shepherd of the entire human race. Jesus is the "door" of the sheepfold because He is the creator of the entire human race. Jesus has given life to every human which He can never lose. Ecclesiastes 3:14; Luke 20:38; I Corinthians 15:22.

When Jesus spoke of "thieves and robbers," He meant all of the demonic forces that are trying to completely ruin humanity to beyond any hope of redemption. The spiritual death that the Devil has injected into the inner beings of all humans causes all humans to sin and some of them to practice evil, but those who become saved by grace will hear only the voice of Jesus, and in the end of the world, the rest of humanity confined to the regions of death will see and hear only Jesus when He reveals Himself to them in a great worship service. Jesus will cause them all to repent and believe of their own free will, and He will resurrect them to a lesser form of salvation than that of grace. John 5:24; Revelation 5:11-14; Revelation 20:5.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                   Chapter Ten

                                                                                                                                              Verses 1-5 continued

In Matthew 15:13, Jesus taught that God will root up; that is, separate every plant that He has not planted. God creates only good systems. God did not plant evil in the hearts of humans. The Devil did that. This verse can only mean that God will separate and recover all things that He ever created, and He will root up and cast away all the evil from the hearts of all humans into the lake of fire. Revelation 20:11-15; Revelation 20:5.

Jesus came to destroy only sin and evil itself, not living humans whom He creates and loves. No verse anywhere in the Bible (KJB) teaches that God will cast living humans into an eternal lake of fire. Matthew 13:36-43; Matthew 13:47-50; Luke 3:16-17; Psalm 36:6; John 5:28-29; I John 3:8; Revelation 21:1-5. The Bible consistently teaches that God will recover and recreate absolutely everything He ever created that has been marred by sin and evil. God will utterly destroy only His enemies which are sin, evil, spiritual death, and the Devil. Romans 8:18-23; Colossians 1:15-23; II Peter 3:9-13; Revelation 21:1-5. Revelation 22:11-12 clearly teaches that in the end of the world God will effect an absolute separation of all He has created from all that is evil.

Jesus taught that "the porter," symbolic of the Holy Spirit with all of His creative powers, opens the "door," which is Christ Himself, to enter into the sheepfold. This can only mean that a Triune God created the human race so that he could be the Shepherd of the sheepfold which is the entire human race. The sheep that go into the sheepfold represent the entire human race, but the sheep that Christ calls out of the sheepfold represents His special sheep that He saves by His grace.

God separated the light from the darkness in the beginning of His creations, but He will again separate the light from the darkness in the end of the world. Throughout the history of mankind, both the light and the darkness has been within the inner beings of every human. Genesis 1:1-5; Genesis 3:15; Revelation 21:23-25; Revelation 22:5.

Since God created all sheep, then all the sheep in the sheepfold must represent the entire human race. Jesus taught that He calls His own sheep by name to follow Him out of the sheepfold which implies that there are sheep who remain in the sheepfold who do not hear His voice. The sheep who hear Jesus' voice and follow Him represent all humans who become saved by grace whom Jesus will lead to special, spiritual pastures and waters that the sheep left in the sheepfold cannot enjoy. In the Rapture of the Church, Jesus will make sure that all His special sheep who strayed from His voice will hear Him again, and they will flee from all false preachers and religious leaders that has misled them, and they will again follow only Jesus. Ephesians 5:25-27. However, Christ may very well provide some corrective punishment for all backsliders before He causes them to repent, and He forgives them. Matthew 18:34-35.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                Chapter Ten

                                                                                                                                              Verses 1-5

In these verses, Jesus preached about His sheepfold, and who has the right to enter into His sheepfold. Jesus taught that anyone who tries to get into His sheepfold in some other way than through the door can only be "a thief and a robber." Jesus could only have meant by using the words "thieves and robbers" all false prophets and false religious leaders who ever lived who mislead people into believing that some religion can cause them to become one of God's sheep. Jesus taught that the only way that any human could ever get to Heaven would be through faith in Him. John 14:6.

In verse two, Jesus proclaimed that the only person who has the right to enter the sheepfold through the "door" can only be the Shepherd of the sheep. But in verse seven, Jesus taught that He is also the "door" by means of which the Shepherd enters the sheepfold. In other words, Jesus happens to be both the Shepherd of the sheep, and also the means by which any sheep can enter the sheepfold or be called out of the sheepfold. The "porter," which must symbolize the Holy Spirit, opens the "door" so that the Shepherd can call His own sheep out of the sheepfold.

Everything God creates can only be eternal. Ecclesiastes 3:14; Psalm 111:7-8. God creates every living human in His image which means the lives of every human can never become permanently dead. Genesis 1:27; Genesis 3:20; Luke 20:38. This fact can only mean that Christ is the "door" into the sheepfold because He creates every living human to be one of His sheep. Ezekiel 34:31; Psalm 119:91. Christ creates His sheep to enter the sheepfold, and He also calls His own special sheep out of the sheepfold to lead them to spiritual pastures and waters in the world. These latter sheep represent all living humans that Christ saves by His grace.

In Jesus' parable in Matthew 18:11-14, He teaches that after the shepherd has found the one lost sheep gone astray and returns it to the sheepfold, then there are no more lost sheep outside the sheepfold. This can only mean that Christ can never lose any living human that He ever created. Jesus also taught that God's Will is that no "little one" should perish. All of God's living humans are His little ones. Psalm 100:1-5 can only be a prophecy that a day will come when "all lands," which can only mean all living humans that God ever created will worship and praise the Lord. Revelation 5:11-14. According to verse three, all living humans who worship Him in the end of the world are His sheep. Verse four informs that "God's mercy is everlasting" and that "His truth endureth to all generations" which can only mean that in the end of the world God will save and recreate every living human who failed to become saved by grace because they all are His sheep. Revelation 5:11-14; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 21:1-5; John 5:28-29.

God reveals some of His Word in His creations. Psalm 19:1-4; Romans 1:19-20. The physical laws of the universe reflect a truth about God's Word. Matter and energy can neither be created nor destroyed except by God. This fact can only mean that when the Bible (KJB) uses the words "perish" or "destroy," these words never mean annihilation. The basic elements of God which are the basis of God's creations are eternal, and God can create good systems by combining copies of these basic elements. God created living humans from copies of these basic elements to be good systems. Genesis 1:31. God has the right to create good systems or to dissolve good systems to their basic elements as He Wills, but God will never allow any of His creations or the basic elements of those creations to ever be annihilated. Ecclesiastes 3:14. In the end of the world, God will use His fiery wrath against evil to dissolve every human system confined to the regions of death to separate them from death so that He can recreate them into new. good systems that can never be infected with spiritual death again. The Devil has attempted to use spiritual death, which is the source of evil, to annihilate the good, living nature of humans, but God will not allow him to succeed. God will cast the separated, evil natures of all humans confined to the regions of death into the eternal lake of fire. II Peter 3:9-13; I Corinthians 3:11-15; Psalm 75:3; Revelation 21:1-5. Revelation 20:15 clearly teaches that God will cast only separated, dead humans into the lake of fire, not living humans. It is impossible that living humans could be a part of dead humans. They are exact opposites. Christ came to destroy only the evil works of the Devil, never living humans. John 12:31-32; Hebrews 2:14-15; I Timothy 6:13; I Timothy 1:10; I John 3:8. Living humans have never been nor can they ever become the works of the Devil. Luke 20:38. Christ has promised that He will "make all things new," which can only mean all that He ever created, including all living humans. Revelation 21:5; Revelation 4:11. God could certainly never get any pleasure from living humans burning in a lake of fire.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                 Chapter Nine

                                                                                                                                              Verses 39-41

Jesus then spoke up loud so that some Pharisees near Him could hear Him. The Pharisees always seemed to be near Jesus throughout much of His ministry. Jesus gave the Pharisees a spiritually symbolic message. Jesus told the Pharisees that His judgment in the world was to open the eyes of the blind so that they, like the healed man, could see only Him and become blind to the sinful world.

Jesus' symbolic message to them was that those who saw themselves as being so important to God and to their overbearing authority should be made blind to their excessive pride so that they could see only their need for a Savior. The Pharisees who heard Jesus seemed to at least partly understand His symbolic meaning because they asked Jesus if they were blind.

Jesus replied that if they would only blind themselves to their excessive pride and their oppressive rule over others and see themselves as being in need of a Savior, then He could take away their sins and make them see only their Savior and the new life that He could give them.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                  Chapter Nine

                                                                                                                                              Verses 35-38

Jesus knew that this man had stood up to the Pharisees, and Jesus looked for him and found him. Jesus asked this man if he believed "on the Son of God?" Jesus asked him this one, simple question because He knew that faith was all a person needs to be saved by grace. God's method of salvation by grace never changes because Jesus never changes. Hebrews 13:8. Since Jesus never changes, then His Holy Spirit never changes. God has never added any form of religious ceremony to salvation by grace.

This man answered that he did not know who the Son of God was, but he was ready to believe. Jesus just plainly told him that He was the Son of God.

This man instantly believed, and he proved that he had been saved by grace because he worshiped Jesus. This man's worship clearly demonstrates that all a person needs to be saved by grace is faith and worship of Jesus as being God. Salvation by grace means a commitment of one's whole life to Christ which, of necessity, includes repentance. One must commit one's whole life to the worship and service of Christ, including one's sins. Christ will receive that person forever, wash away all his sins with the blood and water He shed on the cross, forgive that person forever, and He will give that person His own everlasting life and an eternal home with Him in Heaven. Christ does everything a person needs for his salvation by grace. I John 1:7; II Corinthians 5:17; I Corinthians 6:11; John 17:24. Some may argue that some people worship Christ as God, but they do not become saved by grace. They do not become saved by grace because they only make a temporary worship of Christ. They do not commit their whole lives to Christ for Him to save them forever by His grace.  

The Holy Spirit developed within this man the desire to find and to know His Savior. The Holy Spirit caused this man to become bold and courageous enough to stand against the Pharisees false doctrines. The Holy Spirit caused this man to be unconcerned if the Pharisees put him out of the synagogue. The Holy Spirit made this man ready to be saved by grace when Jesus found him.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                 Chapter Nine

                                                                                                                                              Verses 28-34

These Jews became enraged when this healed man suggested that they should become Jesus' disciples. They stopped their investigation and made their judgments. They condemned the healed man for being Jesus' disciple, and they claimed that they were Moses' disciples. They thought of Moses as being the enforcer of God's Law, but they forgot that God had also given Moses and the people a sin offering and a burnt offering for their cleansing and forgiveness when they inevitably sinned. Leviticus 5:7-10. Jesus described their sinful attitude toward God's Word and His people. Matthew 23:23; Matthew 15:1-9. These Pharisees misused Moses' authority to enforce their own cruel authority.

The healed man became even bolder and more courageous toward these Pharisees. The healed man turned their own beliefs against them, They claimed that they did not know from where Jesus came, but they also knew that God does not hear the prayers of sinners. Yet, God had heard Jesus' prayer and had opened the eyes of one who was born blind. This healed man pointed put to them that they contradicted themselves in their own beliefs. Jesus could not possibly be a sinner.

These enraged Pharisees did not answer this man's charge against them, They simply invoked their supposed superiority over the healed man, and they made their final judgment that he was a nobody "born in sins" who had no right to teach them. Then they put him out of the synagogue. Their excessive pride caused them to forget that they too were sinners in need of God's cleansing and forgiveness. Leviticus 5:7-10.