Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                  Chapter Three

                                                                                                                                      Verses 1-8 continued

Every human possesses a soul and spirit created in the image of God, and God can never lose anything that He has created and loves. Ecclesiastes 3:14; I Corinthians 13:8. All humans not saved by grace will eventually repent and believe in Christ of their own free wills, and He will give them a lesser form of salvation. He will recover and recreate their living souls and spirits with new bodies to live forever on His recreated earth. Revelation 5:11-14; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 21:1-5; Revelation 22:11-12. God cannot give rewards for good works to dead people. God can only give rewards for good works to living humans whom He has resurrected back to life. Revelation 20:5; John 5:28-29; Revelation 22:11-2. Jesus taught that even those living humans who did the smallest amount of good works will not lose their rewards even though those rewards will be few. Matthew 10:42; Matthew 16:27.

Jesus told Nicodemus that he had to be "born again," that is, "born of the Spirit" in order to enter the Kingdom of God while still alive in the flesh. Jesus described this experience as like feeling the wind blow. Apparently, Nicodemus had trouble understanding spiritual matters because he asked Jesus if a man could be born again from his mother's womb, so Jesus gave him a material example that compares with spiritual birth. A person knows when they become "born again" because they feel the Holy Spirit move into their inner being, similar to feeling the wind blow, and that person feels cleansed and forgiven of all their sins, and they feel that they have entered into a new world. Jesus did not mention water baptism as being necessary to feel this move of the Holy Spirit. When Peter preached the gospel to Cornelius and some of his kinsman and friends, the Holy Spirit fell on them immediately as soon as they believed in Jesus. Water baptisms followed their salvation by grace. This event provides only one example in the scriptures that confirms that spiritual truth that Jesus taught Nicodemus. Acts 10:34-48; John 3:7-8. Jesus clearly taught that just as a person can suddenly feel the wind blow, so a person can immediately be "born of the Spirit." Water baptism only follows this spiritual salvation as a witness to it.