Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                   Chapter Three

                                                                                                                                      Verses 22-23 continued

No doubt John the Baptist had heard from his cousin Mary, the mother of Jesus, that Jesus could do miracles, but he did not know for certain that Jesus was the Messiah until that day that the Holy Spirit revealed that truth to him when Jesus came to be baptized by him. John 1:29. At that time, John seemed to have suddenly realized for certain that Jesus was the Savior.

Before John realized who Jesus was, he preached a different message. John did not preach salvation by grace. He preached that his baptism in water demonstrated a "repentance for the remission of sins." John 3:3. This baptism was different from the baptism with the Spirit that only the Savior could provide. John did preach that the Messiah was coming who "shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire." Luke 3:16. The Holy Ghost baptism would be for salvation by grace, but the fire baptism would be for the Messiah to separate the "wheat" from the "chaff." The word "wheat" symbolized all of the good things that God ever created, including the souls and spirits of all humans. The word "chaff" symbolized the separated evil nature of all humans not saved by grace that Christ will cast into the lake of fire. Revelation 20:15; Luke 3:15-18. John actually prophesied that in the end of the world, God will use His fiery wrath against evil to dissolve His entire creation, including all living humans, in order to cleanse and separate all of His goodness from all evil and recreate it all to be righteous. I Corinthians 3:11-15; II Peter 3:9-13; Psalm 75:3; Revelation 21:5; John 5:28-29.

Jesus Himself preached this same doctrine in His parables of the "good seed" and the "tares" in Matthew 13:36-43, and He taught it in His parable of the separation of the good fish from the bad fish. Matthew 13:47-50. Jesus also prophesied that "every one shall be salted with fire" by which He meant that every living human will be saved. Genesis 8:20-21. Since Jesus sacrificed Himself to save every human, then His prophecy that "every sacrifice shall be salted with salt" can only mean that Christ will preserve every living human He ever created. Psalm 36:6; Psalm 75:3; Leviticus 2:13. When Jesus taught that "if the salt have lost his saltness," He meant that God will not preserve anything He did not create. God will purge all evil from His creations. When Jesus taught "Have salt in yourselves," He meant those who become saved by His grace. Mark 9:49-50. Jesus taught that these judgments would happen "in the end of the world." In the end of the world, Christ will effect an absolute separation, by the use of His fiery wrath against evil, to dissolve and separate all of the good that He has ever created from all of the evil that infects His creations, including all living humans who did not become saved by His grace. God will cause every living human on the earth and under the earth to repent and believe in the Lamb of their own free will. Revelation 5:11-14. At that time, Christ will use His fiery wrath against evil to dissolve every living human system in order to separate and preserve all of the goodness that He put into them for Him to recreate, and He will cast all their separated evil into the lake of fire. Ecclesiastes 3:14; II Timothy 4:1; John 5:28-29; I Corinthians 3:11-15; II Peter 3:9-13; Psalm 75:3; Revelation 21:1-5.