Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                 Chapter Five

                                                                                                                                      Verses 20-29 continued

Jesus then taught that a person could honor Him and His Father with faith while still alive in the flesh. Jesus proclaimed that if a person believes His Word and believes in His Father, then that person will know that Jesus is God and that person will immediately receive everlasting life from God. That person will never come to a place of condemnation by Christ. Romans 8:1. When that person saved by grace physically dies and faces Christ in judgment, Christ will never cast the soul and spirit of that person into any region of death because that person will possess the everlasting life of Christ Himself in their soul and spirit. Hebrews 9:27; Romans 8:10; II Corinthians 5:21. Any person saved by grace will be as acceptable to God as Jesus Himself happens to be. Romans 8:17. Jesus' exclamation that a believer "is passed from death unto life" can only mean that Jesus will annul that believer's spiritual death inside of them and replace it with His very own everlasting life the moment that person believes. In other words, that believer will be "born of the Spirit" and will belong to Christ forever. John 3:5-6; I Corinthians 12:13; John 10:27-30. Believers saved by grace immediately become saved forever with no water baptism or any other religious ceremony or any good works being necessary. Ephesians 2:8-9; Romans 11:29.

Jesus' teaching in the next verse has a double meaning as does many other scriptures. Jesus taught that a time will come, and a time is present, when the dead will hear Jesus' Word and believe and live. Jesus put a double meaning to that which He taught. Jesus' first meaning was that those who believe His Word while still alive in the flesh will pass from spiritual death to everlasting life which is His life. Colossians 3:4; John 5:24.

Jesus' second meaning happened to be a prophecy that a time will come when all those who are still dead will hear His voice, believe in Him as the Lamb of God, and they will repent and be saved with a lesser form of salvation than that of grace. Jesus' prophecy will be fulfilled when He appears in all His Glory to all living humans on the earth and under the earth within the regions of the dead. By the force of His Majesty and Glory, He will cause all of the dead humans at that time to repent and believe in Him as the Lamb of God of their own free will. Revelation 5:11-14. Because they will come to faith in Christ's sacrifice to save them from eternal death, Christ will use His fiery wrath against evil to dissolve their systems in order to separate their living souls and spirits from their eternal, spiritual deaths. I Corinthians 3:11-15; II Peter 3:9-13; Psalm 75:3. Christ will forgive them all, cleanse them of all their sins and evil by the use of His fiery wrath, and He will resurrect them all and recreate them in spirit, soul, and body to live forever on His new earth. All of the Old Testament burnt offerings symbolized this form of salvation. Genesis 8:20-21; Leviticus 5:10; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 21:1-5; Revelation 22:11-12; I Corinthians 3:11-15. Christ will then cast their separated, dead natures into the eternal lake of fire. Revelation 20:11-15.

I Corinthians 3:11-15 describes God's salvation by the use of His fiery wrath. These verses relate about "any man" and "every man's" good works and evil works. These verses cannot relate about any human saved by grace because their good works have nothing to do with their salvation. God will burn the evil works of "any man," and He will reward him for his good works. Revelation 22:11-12. God will save all the lives of "every man" by the use of His fiery wrath. These verses cannot pertain to anyone saved by grace because they can only become saved by being washed clean by the blood and water that flowed from Jesus on the cross and by His resurrection from the dead, never by God's fiery wrath. Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the Apostle Paul revealed that God has a lesser form of salvation. I Corinthians 3:11-15. In I Corinthians 3:16, the Apostle Paul returns to a discussion about humans saved by grace. Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the Apostle Peter also wrote about God's salvation by the use of His fiery wrath. II Peter 3:9-13.