Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                 Chapter Eight

                                                                                                                                              Verses 41-47 continued

Jesus knew that His preaching would be written in John's gospel. For this reason, Jesus not only preached the truth to those unbelievers, He preached to the entire human race. Jesus preached that every individual has a good, living nature given to them by God with the capability to hear and believe God's Word. But Jesus also preached that every human has a dark and evil nature injected into them by the Devil which prevents them from hearing the truth of God's Word. The types of lives that individual humans live depends upon which inner nature they choose for their lifestyle. But whether they choose to live good or evil lives, every human has, at one time or another, sought to be rid of God's authority and to go their own ways in life. For this reason, all humans have sinned, and many humans have invented their own destructive, moral codes, and they have rejected God's moral laws. The scribes and Pharisees ignored the true God of their scriptures, and they sought to invent their own god who would approve of their evil morals and lifestyles. They hated Jesus because He reminded them of who their true God really was.

Deep in their evil natures, all humans know that no way exists to get rid of God except to try to kill Him. For this reason, the evil natures of all humans, allied with the Devil, nailed Jesus to the cross. Acts 4:25-28. But Jesus prayed from the cross that His Father would forgive all humans for their evil because they had become so deceived by the Devil that they did not know what they were doing. They knew what they were trying to do, but they did not understand that they were actually trying to turn all of God's creations over to evil. Luke 23:34. Jesus's prayer from the cross reveals the fact that Jesus came to rescue all living humans that He creates and loves from the evil powers of the Devil who seeks to utterly destroy a part of God's creations and weaken God which would give the Devil the means to murder Him. Job 2:4-6; Job 2:9. The Devil would have succeeded in his attempt to utterly destroy the living natures of humans, and thereby, eventually murder God Himself had not Jesus, in His great Love for humanity, taken the eternal suffering that sin causes and the eternal deaths of all living humans on Himself on a cruel cross and rise triumphant over it all so that He will eventually liberate all living humans that He loves from the power of the Devil. John 12:31-32; I Timothy 6:13; Hebrews 2:9; Revelation 1:17-18; John 5:28-29; I Timothy 4:10; Revelation 21:5; I Corinthians 15:22. Everything God creates can only be eternal, Ecclesiastes 3:14; Psalm 111:7-8. Therefore, since Christ "quickeneth all things" that He created, then He knows exactly how to cause all humans confined to the regions of the dead to repent and believe in Him as the Lamb so that He can raise them back to a recreated life on His new earth. Revelation 5:11-14; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 21:1-5.

Jesus further pointed out to these unbelievers something that they could not, and did not, deny. Jesus did nothing but show them His Love and compassion. For this reason, Jesus boldly charged them to name at least one sin that they had heard Him say or some sinful act that He had done. The conviction of the Holy Spirit caused them to be unable to answer Him. Jesus preached that the fact that they could not name a single sin that He had done should be proof to them that He spoke the truth to them. Jesus told them that they could not hear the truth that He preached because they adhered to their evil natures within them.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                   Chapter Eight

                                                                                                                                               Verses 41-47

Because of the stubbornness of these Jews and their refusal to learn from the written Word of God or hear Jesus' true preaching about it, Jesus became very blunt and direct with His preaching to them. Jesus boldly told them that they were actually doing the evil deeds of their father because they sought to kill Him. These unbelievers represent all humans who wholly give their lives over to the influence of evil. But even the worst humans still possess a living soul and spirit that God put into them that He can never lose. Ecclesiastes 3:14; Luke 20:38.

These Jews then openly revealed the fact that they had investigated the life of Jesus. They did so to try to find something that they could use against Him. They had learned that Jesus' mother had been pregnant before she married her husband Joseph. Like so many self-righteous and cruel people in history, they implied that something was wrong with Jesus simply because of the way He was born. They were actually accusing Jesus of not being a child of God when they told Him that God was their father, and they implied that Jesus could not be a child of God because they thought He was illegitimate.

Jesus rebuked them by telling them that if God were their Father, they would love Him because He had shown nothing but the love and mercy that the Old Testament taught about God. Jesus preached to them that they could not hear the truth of God's Word because they had wholly given themselves over to practice evil.

Jesus bluntly told them that because they had chosen to be cruel and evil, that meant that the Devil was their real father. The Devil had put the idea into their hearts to murder Him. But even the very best humans have pondered this idea at some time in their lives. Jesus told them that the Devil had always been a murderer and a liar, and they could not hear and believe the truth because they listened only to the lies of the Devil. The Devil and the demons never tell humans anything but lies. They may speak some half-truths, but these are only very clever lies. Genesis 3:5.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                  Chapter Eight

                                                                                                                                              Verses 39-40 continued

Because a blood offering must always precede a burnt offering, God will bring many living humans to faith in that particular seed of Abraham called the Lamb who will wash away all of their sins and evil with the blood He has shed for them on the cross, and He will save them by His grace. Exodus 12:1-11; I Peter 1:18-21.

But through His burnt offering, God has provided a means to a lesser form of salvation for all living humans who do not become saved by grace. Leviticus 5:7-10; I Corinthians 3:11-15. Christ will appear to all living humans confined to the regions of the dead near the end of the world, and in a great worship service in which He will display to them such Holy Majesty and such  Almighty Love for them, that He will cause them all to repent and believe in Him of their own free will. Revelation 5:11-14. Immediately following this great worship service, God will use His fiery wrath against evil, which the burnt offering symbolizes, to dissolve all their systems in order to separate their redeemed, living natures for Him to recreate in body, soul, and spirit to live eternal, righteous lives on His new earth from their dead and evil natures that He will cast into the eternal lake of fire. II Peter 3:9-13; Psalm 75:3; Matthew 13:36-43; Luke 3:16-17. The inner beings of all humans contain both tares and wheat or chaff and wheat.

For all living humans saved by grace, God will give the perfect righteousness of Christ Himself by means of which He can accept them into Heaven to live with Him there forever. II Corinthians 5:21; Romans 8:14-17. God will raise all repentant, living humans from the regions of death, and He will give them the same form of righteousness that He gave to Adam and Eve when He created them, but they will never be able to sin again because God will have purged all evil from His new creations. Revelation 20:5; I Corinthians 15:35-49. God has promised that He will save all living humans that He creates and loves. Genesis 3:20-21; Luke 20:38; I Corinthians 15:22; Ecclesiastes 3:14; I Corinthians 13:8. Christ has promised that He will "make all things new," which must include all living humans since God made "all things." Revelation 21:5. Christ has promised that in the end of the world He will make an absolute separation of all that is good from all that is evil. Revelation 22:11-12.

Because of His great Love for humanity that can never fail, Christ will save forever every human who ever lived even though all individual humans have, at one time or another, desired to murder Him. I Corinthians 13:8. Those Jews who sought to murder Jesus merely represented the desire of every person in the entire human race. Acts 4:25-28.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                  Chapter Eight

                                                                                                                                              Verses 39-40

These Jews protested to Jesus that they were descendants of Abraham as if that were enough to make them right with God. If these Jews had only opened their spiritual natures to learn from their scriptures when they read them, they would have understood that Abraham did some good works, but he also sinned. That fact should have made them realize that sin was Abraham's problem and theirs as well. Genesis 12:10-20.

Jesus told them that if they were Abraham's seed, then they should do the same work that Abraham had done in order to be right with God. Had these Jews paid close attention to their scriptures, they would have learned that Abraham became right with God simply because he believed God's promises that He would give to him and his seed the land that God had promised him for an everlasting inheritance. Genesis 15:1-21; Genesis 17:1-14. These Jews should have noticed that God did not give spiritual righteousness to Abraham because of his good works. God gave Abraham His own righteousness because of his faith. Genesis 15:6. God also gave the rite of circumcision to Abraham and all his seed to symbolize that God would cut the unrighteousness out of Abraham's seed who believed in God's promises to them, and who were faithful to God, and God would replace their unrighteousness with His own righteousness. Genesis 17:9-14.

Abraham had to believe that God would raise him and all of his righteous seed from the dead in order for God to keep His promises to him. Abraham also had to have believed that God would provide some way to remove the unrighteousness from him and all of his faithful seed. Abraham displayed his faith when he told the young men that both he and Isaac would return from the burnt offering on the mountain. Abraham also displayed his faith that God would provide a sin offering for all of his seed who would become saved by God's grace when he told Isaac that God would provide Himself as a Lamb in Isaac's place. Genesis 22:1-18; Hebrews 11:17-19.

Abraham's sin offering and burnt offering were not meant for just Abraham and his seed. God promised Abraham that because of his faith and the faith of his righteous seed, God would provide a way to bring every living human that He ever created to that same blessed faith that will save them either by His grace or by the burnt offering. God will give that same faith to every living human either for salvation by His grace or for resurrection from the regions of the dead for Him to recreate to live forever in their own promised land on God's new earth. Genesis 22:18. Abraham made a burnt offering on Mount Moriah of a ram provided by God which meant that God would provide a higher or a lesser form of salvation for all living humans. God gave this same promise to Noah when He commanded Noah to make the first burnt offering. Genesis 8:20-21. But a sin offering must always precede a burnt offering.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                  Chapter Eight

                                                                                                                                               Verse 34-38

Jesus then clearly preached to these unbelievers that His message was about spiritual liberation from the bondage of sin, not physical liberation. These Jews looked for Jesus to liberate them from bondage to the Romans, and they ignored the fact that their main problem was their bondage to sin and the Devil which their own scriptures taught them.

Jesus used the word "house" as having a symbolic meaning. It seems to have meant all of God's creations, which also could mean the Kingdom of God. God's servants, who happen to be every human who ever lived, cannot stay within the Kingdom of God unless they become saved by grace. They cannot remain within the Kingdom of God because the sin and evil within them causes God to have to consign their living souls and spirits along with their dead and evil natures to the regions of death after their physical deaths. Their living souls and spirits have become stained by sin, and God cannot allow sin and evil to remain within His creations. The regions of death lie outside the Kingdom of God. Psalm 119:89-91; Hebrews 9:27. Physical death, in itself, cannot be a punishment for sin and evil. Physical death merely translates a believer saved by grace to Heaven, or it causes God to have to consign the living souls and spirits of those who have become marred by sin and evil to the regions of spiritual death. But God has a plan to save all living humans confined to the regions of death by bringing them all back to faith in the Lamb of their own free will but with a lesser form of salvation. Revelation 5:11-14; Isaiah 45:20-25; John 11:25; John 5:28-29; Revelation 21:5; Hebrews 9:27.

Every human created in God's image resides within the Kingdom of God and is therefore a servant of God. Luke 17:20-21. Every individual happens to be born with a good and living nature given by God, and with a dead and evil nature injected into them by the Devil. Genesis 1:27; Genesis 1:30; Genesis 2:17; Romans 5:12. But if the living souls and spirits that God has created can become so corrupted by sin and evil that they become lost forever from God's creations in a lake of fire, then God will have lost a part of His creations, and that He cannot do. Ecclesiastes 3:14. Besides that, God has promised that He will "make all things new," which can only mean His entire creations. Revelation 21:5.

When an unbeliever dies, God must cast their living souls and spirits into one of the regions of death because they have become marred and corrupted by sin and evil, which is also spiritual death. But Jesus gives them hope because He abides within His creations forever, which means His Love abides forever. His Love cannot fail. I Corinthians 13:8.

Jesus preached to them that those who commit sin are the servants of sin which would cause them to die in their sins, but He also preached that He had the power to liberate them from bondage to sin and the Devil if they would only believe in His power to do so while they were still alive in the flesh.

Jesus further preached to them that He knew that they were Abraham's seed by which He meant that He knew that they knew that they were God's chosen people and special servants of God, and yet even so, their evil natures within them sought to murder Jesus. The evil natures of all humans have, at one time or another, sought to be rid of God's Love and authority. Acts 4:25-28. That evil desire to murder God nailed Jesus to a cruel cross, but in His great Love for all His living humans, Jesus voluntarily took their sins and evil natures on Himself on a cruel cross so that He could forever rescue and separate their living natures from their dead and evil nature for Him to cast into the lake of fire. Revelation 20:5; Revelation 20:11-15.

Jesus further informed them that He preached in the Will of His Father, but they sought to murder Him because of the evil influence of their father who is the Devil.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                  Chapter Eight

                                                                                                                                              Verses 30-33

By the way these Jews subsequently mocked Jesus and made false accusations against Him, they demonstrated that their faith was shallow and short-lived. In order to become saved by grace, one must commit one's entire life to the service of Christ. Jesus told them that they must commit their lives to faith in His Word in order to become His disciples. Jesus had preached about shallow faith before. Matthew 13:5-6; Matthew 13:20-21. False faith always proves to be ephemeral. It withers and dies.

When Jesus told these Jews that He always did His Father's Will, they evidently misunderstood what Jesus meant. They thought that God would send their Messiah to liberate them from the Romans. They had no concept that the Messiah could liberate them from sin and evil.

But the fact that a shallow faith can wither and die raises the question: Can a person who sincerely repents and commits their life to Christ ever lose their salvation by grace if they fall back into a life of sin? According to the Word of God, they cannot. God knows who sincerely repents and believes and who does not. God will forever save by His grace anyone who sincerely repents and believes even though He knows that in their future that person will fall back into sin. Jesus knew that Peter would deny Him. John 13:36-38. God saved Lot by His grace even though He knew that he would go to live in Sodom. II Peter 2:6-9. God never fails to keep His part of any covenant; that is, an agreement with any human, and He never reneges on any promise that He ever makes. Psalm 89:34; Romans 11:29. God knows exactly how to call every backslider saved by His grace to a renewed repentance and faith in Him. II Peter 2:9; I Thessalonians 3:13; Ephesians 5:25-27. Every living human that God saves by His grace, He saves for His own purposes which no one has a right to question. I Timothy 1:9. Jesus preached that the backslider will become choked and unfruitful by the sins of himself and the world, but he will not wither and die. Matthew 13:7; Matthew 13:22.

Jesus preached to these false believers that if they would ever commit their lives to faith in His Word, which is the Truth, then He would liberate them from slavery to sin and the Devil. But by their response to Jesus' gospel message, they demonstrated that they missed His spiritual message, and they still clung to the idea that Abraham had made them physically free even though at that time they were under bondage to the Romans.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                  Chapter Eight

                                                                                                                                              Verses 27-29

Jesus had already told these unbelievers many times that He came from His Father and that He did the work of His Father. But they could not believe that Jesus came from God because to them God was merely the protector of their authority and the Savior of the nation of Israel. Humans often conceive of a god that they can control. Jesus had told them that they thought they could please God through religious practices, and they had ignored the fact that God's judgment rested on His mercy and faith in Him as being compassionate to repentant sinners. Matthew 23:23; Psalm 51:1-19. Many people use the name of God as a means to gain power over others. For this reason, the scribes and Pharisees could not believe that Jesus came from the Father.

Jesus then revealed to these unbelievers one of the most profound truths that He ever taught. Jesus told His most virulent enemies that when they would have Him nailed to a cross, then deep in their hearts they would know exactly who He was and that His works and His sermons came directly from His Father. This truth that applies to Jesus' worst enemies must also apply to every human who ever lived. God creates every living human in His image and that image has faith to recognize the Word of God when they hear it. Genesis 1:27; Genesis 1:31; Romans 12:3. They may hate it and fight against it when they hear it, but they will always recognize it.

The spiritual death that the Devil has injected into the inner beings of all humans influences all humans with a desire to get rid of God so that they can practice their sinful pleasures and their lust for power over others without any accountability for their evil to a Holy God. Genesis 2:17. To the extent that this evil influences humans, some react with hatred toward God, but others who allow their spiritual natures to somewhat prevail inside themselves, acquire a desire to be rid of their spiritual evil. The former tend to become atheists, but the latter tend to become believers saved by grace. But the spiritual evil in all humans nailed Jesus to the cross. Acts 4:25-28. But Jesus prayed from the cross that His Father would forgive all of them even though they all desired to murder Him. Luke 23:34.

Just as the evil nature of humans influences living humans to commit sins and gives them a desire to get rid of God, the Holy Spirit influences all living humans to allow the faith that God has put in to their good, spiritual natures to trust in Christ as their personal Savior. John 1:9. For this reason, the Holy Spirit has preached the gospel to every human who ever lived or will live. Colossians 1:23. Only the Holy Spirit can preach the gospel. The Holy Spirit can bring living humans who have never heard the gospel and who do not have a Bible to faith in Christ deep in their hearts even though they do not know His name. The doctrine that humans go to Hell because the Church fails to send preachers to preach the gospel to them can only be wrong. The fact that Jesus knows every one of His sheep and can never lose a single one of them belies this doctrine. John 10:27-28. Preachers of the gospel cannot be a part of the gospel. I Corinthians 15:1-4. Nevertheless, the Church should obey God and send preachers and missionaries to preach the gospel to those who have never heard it so that those who have been saved by the Holy Spirit will come to a conscious realization that they have been saved by God's grace, and they will then have a desire to join a church and serve God. Matthew 28:18-20.

Jesus then reaffirmed His preaching that He came from His Father to demonstrate His Father's Love and compassion for a lost human race. Luke 19:10. The living human race would have been lost forever in spiritual death had not Jesus come to earth to save it with a higher and a lesser form of salvation. Hebrews 2:9. If Jesus tasted death for every human then He cannot fail to save every living human whom He creates and loves. Ecclesiastes 3:14; I Corinthians 13:8.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                  Chapter Eight

                                                                                                                                              Verses 25-26

These Jews became perplexed because to their way of thinking Jesus had made outlandish claims about being sent from God and coming from Heaven. So they asked Jesus again who He was. Jesus answered that He had already told them many times who He was, and He had proven who He was by the miracles which He had done.

Jesus then told them that He had many more sermons to preach to them, and He had many more judgments to make about them. Jesus did not tell them that He would judge them as persons because He had said before that He would make no such judgments while He was in the world. John 8:15. Jesus specifically taught that He would make no judgments of humans while He was in the world in His physical from. John 12:47. Jesus made judgments about humans, but He made no judgments of humans. Jesus makes only two kinds of judgments of the beings of humans. He judges the souls and spirits of all humans not saved by grace immediately after their physical deaths to determine which region of death to which He will send them, and He makes His final judgment in the end of the world. Hebrews 9:27; Revelation 5:11-14; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 20:11-15; Revelation 21:1-5; Revelation 22:11-12. Jesus does continuously judge about humans. Jesus preached against human sin and evil, and He warned humans that if they failed to believe in Him as their Savior, then they would die in their sins, but He made no judgments about the fate of the beings of any human while He was in the world. John 12:47-48.

Jesus then taught that He came to preach His Father's gospel, not just to the Jews as their Messiah, but He came to preach the truth of His gospel to the whole world, meaning all mankind, The Jews believed that their Messiah would come just for them, to liberate them from Roman dominance. They must have been shocked and further perplexed when they heard Jesus proclaim that He came to preach a true gospel that He had received from His Father to all mankind, including their enemies. The Jews thought of themselves as being a very special people because they believed in the one true God, and that in the end, God would save only them, and God would condemn all the worthless Gentiles who worshiped idols.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                   Chapter Eight

                                                                                                                                              Verses 19-24 continued

With a compassionate heart still, Jesus preached to them that because they adamantly adhered to their materialistic, worldly natures, they were not able to believe that He came from God or that He was their spiritual Savior. Jesus informed them that because of their unbelief, they would die in their sins. But Jesus did not tell them that they would remain in a state of death forever. Hebrews 2:9. Jesus also did not tell them that their living souls and spirits that He had created and put into them would be cast into an everlasting lake of fire. Revelation 20:5; Revelation 20:11-15. If that had been true, then that would have been a message of extreme importance which Jesus would have to have told them.

Jesus also did not tell them that He had a plan to keep alive their living souls and spirits forever. Genesis 3:20; Luke 20:38; I Corinthians 15:22; Psalm 36:6; I Timothy 4:10; Ecclesiastes 3:14. Jesus did not tell them that in the end of the world He would appear to them within the regions of death, and He would cause them to repent and believe in Him as the Lamb of God their Savior of their own free will so that He could use His fiery wrath against evil to dissolve their systems in order to separate their living souls and spirits from their dead and evil natures. Revelation 5:11-14; I Corinthians 3:11-15; II Peter 3:9-13. Perhaps, Jesus only told them that they would die in their sins because He knew that that would be as much as they would be barely able to understand. Perhaps, He also told them that because He hoped they would finally open their spiritual natures to hear and believe His gospel and become saved by His grace. John 5:24.

But there came a time when Jesus did tell an unbelieving Pharisee who had invited Jesus to eat a supper that he should do good works because he would be rewarded for doing so "at the resurrection of the just." Luke 14:12-14. Since this unbelieving Pharisee could not have been saved by grace, then Jesus had to have spoken about the general resurrection in the end of the world. II Timothy 4:1; John 5:28-29. When Jesus said that this would be a resurrection of the "just," He could not have meant the justification that results from salvation by grace. Romans 5:1. Jesus could only have meant that He will raise the repentant soul and spirit of this Pharisee whom He created and loves from the regions of the dead and recreate him with rewards for his earthy good works and with a new life on His recreated earth. John 5:28-29; John 11:25; Revelation 5:11-14; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 22:11-12.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                  Chapter Eight

                                                                                                                                              Verses 19-24

The enemies of Jesus asked Him where His Father was because they thought that Jesus had to have an earthly father. Jesus answered that they could not know His Father because they had paid no attention to the compassion that He had shown to others. Jesus told them that if they had only opened their spiritual natures to see His compassion and miracles, then they also would know His Father. Apparently, these enemies of Jesus had paid no attention to the Old Testament teaching that God is merciful and compassionate. They seemed to think of God as being merely the protector of their self-righteous authority.

By the way these people spoke to Jesus, they demonstrated that they were enraged at Him as much as is possible to hate. Yet, they still could not arrest Jesus, and they did not ask themselves why they were blocked from being able to arrest Him.

Jesus told them that He would go His own way by which He meant that He would be able to continue His ministry until His Father allowed His enemies to arrest Him. Jesus informed them that they would still search for their Messiah because they believed that he would only liberate them from the Romans. But Jesus came to liberate them from sin and evil and the power of the Devil which they could not understand would be their most important liberation possible. Jesus further informed them that because they would not believe in Him as their spiritual Savior, then God would never allow them to live in Heaven with Him. Jesus told them that because of their unbelief, they would die in their sins, but He did not tell them that they would remain in a state of death forever. Hebrews 9:27; Revelation 5:11-4.

These Jews, still thinking solely in material ways, believed that Jesus contemplated suicide. They thought of Jesus as being evil and themselves as being righteous. They probably thought of suicide because they hoped Jesus would commit suicide.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                 Chapter Eight

                                                                                                                                              Verses 13-18 continued

Jesus told His enemies that they judged life only according to their material philosophy. All that mattered to them was their self-glorification, pleasure, wealth, and power over others. They altered or misinterpreted the Word of God to justify their material philosophy. Matthew 23:1-36.

Jesus informed them that He would not judge any man. Jesus meant that He would make no final judgments about any individual human while He was on the earth. John 12:47; John 5:45. Christ has reserved His final judgments about the fate of all humans not saved by grace to the end of the world. John 12:48. Christ will not judge humans saved by grace because He took their judgment upon Himself on the cross. Hebrews 10:12-14; I Peter 1:18-19.

Jesus then admitted that He does make true judgments while on the earth because His Father gave Him the authority to make such judgments. Jesus made judgments about the sin and evil that humans practice, but He made no judgments about the fate of the individual souls and spirits of any humans while He was on the earth. Jesus preached against the sin and evil within humans, and He informed humans that they needed to repent and believe in Him as their Savior from sin, evil, and eternal death. John 3:17-21; John 5:24. In the end of the world, Jesus will appear to all living humans confined to the regions of death and cause them all to repent and believe in Him as the Lamb of God of their own free will. Revelation 5:11-14. Christ then will use His fiery wrath against evil to dissolve all their systems in order to separate their cleansed and forgiven living natures for Him to recreate from their dead and evil natures that He will cast into the lake of fire. I Corinthians 3:11-15; II Peter 3:9-13; Psalm 75:3; Matthew 13:36-43; Matthew 13:47-50; Luke 3:16-17; Numbers 31:23; John 5:28-29; John 11:25; Luke 20:38; I Corinthians 15:22; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 20:11-15; Revelation 21:1-5; II Timothy 4:1.

Jesus then informed His enemies that according to their own law they had to accept the same witness of two men to be true. Jesus knew that they knew deep in their hearts that He bore a true witness about Himself by the compassion He demonstrated and the miracles that He did. Every human knows deep within their living natures that God created to be good the difference between that which is true and that which is false, but the evil natures of humans tries to make the false to be true. Deep within their hearts, Jesus' enemies knew fully well who He was, but they rejected Him because of their evil, stubborn pride in their hearts. The Devil can cause the evil natures of humans to desire to murder God just as the Devil so desires. John 8:44-45

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                  Chapter Eight

                                                                                                                                              Verses 13-18

The Pharisees accused Jesus of being the kind of person who desires only to glorify Himself, not God. So often, people who falsely accuse others of doing wrong happen to be guilty of that same offense. As Jesus clearly pointed out to them, the Pharisees and the scribes used the name of God to glorify themselves and to justify their oppression over those over whom they had authority. Matthew 23:1-36.

Jesus admitted that He spoke about Himself, but He spoke with confidence that He knew the truth because He came from Heaven, and He would return to Heaven. Jesus knew that deep in their spiritual natures His enemies knew that Jesus came from Heaven, but their excessive pride engendered in them by their evil natures would not allow them to become spiritually conscious of the fact that Jesus came from God and would return to God. Jesus knew that the image of God which He creates and puts into every human recognizes the Word of God when they hear it or read it. The men who would have stoned the woman taken in adultery dropped their stones and walked away because of the conviction of the Holy Spirit that awakened their spiritual natures. Humans become very uncomfortable and often very angry when anyone speaks about Jesus because their evil natures cause them to desire to get rid of God and to go their own ways. But Christ holds the power to eventually purge the evil natures from all living humans and return them all to reconciliation with Him. John 12:31-32; Colossians 1:15-23; I John 3:8. Jesus came to utterly destroy all the evil works of the Devil, not living humans whom He creates and loves.

The Devil cannot abandon his rebellion against God because he has become excessive pride itself. He has become totally evil. The Devil knows that the spiritual death that he injects into the inner beings of all humans has the power to engender an excessive pride that will often cause humans to stubbornly reject spiritual truth when they hear it or read it. The Devil desires to murder God so that he can invent his own nasty, moral code, and so do many humans. Nietzche understood that. John 8:44.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                 Chapter Eight

                                                                                                                                              Verse 12 continued

God preached His gospel to the world just prior to His creation of it. God said, "Let there be light" which instantly dispelled the darkness that covered the world. Genesis 1:2-3. God created material light, but that light symbolically represents His spiritual Light which will instantly dispel the evil darkness in the hearts of all believers saved by grace. John 3:21; John 8:12. When God recreates His new Heaven and earth, He will dispel all darkness from His new creations. God will infuse His entire new creations with both material light and spiritual Light. Revelation 21:23-27; Revelation 22:5. God has learned that evil entered His creations through the cover of darkness. God created evil only in the sense that He accidentally allowed evil to enter His creations when He created darkness. Isaiah 45:7. God has an infinite knowledge of only all that is holy and pure. God had no knowledge of evil until it entered His creations through the rebellion of Lucifer. Ezekiel 28:15. God feels guilty about that even though He knows He has no reason to feel that way. Isaiah 45:7. God will infuse His new creations with material light and spiritual Light in order to purge all death and darkness and burn it all in the lake of fire. Revelation 20:11-15. Evil will never be able to enter God's creations again.

God also had the Apostle John to write that His Light will light "every man that cometh into the world." This truth can only mean that God's Spirit will preach the gospel to the hearts of every human who ever lived, and it also means that Christ will light up the dark regions of the dead with His appearance to every living human that He had to confine there in a great worship service near the end of the world. Colossians 1:23; Revelation 5:11-14. The overwhelming Majesty and Love displayed in His appearance will cause all living humans confined there to repent and put their faith in the Lamb of God of their own free will. Christ will use His fiery wrath against evil to dissolve their systems in order to separate their repentant, living natures for Him to recreate with new bodies to live forever on His new earth from their dark and dead natures that He will cast into the lake of fire. Revelation 20:11-15; Luke 3:16-17; I Corinthians 3:11-15; II Peter 3:9-13; Revelation 21:1-5; Psalm 75:3; Numbers 31:23; John 5:28-29; Matthew 13:36-43.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                  Chapter Eight

                                                                                                                                              Verse 12

Jesus returned to preaching boldly about salvation by grace. Jesus proclaimed Himself to be the Light of the world, that is mankind. Jesus preached that whoever would follow Him; that is, believe in Him as their Savior, He would bring them out of darkness; that is, out of the dark evil of the world and into His Light of truth and love. This message from Jesus happened to be very similar to that which He taught Nicodemus. John 3:1-21. To repent and believe in Jesus as one's Savior causes a person to become "born again," that is, to become completely transformed in spirit and soul by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Light, which is the Spirit of Christ, comes into the inner being of the believer and completely dispels all of the dark evil inside that believer and translates that believer into the kingdom of God. Colossians 1:12-14. The Spirit of God completely cleanses that believer's soul and spirit of all sin and evil with the blood of Jesus and forgives that believer and wholly recreates that believer's soul and spirit by giving him or her the perfect righteousness of Christ Himself by the means of which God can accept that person into Heaven to live with Him there forever. Revelation 1:5; I Corinthians 6:11; I Peter 1:2-4; II Corinthians 5:17; II Corinthians 5:21; Romans 8:14-17.

The Spirit's transformation and recreation of the inner being of the believer happens instantaneously the moment that believer repents and believes in Christ as his Savior. The Holy Spirit lights up that believer on the inside which annuls the dark and evil nature of that believer. The believer immediately passes "from death unto life." John 5:24. Once a believer saved by grace has received the very righteousness of Christ which recreates his soul and spirit, then that believer can no longer sin in his or her soul and spirit. I John 3:9; I John 5:18.

But the Spirit does not immediately cleanse and forgive the fleshly nature of the believer saved by grace. The fleshly nature of the believer can still cause that believer to sin. Romans 7:15-25; I John 1:8. The Spirit uses a different method to cleanse and forgive the fleshly sins of the believer saved by grace. The believer must repent of his sins and ask for forgiveness every day. I John 1:9. When he does this, the Spirit washes him clean with the spiritual water that flowed from Jesus' side on the cross and the Spirit forgives him. Jesus shed material water on the cross, but the Spirit transforms that water into spiritual water. John 13:1-11; I John 5:6-8. But this raises the question: Does the believer saved by grace who fails to daily repent lose his salvation by grace? John 10:28-30. The Almighty Power and Love that is God can never lose anything that He ever creates, and He never takes back any gift that He gives. Ecclesiastes 3:14; Romans 11:29. God also never fails to make His Word good. Numbers 23:19. God also never breaks His part of any covenant that he makes with humans. Psalm 89:34. God will cause every backslidden believer to repent of all of his or her sins and become fully sanctified by the Holy Spirit just prior to His Rapture of His Church. I Thessalonians 3:13; Ephesians 5:25-27. Not only this, but the Almighty Power of God has gained complete victory over all sin and evil, and He will purge it all from His creations and recreate it all to be righteous. II Peter 3:9-13; Revelation 1:17-18; Romans 8:18-23; Colossians 1:15-23; Revelation 21:1-5; Revelation 22:11-12; John 5:28-29.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                 Chapter Eight

                                                                                                                                               Verses 1-11

The scribes and Pharisees who brought the woman taken in adultery to Jesus misquoted God's law. They proclaimed that Moses commanded that the woman be stoned to death, but the law required that the man also must be stoned to death. They had not brought the man to Jesus even though they had caught her in the act. Leviticus 20:10; Deuteronomy 22:22.

This action by Jesus' enemies demonstrated that they did not care about enforcing the law as written. They only cared about using the law in order to get a charge against Jesus. They knew that Jesus had demonstrated compassion toward sinners, and they hoped that Jesus would deny the law so that they could get a charge against Him. Instead, Jesus probably wrote the Ten Commandments on the ground so that they could see what He was writing. He then challenged them all who had not sinned to cast the first stone at her. Jesus used the power of the Holy Spirit to bring conviction to every one of them that they too had sinned. Some of them had also probably committed adultery, and they knew in their hearts that they also deserved to be stoned to death. Being in the grip of God's power to awaken their consciences, they all dropped their stones and walked away. They did not repent or believe in Jesus, and they also did not ask themselves what had caused them to walk away. But unknown to their conscious minds, they had just witnessed the power and compassion of God who can bring overwhelming conviction to the hearts of men and who can pardon the penalty of sin without breaking the law.

Jesus then raised Himself from being stooped to write on the ground, and He asked the woman if any man had condemned her. She replied that no man had condemned her. She was relieved that Jesus had saved her from certain death. Jesus told her that He also did not condemn her. Jesus demonstrated that He had forgiven her even though she had not asked Him for forgiveness. This woman could not have been saved by grace because she demonstrated no repentance or faith in Jesus as her Savior. She was simply relieved that she had not been stoned. Yet, Jesus forgave her sin. By doing this, Jesus demonstrated that eventually God will pardon and forgive all sinners, not just those saved by grace.

In the end of the world, God will cause all living souls and spirits that He has created in His image and whom He loves and whom He had to confine to one of the regions of death to repent and believe in Him as the Lamb of God so that He can save them with a lesser form of salvation and raise them from the dead for Him to recreate to live on His new earth. God will use His fiery wrath against evil to dissolve all their systems in order to separate their living natures that He will save from their dead and evil natures that He will cast into the lake of fire. I Corinthians 3:11-15; Revelation 5:11-14; Numbers 31:23; Psalm 75:3; II Peter 3:9-13; Luke 3:16-17; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 20:11-15; Luke 20:38; I Corinthians 15:22.

Jesus also told this woman to "go, and sin no more." Jesus could not have meant just adultery because He told her not to sin at all. But Jesus knew that she could not keep His commandment just as He knew the Israelites, and the rest of humanity, could not keep His Ten Commandments. Jesus meant that she should repent of her sins and strive to live a clean life. Jesus also meant that when she inevitably did sin, she should trust in God's pardon and forgiveness just as the Israelites had trusted in the sin offering and the burnt offering for the pardon and forgiveness of their sins. God's provision for forgiveness happens to be as much of a part of His law as are the Ten Commandments.

This woman did not understand that Jesus had given her an eternal forgiveness, but the next time she sinned she definitely remembered what Jesus had said and that He had rescued her from being stoned. This story illustrates the fact that eventually God will cause all living humans whom He creates and loves to repent of their sins caused by their evil natures and become saved forever either by His grace or by His appearance to them in the end of the world. John 5:24; Revelation 5:11-14. God's creations can never cease to exist, and God's Love can never fail. Ecclesiastes 3:14; Psalm 111:7-8; I Corinthians 13:8.

The Old Testament provides examples of a form of lesser salvation that cannot be by grace. Certain scriptures indicate that God will provide an eternal salvation on the earth for all who fear Him and keep His commandments. This form of salvation cannot be by grace because God gives His grace solely apart from any good works, and God gives humans saved by His grace an eternal home in Heaven, not on the earth. The righteousness that these scriptures speak about can only be the image of God that He puts into all humans. God will preserve His entire creations, including His righteousness that He has put into every human. God will eventually cause all humans to fear Him and obey His commandments which include repentance and faith in Him as their Savior. Psalm 50:23; Psalm 25:12-13; Psalm 37:29; Proverbs 28:18; Proverbs 10:12; Psalm 36:6; Psalm 107:9-15; Psalm 68:18; Psalm 86:9; Isaiah 45:20-25. There are many others.