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.