Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                 Chapter Twelve

                                                                                                                                               Verses 23-27 continued

Just as salvation by grace does not become active for the believer until the moment that believer repents and believes, and the Holy Spirit washes away the sins of that believer with the blood and water that Jesus shed on the cross, so the salvation of living humans confined to the regions of death does not become active until they repent and believe in the power of the Lamb to save them. Jesus will appear to them in a great worship service near the end of the world, and when they see His Majesty and Glory and His tremendous Love for them, they will all repent and believe that the Lamb of God will save them. Revelation 5:11-4.

The Holy Spirit had already left all their sins and spiritual deaths behind in the fires of Hell when He ascended, but at that time God did not dissolve their systems with His fiery wrath against evil, which is Hell itself. God waits to use His fiery wrath to dissolve their systems to separate their living natures, which He cannot lose, from their evil natures at the time when they will all repent and believe in Christ when He appears to them. Revelation 5:11-14; I Corinthians 3:11-15; II Peter 3:9-13; Deuteronomy 32:22. God will resurrect their repentant, living natures from the regions of death for Him to recreate to live forever on His new earth, and He will use the fires of Hell to carry their separated dead natures into the eternal lake of fire. Revelation 20:5; Revelation 21:1-5; Revelation 20:11-15. Life and death are exact opposites. No one should read into the Word of God that He casts living humans into the lake of fire because God's Word clearly states that He casts only dead humans into the lake of fire. God will recover and recreate their lives that He created and loves. God cannot lose anything He has ever created. Ecclesiastes 3:14; Psalm 111:7-8. God has promised that He will "make all things new." Revelation 21:5.

God has abolished death itself, not just for humans saved by grace but for all living humans. For God to abolish death can only mean that all living humans remain alive. I Timothy 1:10; I Corinthians 15:26. All living humans are forever alive to God. Genesis 3:20; Luke 20:38. Christ will recover all living humans from their spiritual deaths that threatens to extinguish their living natures, some by His grace and all others by His use of His fiery wrath against evil. I Corinthians 15:20-28; John 5:28-29; John 5:24; I Corinthians 3:11-15.

God made the Old Testament burnt offering useful for the forgiveness of sins just as He did the sin offering. Leviticus 5:6-10. But the sin offering must always precede the burnt offering. Christ had to suffer and die on the cross before His Spirit could descend into Hell to make the burnt offering for the forgiveness and salvation of all confined to the regions of death. Revelation 20:13. Salvation by grace precedes the lesser form of salvation that God has provided for the rest of humanity confined to the regions of death. I Corinthians 15:20-28; Colossians 1:15-20; John 5:24; John 5:28-29; Revelation 21:5.