Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                 Chapter Twelve

                                                                                                                                              Verses 23-27 continued

God gave the sin offering to Adam and Eve, but He gave the burnt offering to Noah after He had destroyed the evil human race in the flood. Genesis 3:21; Genesis 8:20-21. The burnt offering symbolizes God's salvation of all living humans that He creates and loves who do not become saved by grace. The sin offering symbolizes all humans whom God saves by His grace. God grieved over the loss of the living natures of all the living humans that He had destroyed in the flood. Genesis 6:5-7. So God made a way to save all living humans who do not become saved by grace. God symbolized this lesser form of salvation by the burnt offering He gave to Noah. Noah had to slay the animals first which symbolized the sin offering, and then he burnt the animals to symbolize God's salvation of all humans who do not obtain the salvation symbolized by the sin offering.

God told Noah the reasons why He had him make the burnt offering. First, the burnt offering symbolized God's removal of the curse of the ground which holds the regions of death for all living humans not saved by grace who would be confined there. Three regions of death exist. Revelation 20:13. God's removal of the curse meant that He had opened the regions of death so that He could resurrect all living humans confined there after He would revive their repentance and faith in the Lamb of God. Genesis 3:17; Genesis 8:21; Revelation 5:11-14. Second, God promised that He would remove the curse even though those confined to the regions of death still retained their evil natures. This promise had to mean that the burnt offering symbolized a way for God to dissolve all human systems there in order to separate their repentant, living natures from their evil natures. Genesis 8:21; I Corinthians 3:11-15; II Peter 3:9-13. God has promised to save the repentant, living natures of even those evil humans who were rebellious toward Him and hated Him while they lived on the earth. Psalm 68:18; Psalm 107:10-21. Third, God promised that He would never again "smite;" that is, kill all living humans with no way to save their living souls and spirits from the regions of death. Genesis 8:21. But through the burnt offering, God provided even a way for Christ to visit and preach to all those humans killed in the flood so that He could save them as well. I Peter 3:18-20.

Thus, in the first part of Jesus' statement in John 12:25, He spoke about those who loved their sinful lives on the earth, and who failed to repent and believe in His power to save them by His grace. Confined to the regions of death, they will nevertheless one day repent and believe in Christ who will appear to them. Revelation 5:11-14. When Christ uses His fiery wrath against evil to separate their living natures from their evil natures, they will lose their sinful natures that they enjoyed while they lived on the earth. Their sinful natures formed a part of their personalities when they lived on the earth. This means that when Christ recreates their living natures to live on His recreated earth, they will possess much different personalities than those they had while they lived on the earth. This is that which Christ meant when He said that they would lose their lives.