Chapter Fourteen
Verses 28-31 continued
When Jesus told His disciples that the Devil had nothing in Him, He meant that He was absolutely perfect. The Devil injects spiritual death which is evil into every human, but not Jesus. The weakness in free will that caused Adam to sin has caused all human to have that same weakness, but the Devil has made it spiritual death. Sin causes spiritual death and spiritual death, in turn, causes sin. Romans 5:12. Because of spiritual death, the Devil has a claim on all human souls and spirits to hold them in the regions of death forever, but Jesus broke that claim. Jesus came into the world as God in human form, and as absolutely perfect, because He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin. Matthew 1:18-25. Jesus inherited no weakness and spiritual death from Adam. When Jesus hung on the cross, the Devil thought that Jesus' terrible suffering would weaken Him to the point that the Devil would be able to make Him sin so that he could inject spiritual death into Him and be able to murder Him and hold Him in Hell forever. Jesus did become sin because he bore the sins and spiritual deaths of every human who ever lived on His cross, but Jesus never became evil. Jesus became sin, but He did not personally sin. II Corinthians 5:21. Jesus suffered the spiritual deaths of every human for them so that they would not have to suffer it themselves, and He took away all their sins that cause spiritual death. Hebrews 2:9; Revelation 1:5. In fact, Jesus' self-sacrifice in the place of all of humanity became the greatest act of love and compassion that has ever been. John 3:16; John 15:13. As Jesus bore the sins and evil of all humans on the cross, the Holy Spirit carried His shed blood and water to cleanse and forgive all humans who would become saved by His grace. I Corinthians 6:11. When Jesus' Spirit descended into Hell, He left behind there all of the sins and evil of the rest of humanity so that Jesus could appear to them near the end of the world, and upon their repentance and faith of them all, He would provide a lesser form of salvation for them all by His use of His fiery wrath against evil. Acts 2:25-31; I Corinthians 3:11-15; Revelation 5:11-14. The Old Testament sin offering symbolized Christ's salvation by grace. Genesis 3:21; Exodus 12:5-8; Leviticus 5:5-9. The Old Testament burnt offering symbolized Christ's salvation of the rest of humanity by the use of His fiery wrath against evil. Genesis 8:20-21; Exodus 12:8- 11; Leviticus 5:10. When the Holy Spirit rose from Hell to reanimate the perfect body of Jesus, He came forth from the grave victorious over all of the sins and evil of all humanity. Revelation 1:17-18.
In the last verse of this chapter, Jesus prophesied that the whole world, meaning all of humanity, would eventually learn that He loves His Father and that He has obeyed His Father. Most of humanity knows nothing about that. The only way Jesus' prophecy can come true will be if He saves the entire human race. Jesus obeyed His Father's command to save the entire human race, 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; John 12:44-50; I Corinthians 3:11-15; I Corinthians 15:20-28; John 5:28-29; I Timothy 4:10; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 20:11-15; Revelation 21:1-5; II Timothy 1:10; Matthew 13:36-43; Colossians 1:15-23; Romans 8:18-23; II Peter 3:9-13. The Almighty Love of God cannot fail to save all of humanity. Ecclesiastes 3:14; I Corinthians 13:8.
Thursday, March 16, 2023
Commentary on the Gospel of John
Wednesday, March 15, 2023
Commentary on the Gospel of John
Chapter Fourteen
Verses 28-31 continued
Jesus' disciples believed in Jesus as the Son of God and their Messiah before He went to the cross, but they did not understand much about what He would do for them in His death, burial, and resurrection. As Jesus prophesied to them, when they saw Him after His resurrection He would explain to them the Old Testament scriptures about His mission to the world which would make their faith much stronger. Luke 24:44-45. The Old Testament saints had a vague faith in the mission of their coming Messiah and His sacrifice for them which gave them a weak consciousness about His shed blood. But because of their inexplicit faith, God sent their souls and spirits to Paradise located next to Hell when they died. When Jesus came to them in His Spirit to preach the gospel to them, then their faith increased, and they were washed in the blood of Jesus, and Christ translated them all in body, spirit, and soul, along with Paradise itself, to Heaven after His resurrection. Matthew 27:51-53; Ephesians 4:7-9. In the Church Age when the gospel is clearly preached by human messengers, the Holy Spirit washes those who believe in the gospel with the blood of Jesus and recreates their souls and spirits the moment they believe. John 5:24; I Corinthians 6:11; II Corinthians 5:17. But believers in the Church Age must await the Rapture of the Church for God to recreate their bodies to be spiritual bodies like those of Jesus. I John 3:2. God honors a vague faith in Christ because he knows that He will make the gospel clear to the believers' understanding at a later time. God saved Noah by His grace simply because Noah used a pitch to seal the Ark, and that word "pitch" means the same as atonement. Genesis 6:8; Genesis 6:14.
Believers in the Church Age who never hear a clear presentation of the gospel by a human messenger, but who nevertheless become converted to a vague faith in Christ by a direct witness of the Holy Spirit may have to wait until the Rapture of the Church to become washed in the blood of Jesus. Colossians 1:23. Tribulation saints will certainly have to wait until they get to Heaven to be washed in the blood of Christ because during the Tribulation the Holy Spirit will not be active in the world to wash them in the blood of Jesus. II Thessalonians 2:7; Revelation 7:9-17. Tribulation saints whose faith does not endure until they become washed in Jesus' blood will lose their salvation by grace. Matthew 24:13; Matthew 22:10-14.
Tuesday, March 14, 2023
Commentary on the Gospel of John
Chapter Fourteen
Verses 28-31
The message that Jesus gave to His disciples that He would go away and come to them again has a double meaning. To His disciples, Jesus meant that He would go away from them for three days and appear to them again after His resurrection. But to His Church, Jesus meant that He would go to His Father during the Church Age, but He would come again and Rapture His Church and take His Church home with Him to Heaven. I Thessalonians 4:13-18. Jesus told His disciples and His Church that they should rejoice because He would be with His Father in Heaven to hear the prayers of His saints, and He would make intercession for them to His Father. Romans 8:34.
When Jesus related that His Father was greater than He was, He spoke a a mere man. Although Jesus was absolutely perfect and He possessed the entire Holy Spirit, He nevertheless was also just a man who could feel emotions, pain, thirst, and hunger like any other human. Just like any other human, Jesus' duty was to acknowledge God as being greater than he. Hebrews 4:14-15; John 3:24. Jesus did not acquire a spiritual body until after His resurrection. Luke 24:36-43. This fact can only mean that Jesus' perfect, physical body did not merge with His Spirit until after His resurrection. This fact also means that Jesus can give His perfect righteousness to the recreated body, soul, and spirit of every believer saved by grace so that His Father can accept them into Heaven with the same acceptance that He gives to His Son. II Corinthians 5:21; Romans 8:14-17.
From eternity Jesus has always been God, but He did not become human until He was born as a baby into the world. John 1:1; John 1:14. God was not a man until Jesus came into the world. Numbers 23:19. When Jesus rose from the dead, His perfect body became merged with God's Spirit so that He became One in Being with God. Philippians 2:2-11. Imperfect humans saved by grace can be united with God through the Holy Spirit, and they can be accepted by God just as His Son is accepted, but imperfect humans can never be One in Being with God. John 17:20-26. Christ has to make imperfect humans perfect so that they can be accepted by His Father, but an absolutely perfect human can become One in Being with God. Jesus became God in human form when He was conceived by the Holy Spirit. Matthew 1:18-25. But in a sense, the perfect body of Jesus has always been God because God is eternal. In any moment of time, the Holy Spirit extends His presence into the eternal past and future. For this reason, Christ can extend His shed blood into the past to save Old Testament saints and into the future to save His Church. For this reason, Jesus could speak about His death, burial, and resurrection as if He had already accomplished it before He ever went to the cross. John 17:1-5.
Monday, March 13, 2023
Commentary on the Gospel of John
Chapter Fourteen
Verses 22-26
Judas asked Jesus how He would be able to manifest Himself to His believers but not to the world. Judas displayed that tendency of most humans to believe that reality consists only in that which one can perceive with the five senses.
Jesus taught Judas, and His Church, that in the future they would not be able to see Him in His physical form, but they would be able to see Him with their spiritual eyes as His Spirit indwelt their inner beings. Jesus taught His Church that the invisible spiritual world that He and His Father inhabited happened to be even more real than the physical world.
Jesus further taught His disciples that the Holy Spirit within them would bring all of His teachings to their remembrance that He wanted them to teach His Church. In other words, Jesus authorized the writing of the New Testament. This fact can only mean that whatever Jesus taught His disciples, He also taught His Church.
Verse 27
Jesus gave His disciples, and He has given His Church, a spiritual peace which happens to be far greater than any peace that one can ever feel in the world. This peace is so deep and powerful that it passes all understanding; that is, it cannot be explained in words. Philippians 4:7. Believers will not always feel this peace, but when the Comforter allows the believer to feel this peace, the believer will not be troubled or afraid of anything. This peace will allow the believer saved by grace to know that God will take care of him no matter what happens.
Saturday, March 11, 2023
Commentary on the Gospel of John
Chapter Fourteen
Verses 16-21 continued
Jesus further taught His disciples, and His Church, that a day will come when they become fully aware that the Holy Spirit lives in the hearts of His believers. Acts 2:1-4. A person can be saved by grace, but that person must wait for the Holy Spirit to wash them in the blood of Christ and make Himself known to them in their inner being for them to acquire a salvation that they can never lose. The Old Testament saints had to wait for Jesus to come to preach the gospel to them in Paradise next to Hell for them to become washed in His blood, filled with His Holy Spirit, and be translated to Heaven with His ascension. Ephesians 4:7-10. The Tribulation saints will have to wait until they get to Heaven to be washed in Jesus' blood and saved forever. Revelation 7:9-14. Tribulation saints who do not endure to the end of their earthly lives and lose their faith will also lose their salvation by grace. Matthew 24:13; Matthew 22:9-14. Jesus made His disciples, and His Church, fully aware that they were saved by grace and indwelt with His Holy Spirit when He came to them with power on the day of Pentecost. Acts 2:1-4. Jesus also makes every believer in the Church Age fully aware that they have been washed in the blood of Jesus and filled with His Holy Spirit the moment they repent and believe that only He can save them. John 5:24; I Corinthians 6:11; I Corinthians 6:19-20. But unlike Tribulation saints, Church Age believers filled with His Spirit can never lose their salvation by grace. John 10:27-30; Ephesians 5:25-27. But even believers in the Church Age who do not fully commit their lives to Christ and lose their faith will also lose their salvation by grace because God will withhold the Holy Spirit from them until they make that full commitment. Matthew 24:13. Persons saved by grace can lose their salvation if they lose their faith, but believers washed in the blood of Christ and filled with His Spirit can never lose their salvation by grace because the power of Christ's blood to cleanse and save them can never be undone. Matthew 13:20-23; Hebrews 10:12-14.
Jesus further taught His disciples, and His Church, that He will save forever those who keep His commandments. Those who repent and believe in Him as their Savior will love Him. Those who love Him will be indwelt by the Holy Spirit who will cause them to love God with all their hearts and to love their fellow humans. Matthew 22:36-40. The Holy Spirit will also cause His believers to love each other like family as a witness to unbelievers. John 13:34-35. Jesus taught that His Holy Spirit will indwell His Church and take charge of His Church. Acts 1:8.
Thursday, March 9, 2023
Commentary on the Gospel of John
Chapter Fourteen
Verses 16-21
Jesus promised His Church that He will forever be in His Church because He has given His Spirit to be the Comforter in the hearts of every believer. The Holy Spirit happens to be the presence of God everywhere within infinity. Psalm 147:5. This means the Holy Spirit inhabits the inner beings of even unbelievers, but the Holy Spirit does not make Himself known to the unbeliever until such a time that the Holy Spirit makes the unbeliever keenly aware that he has wronged his fellow man and God. God may send a human messenger to preach the gospel that will cause the Holy Spirit to bring this conviction to the inner being of the unbeliever, or the Holy Spirit Himself may directly cause this conviction. Acts 1:8; Colossians 1:23. The human messengers of God cannot preach the gospel to every human, but God has promised that the Holy Spirit will preach the gospel to every human who ever lived. Human messengers may preach the gospel, but if the Holy Spirit brings no conviction to the hearts of the unbelievers who hear it, then the gospel has not been preached to them. Colossians 1:23. The moment any person comes under the conviction of the Holy Spirit, that person has a choice to make. That person can reject the call of the Holy Spirit for repentance and faith in Christ, or that person can humble himself to God, admit that he has sinned against God and his fellow man, and repent and put his faith in Christ as his only Savior. Luke 13:3; John 3:16. The moment a person chooses to repent and believe, the Holy Spirit takes command of the inner being of that believer and brings the spiritual blood of Christ from the cross to wash away all his sins and evil, annuls his spiritual death within him, and imparts to his inner being the righteousness and everlasting life of Christ Himself so that God can accept that believer into Heaven to be with Him there forever. John 3:16; John 5:24; I Corinthians 6:11; I Corinthians 15:1-4; Colossians 3:1-4.
Jesus promised His Church that He would come to comfort His Church; that is, He will continuously give His Church assurance that He has made His believers completely safe from the Devil and spiritual death and that they all will be with Him forever. Jesus identified Himself as being the Comforter. Since Jesus happens to be the same person as the Holy Spirit, and as He taught Philip, He happens to be the same person as His Father, then the only conclusion must be that Jesus, His Father, and the Holy Spirit can only be One Being. I John 5:7.
Jesus taught His disciples, and His Church, that the world would see Him no more as an earthly human after His resurrection, but His Church will always see Him as being alive in their hearts, and they will see Him alive in Heaven.
Tuesday, March 7, 2023
Commentary on the Gospel of John
Chapter Fourteen
Verse 15 continued
God's Church became the people of God who accepted God's covenant of grace. But there were Old Testament saints who accepted God's grace, and there will be Tribulation saints who will accept God's grace. God's grace that He extended to the Israelites that they rejected, He gave to His Church. Believers who become saved by grace must humble themselves to God, admit that they are sinners who cannot save themselves, and come to faith that only God's Son can save them from slavery to sin and evil through His sacrifice, death, burial, and resurrection. Just as God alone saved the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, so only God can save a repentant sinner from slavery to sin and evil. Romans 5:1-11; Exodus 19:4; Luke 13:3; Matthew 18:1-4; I Corinthians 15:1-4. God made His Church a "chosen generation," a "royal priesthood," a "holy nation," and a "peculiar people" instead of the Israelites. I Peter 2:9-10. The believer saved by grace becomes a priest of God because the Holy Spirit enters into his inner being and cleanses him with the blood of Christ and forgives him of all of his sins and evil, which the Old Testament sin offering symbolized. I Corinthians 6:11; I Corinthians 6:19-20; Leviticus 5:5-9. Because of the presence of the Holy Spirit in the inner being of the believer, that believer can enjoy a personal fellowship with God which happens to be the greatest subjective Truth that a human can ever have. That is the Truth who is Christ Himself. John 14:6; John 8:32.
But God has not given up on the rest of humanity not saved by grace. The Old Testament burnt offerings symbolized the fact that God will eventually cause all lost but living humans that He had to consign to the regions of death because of their unrepentant sins and evil to repent and believe in the Lamb of God of their own free will so that He can resurrect them to a lesser form of salvation which will be a recreated, righteous life on a new earth. Genesis 8:20-21; Leviticus 5:10; Philippians 2:9-11; Revelation 5:11-14; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 21:1-5; Revelation 22:11-12; John 5:28-29; I Timothy 4:10. God will use His fiery wrath against evil to dissolve the systems of every living human within the regions of death in order to separate their repentant, living natures from their evil natures. I Corinthians 3:11-15; II Peter 3:9-13, Psalm 75:3. God gave Noah this burnt offering to symbolize God's salvation of all living humans not saved by grace. Genesis 8:20-21. Christ shed His blood and water on the cross to save by His grace, but His broken body and the descent of His Spirit into Hell saves all of humanity from spiritual death and eternal separation from God. Matthew 26:28; Hebrews 2:9-15. Jesus bore the sins and evil of all of humanity on the cross. I John 2:2. This fact can only mean that the Holy Spirit carried the sins and evil of all of humanity not saved by grace to Hell when He descended there, but the Spirit of Christ rose immaculate from Hell to reanimate the perfect body of Jesus so that He could rise from the dead victorious over all sin and evil and the Devil. Acts 2:25-31; Revelation 1:17-18; I John 3:8. The Spirit of Christ left all of the sins and evil of all living humans not saved by grace behind in Hell when He rose from there to raise Jesus from the dead. Psalm 16:10. But that salvation does not become active for them until Christ visits them near the end of the world and causes them all to repent and believe that He has saved them. Revelation 5:11-14. At that time, Christ will use His fiery wrath against evil to dissolve all of their systems to separate their living natures from their dead natures. I Corinthians 3:11-15; II Peter 3:9-13; Matthew 13:36-43. Christ came to save all living humans that He created and loves from evil and the Devil. John 12:31-32; I John 3:8. God can never lose anything He has ever created, and His Love can never fail. Ecclesiastes 3:14; I Corinthians 13:8.
Saturday, March 4, 2023
Commentary on the Gospel of John
Chapter Fourteen
Verse 15
Jesus gave only four commandments while He was on the earth: that a person should love God and his neighbor, that a person should believe in Him, and that His followers should love one another. Matthew 22:35-40; John 6:28-29; John 13:34-35. Love and faith replace the Ten Commandments for those who are saved by grace.
The Ten Commandments are a rigid, objective standard that requires obedience whether a person loves God and his fellow man or not. Exodus 20:1-17. God provided severe punishments for those who deliberately disobeyed the law and refused to offer a sacrifice for their forgiveness. Numbers 15:32-36. God gave His people the law because they rejected His offer of a covenant of grace. God reminded His people that He alone had saved them from slavery in Egypt. God alone can save. His people can only have faith that He alone can save. In His offer of grace, God promised His people that He would make them a "peculiar treasure" unto Himself and a "kingdom of priests" and a "holy nation." To be a priest means that a believer can know God personally and can directly talk with God and can be filled with God's Spirit of Love and compassion which will cause a believer to love God and his fellow man with no need for a rigid law. Exodus 19:3-7.
The people of God refused God's covenant of grace and demanded that Moses ask God to give them a law for them to obey. They actually desired that God provide for them laws that they thought they could obey to show God how good they could make themselves so that God would accept them because of their goodness. But every human has an evil nature within them that inevitably causes them to commit sins and evils to the extent that they can never make themselves good enough to be accepted by God. Romans 3:23. Even the desire to try to make oneself good enough to be accepted by God demonstrates the sin of pride. Pride is the effort to tell God that one does not need Him anymore. Romans 3:9-29; Romans 1:18-32. God's people should have realized by their past record of sin and rebellion that they could not obey the law. Exodus 19:8. When His people refused His grace, God demonstrated His fiery wrath against evil from the mountaintop to cause His people to strive to obey His laws because of their fear of Him. To fear God is to have a type of dependence on Him. Exodus 19:9-25. But God also gave His people a sin offering and a burnt offering which also happens to be a part of His law so that if a believer humbled himself to bring an offering for his sin, then God would cleanse and forgive that sin. To bring such an offering demonstrated humility and faith that only God can save from sin and evil. Leviticus 5:7-10.
Friday, March 3, 2023
Commentary on the Gospel of John
Chapter Fourteen
Verses 13-14
Many people have rejected the truth of God's Word because of these verses. But God actually desires that some difficult scriptures will cause people to reject His Word because He does not want phony believers to join His Church. Phony believers have ruined many of God's churches. Isaiah 6:9-10; Matthew 13:10-15.
Many people reject the truth of the entire Bible (KJB) because they contend that in many cases God does not give to believers that for which they pray. Believers may pray for a dying loved one to live, but they die anyway. Believers may pray for loved ones to be saved by grace, but they die in a state of sin. Unbelievers contend that in many cases, God does not keep His promise to give to believers whatever they pray for. But God is eternal, and He provides eternal answers to the prayers of His saints and not just earthly answers.
In the first place, every prayer where a believer asks God for something must be made in the name of Jesus which means no hint of sin or selfishness can be in that prayer. If any hint of sin or selfishness attaches to any prayer, then God will not answer that prayer. God only answers prayers made in accordance with His Will which is wholly righteous.
In the second place, God will always give His believers everything they ask for in accordance with His Will, perhaps not on earth, but in eternity. Believers who pray for a dying loved one to be healed, but they die anyway, will meet that loved one again in Heaven or on God's recreated earth. Believers who pray for loved ones to be saved by grace, but they die in sin, will nevertheless again meet those loved ones with recreated lives saved by God's mercy on His recreated earth. God answers prayer according to His Will. Revelation 21:1-5. God has promised that He will meet the needs of His believers, but in accordance with His Will. Philippians 4:19. God will meet those needs in eternity. Believers saved by grace will possess spiritual bodies in Heaven. Believers will be able to transform themselves from spirit to body and back to spirit. Physical bodies need physical love. God will provide every male with a female wife in Heaven with no need for a ceremony just as He did with Adam and Eve and many others in the Old Testament. Matthew 19:4-6. In Luke 20:34-36, Jesus did not teach that there would be no marriages in Heaven. He simply taught that there will be no marriage ceremonies in Heaven.
Thursday, March 2, 2023
Commentary on the Gospel of John
Chapter Fourteen
Verses 7-12
Jesus taught His disciples that because they knew Him, they also knew His Father, and when they saw Him, they also saw their Father. Jesus' disciples, represented by Philip, had trouble believing how that could be true. Much heresy arose in the days of the early Church, and in today's cults, about this very question. How could a man be both man and God at the same time? It is a paradox. Heresy can arise because humans cannot believe this truth. Jesus and His Father are united into One Being through the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit who inhabits an infinite eternity. Psalm 147:5; John 10:28-30; John 1:1. This fact must be simply accepted by faith. Heresy and error can arise because humans try to understand that which only God can understand. True faith in God means that the Church should also believe those scriptures that teach that God's thoughts happen to be far beyond human understanding. Romans 11:33; Psalm 147:5.
Other errors have arisen within the Church because humans try to understand that which only God can understand. Has God predestined the history of the human race to unfold strictly according to His Will, making free will invalid, or does human history unfold according to the choices humans make, making predestination invalid? Believers should simply accept by faith that both of these doctrines are true at the same time. But only God can understand how. Acts 15:18; Genesis 2:17. One possible explanation could be that when God planned the history of humanity He knew all of the good works that He would give humans to do, but He also gave all humans the free will to choose to obey or disobey Him. When humans obey Him and put their faith in Him, then those acts will be a part of the good works He has given humans to do, but when humans disobey Him, then that sin lies beyond God's understanding within a realm of absolute nothingness underneath infinity. God cannot understand evil. Habakkuk 1:13. But that does not mean that God is not Omniscient because He understands everything within the realm of positive knowledge. Evil lies within a realm of absolute nothingness which is anti-knowledge and anti-creative. Nevertheless, God's inability to understand sin and evil does not prevent Him from having the knowledge and power necessary to be able to counter and eliminate all sinful and evil choices that humans will ever make until a day will come when He will purge all sin and evil from all of His creations and recreate it all to be wholly righteous. II Peter 3:9-13; John 5:28-29; Revelation 21:1-5; Revelation 22:11-12.
Philip requested that if Jesus would show them the Father, then they would be satisfied. Jesus became a little put out with Philip. Jesus wanted to know how He could have been with them for such a long time, and yet, they had not seen their Father. They should have seen the Father in all of the good works that Jesus did. They also saw that Jesus never did anything that was wrong. Only God could do that. Jesus often became put out by a lack of faith in humans. But by this teaching to His disciples, Jesus desired to make certain that His Church would believe the paradox that He was both man and God at the same time. Jesus knew that much heresy would arise because of this doctrine, but He wanted to make sure that His true Church would nevertheless believe this doctrine.
Jesus taught His disciples that His Church would do the same kinds of good works that He did, and His Church would do a greater number of such good works. While physical healing seldom happens in the Church of today, the Church has led millions to Christ for His salvation by His grace which happens to be far more than Jesus led to Himself while He was on the earth. But the Church can only deliver the message of salvation. The Holy Spirit accomplishes the actual salvations. I Corinthians 6:11.
Wednesday, March 1, 2023
Commentary on the Gospel of John
Chapter Fourteen
Verses 5-6
In the past, Thomas must have heard Jesus say that He came from Heaven. John 6:33. This means that Thomas had to have at least assumed that Jesus spoke about His return to Heaven. John 14:4. But being somewhat of a materialist, Thomas must have thought of Heaven as being a physical place with something like a road that led to it. Being somewhat confused, Thomas asked Jesus where He was going and how to get there.
Jesus gave Thomas, and the rest of His disciples, a spiritual answer. Jesus proclaimed that the way to Heaven was through Him, by which He meant faith in His death, burial, and resurrection. Jesus proclaimed Himself to be the Truth, by which He meant that spiritual truth happens to be of far greater importance than any material truth. Only Jesus can be the entirety of spiritual truth. Only spiritual truth can provide all the answers to the questions that humans need to know. Science can only supply answers to material questions.
Jesus also proclaimed Himself to be the Life. God is Life itself, and only God can create life. Everything God creates can only be eternal. Ecclesiastes 3:14; Psalm 111:7-8. God created man in His image, and that life can only be forever alive. Genesis 1:31; Genesis 1:27; Genesis 3:20-21; Luke 20:38. God gives to every human a spirit which is consciousness, and part of that consciousness is consciousness of Him. Every human demonstrates that fact because every human worships something. Materialist atheists worship their ideology or their political leaders. Every human looks to an otherworldly solution to their predicament. Even the communists believe in a future utopia created by humans. Even the nihilists believe that death is the cure for the meaninglessness and suffering of life. Romans 1:18-23.
When Jesus taught that no man can come to the Father except through Him, His teaching had to agree with the rest of scripture. Jesus did not say, and He did not mean, that those who fail to believe in Him will be lost from God forever. Jesus meant that those who repent and believe in Him while still alive in the flesh will be accepted by His Father, and they will not be able to come to His Father through any form of religion or their own good works. No verse in the entire Bible (KJB) teaches that if any person fails to believe in Christ until their physical death, then that person will be lost from God forever. In fact, Christ taught that if those who are dead believe in Him, He will restore them to life. John 11:25. Scripture after scripture in the entire Bible (KJB) teaches that all that God creates can only be eternal, and that in the end of the world God will purge all sin and evil from His entire creation, and He will reconcile and recreate His entire, cleansed creation including all living humans. Romans 8:18-23; I Corinthians 15:20-28; Colossians 1:15-23; II Peter 3:9-13; Revelation 21:1-5; Revelation 22:11-12; John 5:28-29. God knows exactly how to cause all living humans confined to the regions of death to repent and believe in the Lamb of God of their own free will so that He can resurrect and recreate them with a lesser form of salvation. Revelation 5:11-14; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 21:1-5.