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.