Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                   Chapter Fifteen

                                                                                                                                               Verses 6-8 continued

When God saves by His grace, He forever thoroughly cleanses the souls and spirits of His believers with the blood Christ shed on the cross, and He recreates their souls and spirits in such a way that the fleshly sins that they will commit will no longer be able to infect their souls and spirits. II Corinthians 5:17; I John 3:9. God allows His saints to retain their fleshly natures which will cause them to commit sins, but those sins will remain only in their fleshly natures. Romans 7:15-25. God will also thoroughly cleanse His saints fleshly sins with the water Jesus shed on the cross as they daily repent of them. John 13:1-15; I John 1:9. The Holy Spirit has the power to transform the blood and water that Christ shed on the cross into spiritual blood and water. I John 5:5-8.

Why does God allow His saints to retain their fleshly natures which will cause them to sin? One can only speculate. Perhaps, if God transformed and recreated the fleshly natures of His saints when they believed and were "born again," then their earthly bodies would have to immediately die, and God would recreate their flesh to be spiritual flesh which would allow them to be able to change from flesh to spirit and back again as they willed. The sight of such supernatural people in the world would so traumatize unbelievers that they would be forced to believe in God. God does not want anyone to be forced to believe in Him. Forced love cannot be real love. God desires that every living human return to love for Him of their own free will which will prove the eternal value of real love. Perhaps, God also desires to prove that sin, evil, and the Devil can never utterly destroy His Church anymore that it can destroy any of God's creations. Matthew 16:18.

The Church is God's creation, and the Devil desires to utterly destroy any creation of God. The Devil sends troublemakers, and heretics and apostates into God's churches in order to ruin them. The Devil sometimes succeeds in ruining some churches. Nevertheless, Christ knows exactly who His saints are, and He will cause all of His saints eventually to repent of all of their fleshly sins either daily or at the Rapture of the Church. Christ will prove that sin and evil cannot destroy His Church and His saints love for Him. God possesses all power over sin, evil, and the Devil. Revelation 1:17-18. Jesus suffered tremendous pain and suffering on the cross caused by sin and evil, but being Almighty God, He could handle it even though His Father could not help Him. Matthew 27:46. But even though Christ saves His saints forever because He eliminated even their backslidden sins, His believers should pray every day that Christ will keep them out of sin because their sins grieve the Holy Spirit, increases Christ's suffering on the cross, and causes God to have to punish them to correct them. Ephesians 4:30; Hebrews 12:2; Hebrews 12:3-13; Ephesians 5:25-27; John 10:27-30; I John 3:8.

Jesus taught that His Father will be glorified when His Church bears "much fruit." God will be glorified because despite the sin that infects His Church, Christ's disciples will succeed in preaching the gospel to the world and winning many lost sinners to faith in Christ and salvation by grace. God intends to supply great rewards to His disciples in Heaven for their obedience to Him while in the world. Matthew 28:18-20; Luke 6:35.