Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                   Chapter Fifteen

                                                                                                                                              Verses 1-5 continued

When God created Adam and Eve, He knew that the free will that He had given them had a weakness in it that could cause them to sin. God also knew that Satan was in the world to lie to Eve and tempt her to disobey God. God also knew that Eve could cause Adam to choose to disobey God as well. But behind it all, God had a good plan that no matter how much sin and evil the Devil could inflict on humans, and no matter how ruinous and destructive the Devil could be, he would never be able to utterly destroy the good image of Himself that God would put into every human He would ever create. Genesis 1:27; Genesis 1:31. God also knew that when Adam and Eve sinned, the Devil would be able to inject spiritual death into their inner beings that would make all living humans unable to avoid committing sins and evil. Genesis 2:17.

God cursed the Devil and the ground from which all demonic evil comes, but He did not curse Adam and Eve. Genesis 3:1-21. In fact, God promised Adam and Eve that He would "put enmity" between the Devil and the woman, and between the Devil's seed, which is spiritual death, and the woman's seed, which is the living image of God in every human. From that time, every human would experience a conflict between his good and living nature and his evil nature within him.

God also promised the woman that He would use a particular seed from only her to utterly crush and destroy the Devil and all of his evil works. The Devil would be able to injure her special seed, which meant He would sacrifice Himself to be able to crush the Devil, but her special seed would recover from His injury and continue to live. Genesis 3:15. God also promised Eve that He would make her "the mother of all living," and since God can only create that which is eternal and since He can never lose anything He has ever created, then He must recover and recreate all living humans infected by sins and evil. Genesis 3:20; Ecclesiastes 3:14; Psalm 111:7-8; Luke 20:38. In other words, God promised to send a Savior to humanity who would sacrifice Himself to purge all sin, evil, and spiritual death, all of which are the works of the Devil, from all of His living humans and cause them all, sooner or later, to return to faith in Him and love for Him of their own free will. John 5:24; Revelation 5:11-14. Jesus came to the world to utterly destroy the Devil and all of his evil works, not living humans. John 12:31-32; I John 3:8. God has proven, and will prove again, that the weakness in free will that He gave to Adam and Eve can never utterly destroy their good systems, or the good systems of every human that He creates because He will use that same free will to cause all living humans to return to faith in His Almighty Love and return to love for Him. John 5:24; Revelation 5:11-14.

God gave free will as a loving gift to Lucifer to be used in good ways. God cannot be responsible for the evil that Lucifer chose to do. Nevertheless, God feels guilty because in all innocence and good will, He indirectly caused evil to enter into His creations. Isaiah 45:7. But since God is Almighty and Omniscient and His Love can never fail, He knew exactly how to purge all sin and evil from all of His creations and recreate it all to be righteous by the use of His gift of free will to humanity, despite the weakness in it. John 5:24; Revelation 5:11-14; John 5:28-29; II Peter 3:9-13; Revelation 21:5; Revelation 22:11-12; I Corinthians 13:8.

In other words, God holds an infinite knowledge that He has used to devise a plan to eliminate the weakness in free will that causes humans to sin and acquire spiritual death by taking all that sin, evil, and spiritual death on Himself and purging all evil and all spiritual death from all living humans by the loving sacrifice of Himself. John 12:31-32; I John 3:8. God has the Love and power necessary to cause all humans, sooner or later, to return to faith in Him as their Lamb of God and love for Him of their own free will when they learn about His Love for them in His sacrifice for them. John 5:24; Revelation 5:11-14.