Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                Chapter Seventeen

                                                                                                                                              Verses 22-26 continued

Jesus admitted to His Father that most of the human race would not know Him so that they could be saved by His grace. But Jesus knew that His Father knew Him, and He expressed gratitude to His Father that His followers, at that time, believed that God had sent Him to the world on a mission that they did not quite understand. They would understand it much better after the Holy Spirit had inspired some of them to write the New Testament. But Jesus knew that they loved Him and that was all the faith they needed to be saved by grace. A person can experience something without understanding it. Many living humans saved by grace do not quite understand what Jesus did for them, but they love their Lord, and that happens to be all the faith that they need to be saved by grace. Matthew 16:13-18; I John 4:7.

Jesus declared that He had given His followers His Father's name. His Father's name is Love, and that same Love that His Father gives to Him, He gives to His believers saved by His grace. John 14:18; Hebrews 13:5. God's Love can never fail, which means that Christ will never lose a single one of His believers saved by grace. I Corinthians 13:8; Romans 8:35-39. Faith works because of Love which means every believer who loves Jesus will be saved by His grace. I John 4:7-8; Galatians 5:6. Many humans saved by grace will not even be able to understand how Jesus saved them, especially those who become saved by a direct witness of the Holy Spirit, and who have never even heard about Jesus. Colossians 1:23. Even the Apostle Paul did not begin to understand what Jesus had done for him until after three years of prayer and study of the scriptures and meditation in Arabia. Galatians 1:15-18.

Doubt about the power of God's Love entered into His creations when Lucifer rebelled. Some of God's angels followed Lucifer because of this doubt. Isaiah 14:12-17; Ezekiel 28:13-19. God had to prove that His Love was valid and real. God could not just declare His Love to be valid and real by a summary judgment because in order to do that He would have to program His creations to love Him and that would still leave His Love in doubt. In order to do this, God would also have to have abrogated free will which He created. God can never annul anything He has ever created. Ecclesiastes 3:14. For God to annul free will would also cast doubt on the reality of His Love because such an event would weaken the Almighty Power of God's Intellect.

Because of God's Almighty Love and Intellect, he devised a plan whereby He would create an intelligent human race in His image with His gift of free will and the goodness of His faith and His Love. Genesis 1:27; Genesis 1:31; Romans 12:3. God knew that the free will of humans would cause them to choose to fall into sin which would weaken them to the point that the Devil would be able to inject spiritual death into their inner beings. Genesis 2:17. That event would put them into danger of being lost from God's Love forever. But God also knew that He could prove the validity and the reality of His Love by taking all of the sins, evil, and spiritual deaths of all humans on Himself in an act of self-sacrifice on a cross and suffer it all Himself in the place of all humans. I Peter 3:18; Hebrews 2:9-15. Then, by His resurrection from the dead, He would be able to give eternal life to all humans who chose to believe that He has the power to accomplish their salvation, and God knows exactly how to cause all living humans to choose to repent and believe. John 5:24; Revelation 5:11-14. God will use His gift of free will to prove the validity and reality of His Love by causing all living humans to choose to return to faith in Him and love for Him that He puts into every one of them when He creates them in His image. Love that is freely chosen can only be real. I Corinthians 15:1-4; Ecclesiastes 3:14; I Corinthians 13:8. No human will ever be able to understand how Christ was able to save all living humans from eternal death in a finite period of time which was three days. He was somehow able to do that because His love is Infinite, and any part of the Infinite equals the whole of the Infinite. Psalm 147:5.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                Chapter Seventeen

                                                                                                                                              Verses 22-26

Jesus gave to His disciples, and to His Church, the same honor that His Father had given to Him. God considers His Church to be a continuation of His Son's mission to the world. Jesus prayed that His Church would be unified by His Spirit just as He and His Father were unified by the Spirit. But Jesus meant that His Spirit would unify His Church within itself, not that it would ever be one in Being with God.  

Jesus' disciples heard Him pray that the presence of the Holy Spirit within the Church would make each believer perfect. Each believer would possess the perfect righteousness of Christ Himself. II Corinthians 5:21. Only the presence of Christ in His Church makes it perfect. The Church is not perfect in-itself. When mankind observes the righteousness of the Church, they will know that God sent His Son into the world, although most of them will not admit it. Jesus' disciples and His Church, when they read the New Testament, heard Jesus pray that His Father would love His Church to the same extent that He loved His own Son. That truth happens to be too awesome for words!

Why did Jesus despise the shame of the cross? Hebrews 12:2. Because He knew that through His death, burial, and resurrection  He would gain all power over sin, evil, spiritual death, and the Devil himself. Matthew 28:18; Revelation 1:17-18. Jesus knew that He had that power before He ever went to the cross. He just had to extend His power for the salvation of a humanity that had become subject to eternal, spiritual death because of sin and evil. God's Power, His Intellect, and His Love are Almighty. Humans give too much credit to the Devil by thinking that sin and evil can somehow limit God's Power to save. In His Almighty Power, Love, and Intellect, God knows exactly how to devise a plan that will cause every living human that He ever creates and loves eventually to repent and believe in the power of His Son to save them from eternal, spiritual death and all the sin and evil that causes it. I Timothy 4:10. Christ will save some living humans by His grace and give them His own righteousness so that His Father can accept them to live with Him in Heaven forever. John 17:24. Christ will save all other living humans when He appears to them within the regions of death in a great worship service near the end of the world, and He causes them all to repent and believe of their own free will that He is the Lamb of God their Savior so that He can raise all of their living souls and spirits from the regions of death and recreate them with new bodies to live forever on His recreated earth with the same kind of righteousness that He gave to Adam and Eve before they sinned. Revelation 5:11-14; John 5:28-29; John 11:25-26; II Peter 3:9-13; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 21:1-5. Christ holds all power over all sin, evil, spiritual death, and the Devil period.

Jesus then prayed that because of His Father's eternal Love for Him, that He would allow all of His believers saved by His grace to be with Him in Heaven forever. This prayer proves that Jesus will never lose any of His believers saved by His grace. He knows exactly how to cause all backsliders eventually to repent so that He can forgive them and return them to fellowship with Him. Ephesians 5:25-27.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                Chapter Seventeen

                                                                                                                                               Verses 14-21 continued

Jesus informed His disciples, and His Church, in His prayer that they "are not of the world, even as I am not of the world." Jesus meant that His Church would separate itself from the evil nature of the world with all of its sinful and evil acts. II Corinthians 6:16-18. Jesus also meant that His Church has a holy mission to preach the gospel to the people of the world just as He had a mission to save all the living humans of the world. Luke 24:47-48; John 12:47. The world has always recognized that God's Church comprises "peculiar" people, certainly much different from worldly people. I Peter 2:9-11. This fact provides additional evidence that God's Word is true and that Jesus is truly the Son of God.

Jesus prayed that His Father would "sanctify" His Church through the truth that His Spirit would teach in His inspired New Testament. For God to sanctify something means that God separates it from the evil nature of the world to be obedient to His special mission or purpose for it. Jesus sanctified Himself by being absolutely obedient to His Father's Will, and He prayed that His Father would sanctify His Church to represent Him to the world and that it would be obedient to its mission that He had assigned to it.

Jesus then prayed not only for His disciples but for every future believer who will be a member of His Church. Jesus prayed that every future believer will be obedient to God's Will as He would reveal it to them in His New Testament. Future believers who never join a local church will nevertheless be members of Christ's spiritual, universal Church. Jesus' prayer for His believers can only mean that He will never lose a single believer whom He has saved by His grace. John 10:27-30; Ephesians 5:25-27. Christ has all the power He needs to make sure that every one of His backslidden believers will repent of all their sins and evil either prior to or at the time of His Rapture of His Church. Matthew 28:18.

Jesus prayed again that His Father would unite all of His believers saved by grace into one body by the power of the Holy Spirit. The presence of the Holy Spirit in every believer saved by grace unites them all together and into the Body of Christ. I Corinthians 12:12-14. The Holy Spirit unites Jesus and His Father into One Being, and the Holy Spirit unites every believer saved by grace into the Body of Christ who represents Him to the world. But this fact does not mean that believers saved by grace will ever be a part of God's Being. The unity of Being with Christ and His Father happens to be different than the unity of the Church which the Holy Spirit always makes subservient to God. The Church cannot be perfect, but the absolutely perfect Body of the risen Savior can be One with God. John 10:30.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                  Chapter Seventeen

                                                                                                                                               Verses 14-21 continued

Jesus prayed that His Father would protect His Church from any evil acts that the world would commit against it, but He also meant that His Father would keep His believers saved by grace from the practice of any evil act. Rarely does a backslider commit a willful and deliberate act of rebellion against God. God usually severely punishes such evil acts. Nevertheless, God has promised that He will thoroughly cleanse His entire Church of all sins and evil either before or at the time that He Raptures His Church. This means that all backslidden believers who have committed evil acts will eventually repent of them. Repentance and faith demonstrate a humble remorse and a desire to be rid of that sin or evil and to be reconciled with God. Repentance and faith always touches the compassion of God so that He can cleanse and forgive. When God sees repentance and faith, He can turn an evil act into an ordinary sinful act that He can cleanse and forgive by His use of the water that flowed from Jesus on the cross. God had also annulled the evil act when He saved that believer by His grace. John 5:24. Evil and spiritual death are the same. Christ tasted death for every believer saved by grace just as He has for every other living human. Hebrews 2:9-15. Jesus came to also purge all sins because they all cause spiritual death, and to purge all evil which causes sin and spiritual death, from His entire creation, including all living humans whom He creates and loves. Romans 8:18-23; John 16:11; John 12:31-32; John 12:47; I John 3:8.

God is Almighty and His Love is Everlasting and His Intellect is Infinite. This means God has all the power He needs to endure the cross to bear the sins and evil of all living humans so that He can purge it all from all His living humans that He creates in His image and that He loves. Having an Infinite Intellect, He knows exactly how to plan the salvation of the entire human race. God has all power over the Devil. Matthew 28:18; Revelation 1:17-18. Christ will not just defeat the Devil, He will absolutely crush his head which can only mean that He will purge him and all of his evil from His eternal creation. Genesis 3:15; Revelation 21:5.

The fact that Jesus came to save the entire, living human race from all sins and evil can be seen in His prayer that He taught His disciples. Matthew 6:9-13. Jesus prayed that His Father's Will be done on earth to the same extent that He will do His Will in Heaven. Since God's Will happens to be that all believers saved by grace will go to Heaven to live with Him there forever, then to that same extent, God's Will must be that He will recover and recreate all other living humans to live on His recreated earth forever. II Peter 3:9-13; Revelation 21:1-5.

Jesus also taught His disciples to pray that His Father would "deliver us from evil." Jesus did not pray that His Father would deliver His believers from the commission of sins because He knew that their retained, fleshly natures would cause them to sin. But evil means that spiritual death will last forever if not dealt with. Since God's Will for the living human race happens to be the same on earth as it is in Heaven, then Christ has purged all evil, which is spiritual death, from all living humans. John 5:24; I Corinthians 3:11-15; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 20:11-15. The "every man" of I Corinthians 3:11-15 who is saved by fire cannot be living humans saved by grace because they become saved only by being washed in the blood and water that flowed from Jesus on the cross. Matthew 26:28; I John 1:9; I John 5:6-8; Revelation 1:5. When Jesus prayed about "deliver us from evil," He referred directly to His mission to earth to purge the entire, living human race from  spiritual death.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                 Chapter Seventeen

                                                                                                                                               Verses 14-21

Jesus began to pray that His Father would protect His Church just as He had protected His disciples. Jesus let His disciples know that He had given them His Word by which He meant not only His preaching but also the New Testament that would be written. Jesus let His Church know that His Word and His Spirit would comfort them because the world would hate His Church and try to destroy it, just as the world had hated and tried to destroy Him. Jesus meant the demonic, evil nature of the world.

Jesus prayed that His Father would not take His Church out of the world, but He would leave His Church in the world to represent Jesus and to preach the gospel so that sinners would come to know Jesus as their Savior.

Jesus also prayed that His Father would keep His Church out of the evil of the world. Jesus did not pray that His Father would keep His believers out of sin because He knew that His believers would retain their fleshly natures which would cause them to sin. Romans 7:8-21. But the fact that Jesus prayed that His Father would keep His Church out of evil can only mean that there exists some differences between sin and evil. All evil is sinful, but sin itself may not be completely evil. The Old Testament teachings indicate that a difference exists between sins caused by weakness and deliberate and willful sins which are always evil. Numbers 15:22-36. God can bring some good out of a sinful system, but no good whatsoever out of an evil system. The evil nature inside of every human causes their living, good natures to sin. Romans 5:12. But if the living natures of humans repents and believes that Christ can cleanse and forgive their sins, then that means that God can abolish sinful systems and recreate them to be good systems. The Bible (KJB) is replete with stories of how God can transform sinful systems into good systems. But evil systems are different. God can never cleanse and forgive evil systems because evil never repents. Evil stems from the Devil's desire to be totally evil and never repent of it. Christ purged all evil systems, and the Devil himself, from all of His creations as He hung on the cross and as His Spirit descended into Hell. Matthew 12:31-32; Acts 2:25-31; John 16:11; John 12:31-32; I John 3:8.

Christ can never lose anything He has ever created, and His Love can never fail. Ecclesiastes 3:14; I Corinthians 13:8. This fact means that Christ will eventually cause every living human that He ever created and loves to repent of their sins and put their faith in Him as their Savior so that He can cleanse and forgive their living natures and recreate them all. Christ will save all repentant sinners by His grace when He cleanses them with His blood and water that He shed on the cross, and He will annul their spiritual deaths with the death of His broken body. Matthew 26:28; John 5:24; I John 1:9; Hebrews 2:9. The Old Testament sin offering symbolizes salvation by grace. Christ will also provide a lesser form of salvation for all living humans confined to the regions of death by the descent of His Spirit into Hell to leave behind there all of their sins and evil that He bore on the cross. I John 2:2; Acts 2:25-31. Christ will complete their salvation when He appears to them in a great worship service near the end of the world, and He will cause them all to repent and believe in Him as the Lamb of God who can save them from eternal death. Revelation 5:11-14. Christ will use His fiery wrath against evil to dissolve their systems in order to separate their saved, living natures that He will recreate from their dead and evil natures that He will cast into the lake of fire. I Corinthians 3:11-15; II Peter 3:9-13; Psalm 75:3; Matthew 13:36-43; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 20:11-15; Revelation 21:1-5. The Old Testament burnt offerings symbolizes this lesser form of salvation. Genesis 8:20-21.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                  Chapter Seventeen

                                                                                                                                               Verses 11-13

Jesus began to pray as if He had already left His Church and had returned to His Father. But He prayed in this way to let His disciples know that His Father would keep them and protect them just as Jesus had done when He was with them. Jesus' disciples heard Him pray that His Father would unite His Church into one body by the presence of the Holy Spirit in the inner being of every believer. Jesus and His Father can be two persons, but the Holy Spirit unites them into One Being. John 1:1. Jesus prayed that His Father would unite every individual believer into one body in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit after His ascension. Jesus ascended to heaven in His body, but He left His Church behind to be His body on earth filled with the Holy Spirit. Although the Spirit unites the Church into the body of Christ on the earth, the Church never becomes any part of the Being of God. I Corinthians 12:12-14. Only the absolutely perfect human body of Christ can become One in Being with God. I John 5:7; John 1:14.

Jesus reminded His disciples as He prayed that He had kept them while He was with them, and He had lost none of them but the traitor, Judas Iscariot. The Old Testament prophesied this event. Psalm 41:9. Jesus said that He had lost Judas Iscariot to the Devil, but Jesus did not say that He had lost Judas forever. Jesus called all of His disciples His friends, and Jesus called Judas Iscariot His friend when Judas came with a mob to arrest Jesus. John 15:15; Matthew 26:50. Except for the Anti-Christ, Judas Iscariot has to be no doubt the most demonic human who ever lived. More demonic than even the maniac of Gadara. Yet, Jesus called him friend. This fact can only mean that even as evil as Judas Iscariot was, he still had that living image of God in him. That living nature of Judas Iscariot, as small and weak as it had become, will repent and believe in Christ the Lamb of God when He appears to all His living humans confined to the regions of death in a great worship service near the end of the world. Revelation 5:11-14. Christ will save and recreate the living nature of even Judas Iscariot. Revelation 21:1-5.

Jesus' disciples heard Him pray that He was going home to Heaven, but He would leave His Word and His Spirit behind to provide joy to His believers. Just as His believers would have great joy in His resurrection, so Jesus' Spirit would provide His believers with that same joy throughout the Church Age. Jesus let His disciples know that He would never leave them. John 14:18; Hebrews 13:5.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                  Chapter Seventeen

                                                                                                                                              Verses 6-10

Jesus then began to pray solely for His disciples and for His future Church. Jesus prayed about the faith of His disciples. Jesus prayed in gratitude to His Father that His disciples believed that He came from His Father, and they believed the Word that He had preached to them. They had previously shown that they were confused about the meaning of Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection, but nevertheless, they loved their Lord. That was all the faith they needed. John 2:19-22. Jesus' disciples, and His future Church, would not attain to a better understanding of what Jesus had done for them in His death, burial, and resurrection until the Holy Spirit had inspired some of them to explain it all in detail when He inspired some of them to write the New Testament. The only person in the gospels who seemed to have some understanding about the meaning of Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection was the woman who anointed Jesus with expensive perfume and wiped His feet with her hair. John 12:1-8; Matthew 26:6-13; Luke 7:36-50. Jesus thanked His Father that His disciples had believed His Word, but one can believe something is real even with little understanding of it.

Jesus then informed His disciples that He prayed for them and not for the world. Jesus had to have meant the evil nature of the world that was ruled by Satan. Matthew 4:8-10. Just as every individual human possesses a good nature created by God and an evil nature injected into them by the Devil, so the world as a whole has a good nature created by God and an evil nature ruled by the Devil. Genesis 1:27; Genesis 1:30; Genesis 2:17; II Corinthians 4:4. When Jesus taught that He came "to save the world," He had to have meant that He came to save the good nature of the world, with all of the good humans He had created in it, from the destructive evil that the Devil had injected into it, and every living human in it, when Jesus purged the world and all living humans in it of all sin, evil, and spiritual death when He took it all upon Himself on a cross and rose from the dead victorious over it all. John 12:47; John 12:31-32; Hebrews 2:9-15; Revelation 1:17-18; I John 3:8; Romans 8:18-23; Revelation 21:5. When Jesus suffered and died on the cross, He judged and cast out the Devil and all of his evil works, not living humans whom He creates and loves. John 12:31-32; John 16:11. Jesus cannot win some and lose some. Jesus always wins. Jesus came to save all living humans whom He creates and loves. John 12:32; John 12:47; Ecclesiastes 3:14; I Corinthians 13:8.

Jesus then reiterated His former teaching that everything He had ever created belonged to Him and His Father. God can never lose anything He has ever created. Ecclesiastes 3:14; Psalm 111:7-8. Jesus also taught that His disciples, and His Church, belonged to Him in a special way because He saved them by His grace, and they would glorify Him by representing Him to the world. I Timothy 4:10. 

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                   Chapter Seventeen

                                                                                                                                               Verses 1-5 continued

Certain Old Testament verses reveal that God has a higher and a lesser form of salvation for all living humans whom He loves. God will give His lesser salvation to all humans because all humans do some good in their lives. All humans have done some good in their lives because they all have the image of God in them that causes them to do some good. Psalm 50:23. This verse applies to all humans not saved by grace because they all have done some good in their lives. This verse cannot apply to salvation by grace because God knows that He gives salvation by grace solely as a gift apart from any good works done by humans. Ephesians 2:8-9. This was true in the Old Testament as well. God saved Noah by His grace before he built the Ark. Genesis 6:8. God also promised in His Word that because of the symbolism of a burnt offering that He gave to Noah, He would never "smite" living humans in the future. The word "smite" in this verse means "to kill." Genesis 8:20-21. From the time of Noah's burnt offering, God will never allow any living human that He ever creates to be eternally lost to eternal death although all humans that God killed in the flood were subject to eternal death. It was that subjection to eternal death that so terribly grieved God when He had to kill them. Genesis 6:5-7. But because of the burnt offering, God will recover and recreate every living human whom He killed in the flood. I Peter 3:19-20. The lesser form of salvation taught in the Old Testament agrees with Jesus' prophecy that in the end of the world He will raise all living humans from their graves because they have all done some good that God gave them to do including their ability to repent and believe in the Lamb of God their Savior. Revelation 5:11-14; John 5:28-29; II Timothy 4:1; I Timothy 6:13. God will forever save all living humans. Luke 6:3. The word "see" in Luke 3:6 agrees with the word "shew" in Psalm 50:23 because they both mean "to experience."

Jesus then described eternal life as being in a state where one knows God and knows Jesus. Living humans saved by grace come to know Christ when they read or hear the gospel, and the Holy Spirit convinces them that they are lost sinners in need of Jesus as their Savior, and they repent and put their faith in Christ their Savior, and the Holy Spirit immediately comes into their inner beings and washes them clean of all their sins and evil with the blood that flowed from Jesus on the cross. Matthew 26:28; I Corinthians 6:11. The Holy Spirit also cleanses all sins of the flesh from all living humans saved by grace with the water that Jesus shed on the cross as they daily repent of them. I John 1:9; John 13:1-10. All living humans not saved by grace come to know Christ as the Lamb of God their Savior when He appears to them in a great worship service near the end of the world, and He causes them all to repent and believe in Him of their own free will. Revelation 5:11-14; Luke 3:6; I Corinthians 3:11-15.

God is eternal. Therefore, God can state at any present moment in the passage of time that He has finished His eternal creations. God can also state at any moment in the passage of time that He has just begun His eternal creations. Revelation 22:13. Jesus could tell His disciples that He had finished His work of salvation before He ever went to the cross because in eternity He had. Jesus could also declare that He had finished His work of salvation when He died on the cross because He knew that He would rise from the dead. John 19:10.

Jesus then prayed that His Father would glorify Him with the same glory that they shared when He created the world. In His self-sacrifice for the salvation of humanity, Christ displayed the Eternal and Almighty Love of God. John 3:16; I Corinthians 13:8; Romans 5:6-8; I John 2:2.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                   Chapter Seventeen

                                                                                                                                               Verses 1-5

Jesus stopped preaching and began to pray to His Father. He prayed for Himself, for His Church, and for all of humanity.

Jesus prayed that His Father would glorify Him by allowing Him to demonstrate His Father's Almighty Love for all of humanity by His sacrifice on a cross to save the entire human race. Jesus also prayed that He would glorify His Father by submitting Himself in complete obedience to His Father's Will. Jesus' disciples heard Jesus pray that His Father had given Him power over all flesh. Christ can never lose His power which can only mean that He will save the whole human race with a higher and a lower form of salvation. Matthew 28:18. His disciples also heard Him pray that His Father would give eternal life to all humans who belong to Him, and all creation belongs to Jesus because He created it all. Hebrews 1:1-3.

Christ has power over all flesh because He created every human, and they all belong to Him. Christ created them all in His image and gave life to them all which He can never lose. Ecclesiastes 3:14; Genesis 1:27; Genesis 3:20; Luke 20:38. Daniel and John the Baptist prophesied, and the rest of the Bible (KJB) clearly teaches, that Jesus came to destroy all sin and evil and the Devil, not living humans whom He creates and loves. Daniel 9:24; John 1:29; Luke 20:38. Christ suffered and died on the cross to purge all sins, evil, and the influence of the Devil from all of humanity and to draw all living humans to Himself in renewed repentance and faith so that He can save them all from the Devil's eternal control. John 12:31-32; John 12:48; I Timothy 4:10; Philippians 2:9-11; Hebrews 2:9-15; I John 3:8. Jesus has all power over all human life because He creates every human life in His image, and He can never lose anything He has ever created, and His Love can never fail. Ecclesiastes 3:14; I Corinthians 13:8. If Christ should ever lose a single human life to the eternal torture of the Devil, then Christ would lose His power over that life and that can never happen. Jesus prayed that His Father would give eternal life to the whole human race because every living human belongs to Him. Christ simply gives eternal life to the whole human race in two different ways. Christ gives eternal life through His grace to all living humans who repent and believe in Him while they are still alive in the flesh. John 5:24. Christ gives eternal life to all living humans whom He has temporarily lost to the Devil when Christ visits them in the regions of death and because of His Majesty and His great Love that they will see, He will cause them all to repent and believe in Him as the Lamb of God their Savior of their own free will so that He can recover their lives and recreate them to live righteous lives forever on His recreated earth. Revelation 5:11-14; Revelation 20:5; II Peter 3:9-13; Revelation 21:1-5.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                 Chapter Sixteen

                                                                                                                                              Verse 33

Jesus preached to His disciples that the world would give them "tribulation," but He would give them "peace." This statement can only mean that Jesus planned to regather His scattered and fearful disciples and reestablish His Church. Jesus' statement also demonstrates that He will regather all of His backslidden believers either before or at the time that He Raptures His Church. Backsliders may lose their faith, but Jesus will never lose His faithfulness and devotion to His believers. Jesus put His faith into them, which is His Spirit, and they can never lose that faith although their faith may become latent. John 10:27-30; II Timothy 2:12-13; Romans 8:35-39. Those who deny Christ are the apostates who pretend to be believers. Matthew 10:33. These facts have to be true because Christ never denied Peter although Peter denied Him. That which is true about Peter is true of all of Christ's believers. Jesus knows exactly how to cause all of his backslidden believers to repent and return to faith in Him so that He can present His Church to His Father as a clean and glorious Church. Ephesians 5:25-27. Believers do not hold on to Christ. He holds on to them. John 10:27-30. Believers saved by grace who think that sin can cause them to lose their salvation should trust that Christ possesses Almighty Power over all sin, evil, and spiritual death. Matthew 28:18; Revelation 1:17-18. But backslidden believers should beware because Christ will punish them for their correction. Hebrews 12:5-13.

Because Christ has Almighty Power over all evil, and His Love can never fail, He knows exactly how to cause all living humans who fail to obtain salvation by grace to repent and believe in Him as the Lamb of God of their own free will so that He can recover and recreate them all to a righteous life on His new earth. Revelation 5:11-14; I Corinthians 3:11-15; II Peter 3:9-13; John 5:28-29; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 21:1-5; Revelation 22:11-12; I Corinthians 13:8.

When Jesus spoke about the world that will persecute His Church, He had to have meant the evil natures of humans and the total evil that is Satan. But Jesus assured His disciples that they should cheer up because, "I have overcome the world." This statement by Jesus can only be an absolute truth. This statement can only be about Jesus' Almighty Power over all sins, evil, and the Devil. Matthew 28:18; Revelation 1:17-18. Jesus did not come to the world to save some living humans by His grace and allow all others to be cast into an everlasting Hell. That would be only a partial victory over the world and evil. Jesus has gained a complete and total victory over the evil, spiritual deaths of all living humans and over the total evil of the Devil himself. God does nothing halfway. Jesus came to purge the world of all evil, spiritual death, and the Devil himself so that He could save all living humans that He creates and loves. John 5:24; I Corinthians 3:11-15; Philippians 2:9-11; Revelation 5:11-14; I Timothy 4:10; John 5:28-29; John 12:31-32; Hebrews 2:9-15; I John 3:8; Revelation 1:17-18; John 11:25-26; Isaiah 66:22-24. The word "worm" in Isaiah 66:24 and in Mark 9:44, 46, and 48 can only symbolically mean the separated, spiritual deaths of all living humans. God can never lose anything He has ever created, and His Almighty Love can never fail. Ecclesiastes 3:14; I Corinthians 13:8.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                 Chapter Sixteen

                                                                                                                                              Verses 28-32

Jesus then plainly told His disciples that He came from His Father into the world, and He would leave the world and go back to His Father. Jesus spoke about His mission to the world and His ascension. This statement by Jesus caused His disciples to understand at least the outline of who Jesus was and why He came to the world. Their increased understanding deepened their faith in Him and their love for Him.

Jesus told His disciples that they may now have greater faith in Him, but a time would shortly come that they would be scattered from Him in fear for their lives. In other words, they would lose their faith and backslide. Matthew 26:56. Simon Peter, at least, had a little more faith than Jesus' other disciples because he followed Jesus to His trial. But when the crowd put pressure on him, he denied that he knew the Lord. Luke 22:54-62. Jesus assured His disciples that even though they would abandon Him, His Father would not abandon Him.

When Jesus cried from the cross as to why His Father had forsaken Him, He did not mean that His Father had abandoned Him. Matthew 27:46. Jesus bore the sins, evil, and spiritual deaths of all humans on the cross which caused Him to cry out as any ordinary sinner would do who died without faith or any help from God. In other words, Jesus died in the lost sinner's place. In that regard, His Father could not help Him. But His Father also knew that Jesus, being God in human form, had all the power He needed to endure that terrible suffering for sins and evil, and when He had finished putting all evil and the Devil away, He would give up the Ghost and die in every lost sinner's place. John 19:30; Hebrews 2:9. God's power is infinite, but Jesus' Father also knew that although His infinite power had been divided between Him and His Son on the cross, He had complete confidence that His Son would succeed in paying the full price for man's salvation even without His help because every part of infinity equals the whole of infinity. Psalm 147:5.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                  Chapter Sixteen

                                                                                                                                               Verses 23-27

Jesus informed His disciples that when they would see Him again after His resurrection, they would become so overwhelmed with joy that they would forget to ask Him about anything that they should do or believe. Jesus instructed His disciples, and His Church, that their joy would become even greater if they would only think to ask their Father in Jesus' name for whatever they needed. Jesus told them that if they did so, His Father would give them detailed instructions and information about exactly how Jesus had saved them by His grace, how His Holy Spirit would sanctify them, and how His Church should conduct itself in the world. In other words, Jesus prophesied again that His Holy Spirit would inspire the writing of the New Testament.

Jesus admitted that He had often taught them by His use of "proverbs," by which He meant that He had often used stories and metaphors. Jesus knew that at that time His disciples simply did not have the spiritual ability to understand, in detail, who He was and what He had come to earth to do for them. They believed in Him in their hearts because they loved Him, but their minds could not fully understand much of what He had taught them. The Holy Spirit can directly preach the gospel to a person who is ignorant of the Word of God and cause that person to believe in Christ in their hearts, and yet, their minds will not understand exactly what happened to them. Colossians 1:6; Colossians 1:23. But Jesus prophesied to His disciples, and to His Church, that a time would come when He would provide them with plain instructions about what His Father expected from them. Jesus referred again to the coming of the Church Age and the writing of the New Testament. The Holy Spirit speaks more plainly to believers from the New Testament than Jesus did while He was in the world.

Jesus assured His disciples, and His Church, that His Father loved them because they loved Him and believed that He came from God. By this statement, Jesus actually informed His disciples and His future believers that they did not have to understand with their minds exactly what He had done for them as long as they loved Him and believed in Him in their hearts. Nevertheless, God has a mission for His Church to fulfill, and His Church would need detailed instructions and teachings from the Holy Spirit to carry out that mission in an effective way. The Church would need the written New Testament. Matthew 28:18-20.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                  Chapter Sixteen

                                                                                                                                              Verses 16-22

Jesus then informed His disciples that they would not see Him for a "little while," and then after a "little while" they would see Him again. Jesus referred to the three days He would be in the grave before His resurrection. Jesus also informed His disciples that during the time that they would not see Him, He would go to His Father. After Jesus' death on the cross, His Spirit descended into Hell, but His Spirit also went home to visit His Father. This was no problem for God's Spirit because He happens to be everywhere at the same time. In the words of those who study Quantum Mechanics, God would be non-local. To these scientists, the word "non-local" means that they have discovered that one particle, such as an electron, can become two entangled particles which are still the same particle, and yet, these particles can be in two separate places at the same time. This fact happens to be counterintuitive, but it is true nevertheless.

When Jesus died on the cross, He commended His Spirit to the care of His Father. Luke 23:46. Jesus' Father caused His Spirit to descend into Hell to leave behind there all of the sins and evil of all humans that Jesus bore on the cross who do not become saved by grace. Acts 2:25-31. Since Jesus' Spirit did not see corruption, then He had to have risen immaculate from Hell to reanimate Jesus' perfect body so that He could rise from the dead victorious over the Devil and all of his evil works. Revelation 1:17-18. But while Jesus' body was in the grave, God also brought Jesus' Spirit home to Him in Heaven. Jesus' perfect Spirit did not die in Hell, and His Spirit also went home to Heaven. This fact can only mean that God Himself can never die. But the perfect life and body of Jesus, who is God in human form, could die the spiritual deaths that all humans possess in their places, and because of His innocence, could rise victorious over all sin, evil, and spiritual death to give all humans His eternal life. Romans 5:10; Hebrews 2:9. The Holy Spirit created a perfect body for God in the womb of the virgin Mary so that the sinless life of Jesus could be nailed to a cross to purge all sins, evil, and spiritual deaths from all living humans, and so that the Living Spirit of God, coming back to Jesus from Heaven and from Hell, could reanimate His perfect and innocent body so that He, in eternal human form, would gain complete victory over the Devil and all of his evil works. Christ was not in human form until the Holy Spirit conceived Him in Mary's virgin womb. Numbers 23:19; Matthew 1:18-25. But Christ is now in human form forever in order to make His eternal salvation of the human race effective forever. Romans 5:10; Hebrews 2:9. Since all living humans belong to Jesus, then He had to have saved the entire living human race by destroying the Devil and all of his evil works. I John 2:2; I Timothy 4:10; Revelation 21:5; I John 3:8; John 12:31-32. God used a perfect and sinless body, not subject to sin and spiritual death, to save the entire human race by destroying all sin, evil, and spiritual death, all of which are the evil works of the Devil. Hebrews 2:9-15; I John 3:8; John 12:31-32.

Where do the purged sins, evil, and spiritual deaths of all living humans that Christ saves from the regions of death go? They are all a part of all of the dead humans that Christ casts in to the lake of fire which is the second death which follows spiritual death. Revelation 20:11-15.

By their answer to Jesus, His disciples demonstrated that they had become greatly confused by what Jesus had taught them. They could not understand Jesus.

Jesus told them that they would experience great grief and sorrow when He died and was buried. When Jesus said that during this short time, "the world shall rejoice," He had to have meant the evil natures of humans and the totally evil nature of Satan. Jesus then compared His suffering on the cross to a woman who gives birth to a baby. She may suffer great anguish and pain, but she will have joy when her baby is born. Jesus used this metaphor to describe how He would suffer on the cross, die and be buried, and rise again from  the dead. Jesus told His disciples that they may now have sorrow, but that sorrow would only last a "little while," and then they all will be filled with a joy that the world will never be able to take away from them.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                  Chapter Sixteen

                                                                                                                                              Verses 12-15

Jesus had much more information to teach His disciples, but He did not want to overburden them with too much information because He knew that they would have trouble remembering it all. So Jesus taught His disciples that His Spirit, that He would send to the writers of the New Testament, would provide them with all the rest of His teachings so that they could write it all a little at a time. Jesus also informed His disciples that the Holy Spirit would give them prophecies as well.

Jesus informed His disciples that the Holy Spirit would only glorify Him and His Father. The Holy Spirit would give to the writers of the New Testament only that which Jesus gave His Spirit to write. Although He is God as well, the Holy Spirit does not glorify Himself. The Holy Spirit seems to be the quiet and reserved part of God's personality. The Father in the Old Testament and Jesus in the New Testament often performed tremendous, outward, public miracles, but the Holy Spirit seems to prefer to work quiet miracles mostly within the confines of the Church. The Holy Spirit concentrates on preaching the gospel and winning lost souls to salvation by grace which are miracles never reported in the news. Even so, in pagan areas where the Word of God has never been preached, even the Holy Spirit will sometimes perform tremendous, outward miracles which are rarely reported in the news.

Jesus informed His disciples that "all things" that belong to His Father also belong to Him. Since God created all things, including every living human in His image, then every living human belongs to Jesus. Genesis 1:27. Since God can never lose anything He has ever created, then Christ can never lose even a single living human that He will ever create. Ecclesiastes 3:14; Luke 20:38. Since Christ has promised that He will "make all things new," then He must recover and recreate every living human that He will ever create. Revelation 21:5. God has two forms of salvation for all living humans. He has a higher form of salvation by His grace for all living humans who repent and believe in Christ while still alive in the flesh. John 5:24. And He has a lesser form of salvation for all living humans confined to the regions of death because He will appear to them and cause them all to repent and believe in Him as the Lamb of God. Revelation 5:11-14.

After they all repent and believe, Christ will use His fiery wrath against evil to dissolve their systems in order to separate their cleansed, living natures for Him to recreate to live on His new earth from their totally evil, dead natures that never repent and whom He will cast into the eternal lake of fire. Matthew 12:31-32; I Corinthians 3:11-15; II Peter 3:9-13; Revelation 5:11-14; Philippians 2:9-11; John 5:28-29; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 21:1-5; Revelation 20:11-15. God created "all things." Colossians 1:16. God will also "reconcile all things unto Himself," Colossians 1:20.

 

                                          Chapter Sixteen

 

                                                                                                                                               Verses 7-11

 

Jesus reminded His disciples that after He went away He would send the Comforter to His Church to teach them and to guide them. Jesus promised His Church that His Spirit would always be with them just as He had been with His followers in bodily form. Hebrews 13:5. Jesus also taught His disciples that the Holy Spirit would be better for them than Himself because His Spirit would dwell in their hearts.

 

Jesus then began to teach His disciples about not only the ministry of the Comforter to His Church, but also of His ministry to the world. Jesus taught that the Comforter would convince mankind through the messages from His Church of those basic truths of His Word that they really need to know. The Holy Spirit rebukes the sins of the world so that humans will know that they need to repent and put their faith in Christ. The Holy Spirit convinces the world that the righteousness of God still exists in His Word and in His Church so that humans will know that they can possess Christ's righteousness as a free gift that will make them wholly right with God if they repent and put their faith in Jesus. John 3:16; II Corinthians 5:21.

 

Jesus then taught His disciples about His judgment that He would make as He hung on the cross. Jesus had formerly taught His disciples that He would judge no human while He was in the world, but He would reserve all of His final judgments of humanity to the end of the world. John 12:44-50. Believers in Christ can come out of the darkness of sin and evil into the light of salvation by His grace if they repent and believe while still alive in the flesh, but believers can also come out of the darkness of the regions of death when they repent and believe in the Lamb of God when He appears to them in a great worship service near the end of the world. John 5:24; John 11:25-26; Revelation 5:11-14; John 12:46; Psalm 107:8-16.Therefore, Christ judged no living human as He hung on the cross. Christ came to save all of humanity from sin, evil, and eternal spiritual death. John 12:47. God judged only the Devil and all of his evil works as Jesus hung on the cross, and His Spirit will draw all living humans to repentance and faith in Christ so that God can save them all. John 12:31-32. Jesus came to cast out the Devil, spiritual death, and all sin and evil from all living humans. He did not come to cast out living humans whom He creates and loves. Hebrews 2:9-17; I John 3:8; Luke 20:38; I Timothy 4:10; I Timothy 6:13. God can never lose anything He has ever created, and His Love can never fail. Ecclesiastes 3:14; I Corinthians 13:8.

 

Near the end of the world and Jesus' final judgment, Christ will use His fiery wrath against evil to dissolve every human system confined to the regions of death in order to melt them to separate their repentant living souls and spirits from their spiritual deaths so that He can save their living souls and spirits, and He can cast their dead natures into the eternal lake of fire. I Corinthians 3:11-15; II Peter 3:9-13; Matthew 13:36-43. Living humans become saved by grace by being cleansed by the blood and water that flowed from Jesus on the cross. The living souls and spirits of the rest of humanity will be saved by God's fiery wrath against evil. The Old Testament sin offering symbolized salvation by grace, but the Old Testament burnt offering symbolized God's salvation of the rest of humanity by the use of His fiery wrath against evil in order to dissolve their systems to separate their living natures from their dead natures. Genesis 3:20-21; Genesis 8:20-21; Leviticus 5:5-10; Psalm 75:3. Jesus prophesied that He will judge those who finally reject Him and His Word by His Word in the end of the world. John 12:48. Any final rejection of Christ and the Holy Spirit constitutes total evil and spiritual death that Christ will cast into the lake of fire. Matthew 12:31-32. Jesus will fulfill this prophecy in His final judgment when He raises all repentant, living humans from the regions of death for Him to recreate to live of His new earth, and He will cast all of their separated, spiritual deaths into the eternal lake of fire which is the second death from spiritual death. John 12:48; Revelation 5:11-14; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 20:11-15; Revelation 21:1-5; Revelation 22:11-12; Matthew 13:36-43; I Timothy 4:10; I Timothy 6:13; II Timothy 4:1; John 11:25; Acts 24:15; Colossians 1:15-23; Isaiah 66:22-24.

 

The very fact that God has said that all humans are always alive to Him and that Christ will destroy only death itself can only mean that Christ will forever save all living humans that He creates and loves from eternal spiritual death. Genesis 3:20; Luke 20:38; I Corinthians 15:26; Revelation 1:17-18. No verse in the entire Bible (KJB) states that if a living human rejects Christ's salvation by grace until his physical death, then Christ will cast that living human into the lake of fire. Revelation 20:11-15 clearly teaches that Christ will cast only dead humans into the lake of fire.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                 Chapter Sixteen

                                                                                                                                               Verses 4-6

Jesus began to fill in many of the details about His death and resurrection, and the work of the Holy Spirit in His Church and in the world. Jesus gave these details to His followers all at once so that when some of His followers began to write the New Testament, the Holy Spirit could make them remember Jesus' sermons just prior to His crucifixion. Jesus' writers would be able to remember these sermons better because of the intensity of the situation. Jesus did not teach many of these details to His disciples during His ministry because all they needed to know was that He was their Comforter and leader. If Jesus had stretched His teaching of these details over the time of His ministry, His disciples would have had much more trouble remembering them. But when the time would come for some of His followers to write the New Testament, the Holy Spirit would cause the writers to more easily remember these details because Jesus crammed them all into precise sermons near the end of His ministry. The Apostle Paul wrote much of the New Testament, but he had to have gotten the details of Jesus' teachings from the memory of some of Jesus' disciples. Even so, the writers of the Gospels did a good job of remembering, by listening to the Holy Spirit, the miracles and the teachings of Jesus during His public ministry.

Jesus informed His disciples that He was going away to be with His Father, and He wondered why His disciples did not ask Him where He was going. They probably did not ask Him because they were confused about much of what Jesus had taught them. Sorrow filled their hearts because they thought Jesus was going away never to return. Jesus knew that they were confused, and so He began to give them more details about how He would return to His Church in the form of the Holy Spirit to be their Comforter and Teacher. John 14:18. 

Commentary on the Gospel of John

 

                                           Chapter Sixteen

 

                                                                                                                                              Verses 1-3

 

Jesus preached to His disciples that He would send them a Comforter so that they would not be "offended." By using this word, Jesus meant that His disciples, and His Church, would need the power of God in their lives so that the persecution that would come upon them from the world would not cause them to lose their faith. Whenever worldly people ridicule and outright persecute His believers, they can rely on the comfort and encouragement supplied by the Holy Spirit in order to continue in the faith and never give up.

 

Jesus did teach that initial believers who fail to commit their whole lives to Him will not receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, and in time of persecution, they will lose their faith and their salvation by grace. Matthew 13:20-21. Jesus gives His gift of the Holy Spirit only to believers who have committed their whole lives to Him for eternity. Mark 8:34-38; Acts 1:1-9. When Jesus comes to make His final judgment, He will be ashamed of those initial believers who lost their salvation by grace because they became ashamed of Him. Mark 8:38. But believers who have been baptized by the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ can never lose their salvation by grace even if they backslide into the ways of the world. They can never lose their salvation by grace because the Holy Spirit has washed away all of their sins and evil with the spiritual blood and water that flowed from Jesus on the cross. The Holy Spirit has the power to change the physical blood and water from Jesus' cross to spiritual blood and water. That cleansing by the Holy Spirit can never be undone. God knows to whom He should give His Spirit, and those to whom He should not give His Spirit. Hebrews 10:12-18; II Timothy 2:10-13. God will severely punish backsliders for their correction, but He also knows exactly how to cause every backslider saved by grace to repent and return to complete faith in Him when He Raptures His Church. Hebrews 12:3-15; Ephesians 5:25-27. Whenever a backslider repents and returns to an active faith, Christ will forgive that backslider and return him to full fellowship with Him. Matthew 26:75. Tribulation saints can be saved by grace, but they must endure to being martyred or to the end of the Tribulation period to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit and eternal salvation by being washed in the blood of Christ. Matthew 24:11-13; II Thessalonians 2:6-8; Revelation 7:9-17. Tribulation saints who lose their faith will also lose their salvation by grace. Matthew 22:9-13.

 

Jesus then made a remarkable prophecy which history has proven to be true to this day. If Jesus had been an ordinary human, His prophecy about the future persecution of His followers could have been merely fortunate guesswork, but when Jesus prophesied that those who persecute His believers will think they do it in God's service, that happened to be an exact detail that no ordinary human would have ever thought of. This prophecy alone proves that Jesus had to be God in human form. Saul of Tarsus, and other Jews, persecuted and killed the first Christians. The pagan Romans persecuted and killed Christians in the service of their gods. In the middle ages, a hierarchical religion persecuted and killed Christians and claimed they did it in the service of God. But many lay Catholics, who were true Christians themselves, vehemently opposed the Inquisition and the persecution of their fellow Christians.

 

Religions may claim that they know God, but Jesus informed His followers that religious people will not know Him or His Father. Christianity has formed itself into many religions and denominations, each with its own traditions and religious practices, but no one can come to know Christ and His Father through religious practices. John 14:6. John the Baptist formed religious practices when he baptized in water to symbolize remission of sins, but when Jesus came on the scene, John pointed directly to Jesus as being the Savior of the world. John 1:25-36. Jesus then formed followers around Him who knew Him personally. John 1:37-51. Religious practices can be used in the worship of God, but in order for any person to become saved by grace, that person must come to know Christ as his own, personal Savior. John 14:6. Salvation by grace will come to any person immediately upon sincere repentance and faith in Christ as his Savior. A person who comes under the conviction of the Holy Spirit must humble himself to Christ, repent of his sins and evil, and believe that only the person of Christ can save him from eternal death and give him His own everlasting Life. John 3:3; John 3:16; Luke 18:9-14; Romans 10:8-13; John 5:24.