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.