Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                   Chapter Nineteen

                                                                                                                                               Verses 17-18

Jesus bore His cross to a hill called Golgotha which means "the place of a skull." This place had to symbolize spiritual death which means Jesus had to have died on that hill to purge spiritual death from all living humans. Hebrews 2:9. In the Old Testament, if the priests offered a bullock for a sin offering, they would pour out its blood at the altar at the entrance of the Tabernacle, but they would send the rest of the bullock to be burned outside of the camp. Leviticus 4:1-21. God gave the burnt offering to Noah to symbolize His lesser form of salvation for all living humans who do not obtain salvation by grace. Genesis 8:20-21. Both the sin offering and the burnt offering symbolized the forgiveness of sins. Leviticus 5:6-10. Jesus suffered both the sin offering and the burnt offering outside the camp. Hebrews 13:10-12. When they lifted up Jesus on a cross between Heaven and earth, He, being the living Temple of God, offered His blood and water that He shed at the gate of Heaven for all living humans who would become saved by grace. But He also offered a burnt offering for the lesser form of salvation of the rest of humanity when He dismissed His Spirit into the care of His Father who allowed His Spirit to descend into a burning Hell to leave behind there all of the sins and evil of the rest of humanity that Jesus bore on the cross. Acts 2:25-31; I John 2:2. The Holy Spirit had to have left behind in Hell all of the sins and evil of the rest of humanity because He rose immaculate from Hell to reanimate the perfect body of Jesus so that He could rise from the dead victorious over all sins, evil, spiritual death, and the Devil. Revelation 1:17-18; Matthew 28:18; Hebrews 2:9-15; Hebrews 13:12. The sin offering must always be made before the burnt offering can be made. Therefore, Hebrews 13:12 relates that Jesus sacrificed Himself to "sanctify the people," not just those who would be saved by grace.

Jesus sacrificed Himself to appease God for not only the sins of those saved by grace, but for the sins of the rest of humanity. I John 2:2. This verse agrees with Colossians 1:20 which states that through Christ's sacrifice He will "reconcile all things to Himself," and since Christ created "all things,' then this phrase must include all living humans. Colossians 1:16. These two verses agree with Revelation 21:5 where God promises that, "Behold, I make all things new." This promise can only mean that God must recover and recreate all living humans confined to the regions of death. John 5:28-29.

Jesus was crucified on a cross between two thieves which symbolized that He sacrificed Himself to save all of sinful humanity. One of the thieves repented and believed, and Jesus saved him by His grace. Luke 23:39-43. The other thief died, and God judged him and consigned his soul and spirit to one of the regions of death. Hebrews 9:27; Revelation 20:13. But Christ has not forgotten that lost thief. He will be among those to whom Christ appears, and like all of them, he will repent and believe in Christ of his own free will, and Christ will save his living soul and spirit from death and recreate him with a new body to live on His recreated earth. Revelation 5:11-14; John 5:28-29; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 21:1-5.