Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                 Chapter Three

                                                                                                                                      Verses 17-21

While Jesus was in the world, He did not judge the world. The word "condemn" that He used means "to judge." Jesus did not judge at that time because He came to save the world, not to make final judgments. If God's mission was to save the world, then how could He fail to save the entire world, including all living humans whom He creates and loves? Christ makes only one final judgment which happens in the end of the world. John 12:47-48; II Timothy 4:1. II Timothy 4:1 states that Christ will "judge the quick and the dead" in His final judgment. This verse can only mean that Christ will effect a complete separation of all living humans whom He will save from all dead humans whom He will cast into the lake of fire. Revelation 20:5; Revelation 20:11-15.

In Christ's final judgment, He will judge by His written Word and by the Book of Life. His judgment will consist of a fiery wrath against evil that will dissolve every human system on the earth and under the earth to separate their repentant, living souls and spirits from their spiritual deaths. Christ will save every repentant, living human for Him to recreate to live on His recreated earth because their names will be found in the Book of Life, and He will consign their separated, spiritual deaths to an eternal lake of fire. I Corinthians 3:11-15; II Peter 3:9-13; Psalm 75:3; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 20:11-15; Revelation 21:1-5; Revelation 22:11-12.

Every living human that God has ever created will eventually repent and believe in Christ their Savior because His goodness and faith that God put into their inner beings will cause them all to choose to repent and believe. God, who possesses an Infinite Intellect, knew exactly how to design His creations to act this way. Humanity's feeble will cannot equal God's Almighty Will. II Peter 3:9. God will separate the spiritual deaths from every human for Him to cast into the lake of fire because they are totally evil and can never repent. Matthew 12:31-32; Revelation 20:15; I Timothy 1:10; Matthew 13:35-43; John 5:28-29. God can never lose anything He has ever created. Ecclesiastes 3:14; Romans 11:36; Revelation 21:5; Romans 8:18-23. God's Love can never fail. I Corinthians 13:8. Romans 8:21 can only mean that God's entire creation will be delivered from its bondage to sin and evil. Colossians 1:20 can 0nly mean that God will eventually reconcile everything He has ever created to Himself. Romans 11:36 can only mean that everything that God has ever created goes out from Him and will return to Him.

In the first part of verse 18, Jesus refers to living humans who become saved by His grace. God removes all eternal judgments from living humans whom He saves by His grace.  Romans 8:1. Christ will consign living humans who fail to obtain salvation by grace to the regions of death, but that will not be a final judgment. Hebrews 9:27. Christ's final judgment will only fall on the separated, spiritual deaths of humans because they refuse to believe. Matthew 12:31-32. Living humans are not God's enemies. Genesis 3:20; Luke 20:38. God's enemies are the Devil and evil itself. Genesis 3:15; John 12:31-32; I John 3:8. God has devised a plan that will cause every living human eventually to repent and believe in Christ, the Lamb of God, of their own free will which will prove the great value of God's Love. John 5:24; Revelation 5:11-14; Isaiah 45:21-25; Psalm 86:9. God will save some humans by His grace and give them an eternal home with Him in Heaven. I Peter 1:1-5. God will save all other living humans with a lesser form of salvation which will be His recreation of them to live forever on His recreated earth. Revelation 20:5; Revelation 21:1-5; Revelation 22:11-12.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                   Chapter Three

                                                                                                                                       Verse 9-16 continued

Jesus also taught that whoever would fail to believe in Him to be saved by grace would "perish." But that word "perish" does not mean that Christ will cast their living souls and spirits into an eternal lake of fire. In the end of the world, Jesus will cast only the spiritual dead into the lake of fire. Death is the exact opposite of life. Revelation 20:11-15.

The word "perish" that Jesus used means "to die" or "to be marred." Christ judges unbelievers when they physically die. Hebrews 9:27. Jesus alone has the right to make this judgment. For one to presume that Jesus casts the souls and spirits of those unbelievers He judges into an eternal Hell means that that presumption violates a commandment of Christ. Matthew 7:1-2. Christ withholds all of His final judgments until the end of the world. Revelation 20:11; John 12:47-48. In His final judgment, Jesus dissolves the systems of every person on earth and within the regions of the dead to separate their repentant, living souls and spirits for Him to resurrect to recreate in body, soul, and spirit to live on His recreated earth, and Jesus will cast their separated, dead natures into the eternal lake of fire. II Timothy 4:1; I Corinthians 3:11-15; Revelation 5:11-14; II Peter 3:9-13; Psalm 75:3; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 20:11-15; I Corinthians 15:22. Jesus meant by His use of the word "perish" that when marred humans die, God will dissolve their systems in the end of the world. II Peter 3:9-13. Moreover, Christ cannot cast living humans into the lake of fire because His Word teaches that He will cleanse from evil, preserve, recover, and recreate everything that He created in the first place. Ecclesiastes 3:14; II Peter 3:9-13; I Corinthians 3:11-15; Psalm 36:6; Romans 11:36; Revelation 21:5.

In John 12:25, Jesus used other words to teach this same doctrine which He also taught in Matthew 10:39; Matthew 16:25; Mark 8:35; Luke 9:24 and Luke 17:33. When a teaching of Jesus repeats in all four Gospels, it has to be very important. In these verses, Jesus taught that those who attempt to save their earthly lives, with all their sins and spiritual deaths, will lose their lives. In the end of the world, Jesus will dissolve their earthly lives to separate their repentant, living souls and spirits from their evil, spiritual deaths. When Jesus recreates their living souls and spirits with new bodies to live forever on His recreated earth, they will be completely different persons than they were when they lived on the former earth. Christ will recreate them to be righteous. Christ will use His fiery wrath to purge all of their sins and evil from them, especially their excessive pride which caused them to reject faith in Him, and He will recreate them to be meek and righteous persons on the new earth. Matthew 5:5; II Peter 3:9-13; I Corinthians 3:11-15; Revelation 21:5. They will lose their former identities and personalities that they had on the former earth, and they will probably not even remember them. Revelation 21:1-5. In other words, their former lives on the earth will have perished.

But those humans who hate their earthly lives of sins and evil and repent of them, and who put their faith in Christ as their Savior from their sins and evil, He will save their lives by His grace while they are still alive in the flesh. I Corinthians 6:11; Revelation 1:5; John 5:24. The Holy Spirit will cleanse their living souls and spirits with the spiritual blood of Christ, and He will recreate their souls and spirits to be new, righteous persons, and He will give them the eternal life and righteousness of Christ Himself by which they can be accepted by God to live with Him forever in Heaven. II Corinthians 5:17; II Corinthians 5:21; John 17:24; Romans 8:17-24. Yet, the Holy Spirit possesses the ability to save by His grace and recreate all living humans who put their faith in Christ, and at the same time, He also holds the power to cause them to retain their former identities and most of their former personalities that they had on the former earth. In other words, Christ will save their lives. This is what Jesus meant when He said, "he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal." John 12:25.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                  Chapter Three

                                                                                                                                           Verses 9-16

In effect, Nicodemus asked Jesus what causes the "born again" experience. What causes the Holy Spirit to enter into a person? Jesus told Nicodemus that he should already know something about the spiritual new birth because he had read and studied Isaiah and the other Old Testament prophets who wrote about a suffering Messiah and the spiritual new birth. Isaiah 53:1-12; Isaiah 55:1-13.

Jesus compared earthly events like being born into the world and feeling the wind blow to the spiritual event of being "born again" in order to make it easier for Nicodemus to believe in Him. But Jesus sensed that Nicodemus found it hard to believe in Jesus as his Savior. Jesus chided Nicodemus a little because Jesus had taught him earthly truths that were similar to spiritual truths, but Nicodemus had not used his imagination and intellect to come to a spiritual understanding. All through His ministry, Jesus often taught in parables, and He sometimes became annoyed when people failed to realize that His teachings about material events should illustrate spiritual truths. Humans often know far more in their unconscious minds that they are willing to admit into their conscious minds. Jesus became annoyed with the people He taught because they should have recognized His spiritual Truths, but they still clung to their false beliefs through their stubborn pride. Women seemed to be able to comprehend Jesus' spiritual teachings much quicker that did men.

Because Nicodemus was confused, Jesus began to directly teach him about who He was and what He would do to cause the new birth. Jesus taught Nicodemus that He was the Messiah who descended from Heaven. Jesus also told Nicodemus that He was on the earth, and at the same time, He was in Heaven. Nicodemus should have understood that Jesus claimed to be One with His Father united together by the Holy Spirit.

Jesus reminded Nicodemus that Moses had lifted up a fiery serpent of brass in the wilderness that symbolized the people's sins, and when any person looked at that symbol, they would be saved from death. Numbers 21:5-9. Since Nicodemus knew that the fiery serpent of brass symbolized the people's sins, then he should have understood Jesus when He said that He would be lifted up like that fiery serpent and that Nicodemus could be saved in the flesh by looking at Jesus by his faith when Jesus would be lifted up. Jesus further taught Nicodemus that whosoever looked to Jesus in faith lifted up would receive eternal life while still in the flesh which was an exact definition of being "born again."

Jesus also taught that His Love for humanity would cause Him to be lifted up to suffer for the sins and spiritual deaths of all humanity so that whosoever believed in Him would be saved from eternal death forever. God has proved in many scripture passages that He will save every living human that He ever created and loves, some by His grace and all others when they repent and believe in the Lamb while in the regions of death when He appears to them in a great worship service. God can never lose anything He has ever created and loves. Ecclesiastes 3:14; John 5:24; Revelation 5:11-14; Isaiah 45:20-25; Philippians 2:9-11; Psalm 107:9-14; Psalm 86:9; I Corinthians 15:22; Luke 20:38; Acts 3:20-21; Revelation 21:1-5 and many others.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                  Chapter Three

                                                                                                                                      Verses 1-8 continued

Every human possesses a soul and spirit created in the image of God, and God can never lose anything that He has created and loves. Ecclesiastes 3:14; I Corinthians 13:8. All humans not saved by grace will eventually repent and believe in Christ of their own free wills, and He will give them a lesser form of salvation. He will recover and recreate their living souls and spirits with new bodies to live forever on His recreated earth. Revelation 5:11-14; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 21:1-5; Revelation 22:11-12. God cannot give rewards for good works to dead people. God can only give rewards for good works to living humans whom He has resurrected back to life. Revelation 20:5; John 5:28-29; Revelation 22:11-2. Jesus taught that even those living humans who did the smallest amount of good works will not lose their rewards even though those rewards will be few. Matthew 10:42; Matthew 16:27.

Jesus told Nicodemus that he had to be "born again," that is, "born of the Spirit" in order to enter the Kingdom of God while still alive in the flesh. Jesus described this experience as like feeling the wind blow. Apparently, Nicodemus had trouble understanding spiritual matters because he asked Jesus if a man could be born again from his mother's womb, so Jesus gave him a material example that compares with spiritual birth. A person knows when they become "born again" because they feel the Holy Spirit move into their inner being, similar to feeling the wind blow, and that person feels cleansed and forgiven of all their sins, and they feel that they have entered into a new world. Jesus did not mention water baptism as being necessary to feel this move of the Holy Spirit. When Peter preached the gospel to Cornelius and some of his kinsman and friends, the Holy Spirit fell on them immediately as soon as they believed in Jesus. Water baptisms followed their salvation by grace. This event provides only one example in the scriptures that confirms that spiritual truth that Jesus taught Nicodemus. Acts 10:34-48; John 3:7-8. Jesus clearly taught that just as a person can suddenly feel the wind blow, so a person can immediately be "born of the Spirit." Water baptism only follows this spiritual salvation as a witness to it.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                 Chapter Three

                                                                                                                                         Verses 1-8

Apparently. Nicodemus, a prominent Pharisee, came to talk with Jesus at night because he was afraid that the other Pharisees would see him. Nicodemus knew that Jesus had to be from God because of the miracles that He did. But Nicodemus believed that Jesus was only a Rabbi, not the Son of God.

Jesus got right to the point. Since Nicodemus believed in Jesus' miracles, then Nicodemus also needed to know that he needed a spiritual miracle from God to be able to enter into the Kingdom of God. Believers saved by grace know that they have experienced a spiritual miracle because they know that the Holy Spirit has entered into their inner beings, washed them clean of all their sins with the spiritual blood of Christ and that He will abide with them forever. They know that they have entered into the Kingdom of God as children of God. John 3:7; John 6:63; I Corinthians 6:11; I Corinthians 6:19-20.

When Jesus used the word "water" in verse five, He did not mean water baptism. Jesus did not baptize in water, only His disciples. John the Baptist testified that he baptized in water to witness to the fact that the Savior would come to baptize with the Holy Spirit. John 1:29-34. Jesus commanded that His believers should be baptized in water to join a local church, as a witness to the church and to everyone that that believer had already experienced the spiritual miracle of the new birth into the Kingdom of God. Matthew 28:18-20.

Every believer saved by grace should obey Christ and be baptized in water, but that obedience can only be a good work, and good works never save by grace. Ephesians 2:8-9. The only obedience by which a person can be saved by grace happens to be to repent and believe in Christ as God who is their personal Savior. John 6:28-29. Repentance and faith are not good works. They only display a humble submission to the Will of God. Luke 18:13-14. Good works are actions that a person makes for the benefit of others and for the glory of God. Only the Love of God demonstrated in the sacrifice of Christ which He gives to believers saves by grace. I Corinthians 6:11; Matthew 16:13-17. Again and again in Jesus' ministry, He told believers that their faith had saved them. Luke 7:47-50. God has promised that He will give His salvation by grace to anyone who sincerely repents and believes. John 6:37. If God decided to withhold His gift of salvation by grace, no one could be saved no matter how much they repented and believed. No believer can be saved by grace until God gives that person His Holy Spirit who will wash that person clean of all their sins and evil with the spiritual blood of Christ, recreates their soul and spirit, and gives them a spiritual new birth into the Kingdom of God. I Corinthians 6:11; John 6:63; Matthew 26:28; II Corinthians 5:17; John 3:3.

Jesus' use of the word "water" in verse five has a double meaning. The word "water" in scripture often symbolizes the Word of God. I John 5:7-8. Jesus turned the water into wine only as it was being served to the guests. John 2:8-9. Similarly, when a person hears or reads the gospel in the Word of God, symbolized by water, the Holy Spirit convinces them that they are lost sinners in need of Christ their Savior. John 16:7-11. If that person repents and believes, the Holy Spirit delivers to that person the spiritual blood of Christ, symbolized by wine, to cleanse the inner being of that believer of all their sins and evil and save that believer by God's grace. Romans 10:17.

Jesus' second use of the word "water" in verse five simply means that a person has to be born into the world as a living human to become saved by grace. Jesus explained His meaning in verse six. Jesus later taught that no one can receive a fleshly salvation while still in the world. John 6:63. While in the flesh, a believer in Christ can only become saved in soul and spirit by a miraculous baptism of the Holy Spirit into the family of God. John 6:63; I Corinthians 12:13. But God has promised that He will also save the bodies of believers when He Raptures the Church. I Thessalonians 5:23; II Corinthians 5:1-5.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                 Chapter Two

                                                                                                                                      Verses 24-25 continued

All of this put together raises the question: How does God create each individual human? Obviously, God creates every living human with his or her individual personality and characteristics. Every human is unique which makes them very valuable.

In Romans 9:14-24, God describes exactly the reasons why He creates every individual human. God creates the living souls and spirits of every human in His image by putting His own good ideas into His makeup of each of their systems. God observes them as they emerge into the world being subject to evil and eternal death. Their good systems become influenced by their inherited evil, spiritual deaths. As they commit sins, some of these living souls become hardened; that is, they let the sin of pride cause them to ignore their good natures, and they give their lives over to practice evil and even rebellion against God. Others adhere to the good part of their natures which causes some of them to repent and believe when they hear or read the gospel so that they become saved by grace. Most humans saved by grace were already good persons, but the Holy Spirit made them realize that they were also sinners who could only be saved by Christ. However, most good persons do not become saved by grace, but some evil persons do.

Somewhere in between these two extremes, God creates every individual human. Nevertheless, God uses every individual human for His own purposes; that is, to effect His Will whether they become extremely evil, as was Pharaoh, or extremely good, as was Moses. But God also provides His mercy for every living human that He uses to effect His Will. The phrase "the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction" of verse 22 means all living humans whom God must confine to the regions of death because of their unrepentant sins and evil. The word "destruction" does not mean that God will throw their living souls and spirits into an eternal lake of fire. This word means that God will use His fiery wrath to dissolve their systems in order to separate their repentant, living souls and spirits for Him to recreate to live on His recreated earth from their dead and evil natures that He will cast into the lake of fire. II Peter 3:9-13; I Corinthians 3:11-15; Revelation 5:11-14; Psalm 75:3; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 20:11-15; Revelation 21:1-5.

The phrase "vessels of mercy" of verse 23 can only mean every living human that God ever creates because He creates them all as a "vessel" for His image with His goodness and faith that He puts into every system. God can never lose anything He has ever created. Ecclesiastes 3:14; Romans 11:36. God knows exactly how to cause every living human that He ever creates to repent and believe in Christ of their own free will whether by His grace or by His appearance to them as the Lamb of God. John 5:24; Revelation 5:11-14. Only a good and living nature can do something good like repent and believe in Christ. Spiritual death, which is totally evil, can never repent because it can only do evil. Matthew 12:31-32.

All of this put together illustrates the meaning of John 2:25 which states, "He knew what was in man."

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                   Chapter Two

                                                                                                                                      Verses 24-25 continued

God proved that His Love is Almighty and real by giving His living humans free will that they will eventually use to choose to return to the faith that He puts into them when He creates them in His image. Romans 12:3. Having an Infinite Intellect and an Almighty Love, God was able to devise a plan, before He ever created the world, to cause every living human to return to their faith in Christ of their own free will. Christ has taken away all of their sins and spiritual deaths. John 1:29; Hebrews 2:9. Some humans will believe while still in the flesh and become saved by God's grace, and all others will believe when Christ reveals Himself to them on the earth and within the regions of death in a future, great worship service. Revelation 5:11-14; John 5:24.

Love that is freely chosen can only be real. Love that has been assumed to be determined by God's creations can be made to be in doubt. God gave free will to all His angels, but because they never had an actual choice to love God or not until Lucifer's rebellion, many of them assumed that God had determined His Love in them. For this reason, many of them followed Lucifer in his rebellion because they wrongly assumed that that was the way to freedom. Those who deliberately practice sin, and even the rebellious against God, assume that they are making themselves free when in actuality they are only making themselves slaves to the Devil. Lucifer's rebellion caused that doubt to enter into God's creations. Genesis 4:1-7; John 20:24-25. But God has determined to overcome all that doubt and all the evil that it causes by causing all living humans to choose to return to faith in His Almighty Love who chose to sacrifice Himself to save them which proves that His Love is real. John 3:16. The Bible (KJB) even prophesies that God will save the rebellious but not the rebellion itself. Psalm 107:10-15; Psalm 68:18. Rebellion which adheres to spiritual death never repents, and therefore, can never be forgiven by God. Matthew 12:31-32. But upon the repentance and faith of even the rebellious, God will be able to dissolve their systems, recover their cleansed living souls and spirits for Him to recreate, and He will cast their separated rebellion into the lake of fire. Psalm 75:3; II Peter 3:9-13; Revelation 5:11-14; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 20:11-15.

The ultimate test of God's Love happened when Jesus, who is God, allowed Himself to be nailed to a cruel cross to suffer the sins, evil, and eternal spiritual deaths in the place of all living humans. Hebrews 2:9-15. Jesus utterly destroyed the Devil and all of his evil works, not living humans. I John 3:8. But because Jesus suffered the eternal spiritual deaths of all living humans and the sins and evil that caused those spiritual deaths, He liberated all living humans from the power of the Devil. Revelation 1:17-18. Jesus won a complete victory over the Devil, not a partial one. The Devil had a claim to hold all living humans in eternal spiritual death, but Jesus broke that claim for all living humans whom He creates and loves. The Devil thought that he would be able to completely ruin forever a part of God's creation when God gave humans free will. But God proved that His Love is real when He chose to sacrifice Himself on a cross to save all living humans, and because of His sacrifice, He will cause all living humans to return of their own free will to faith in, and love for, the "Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world." John 1:29; John 5:24; Revelation 5:11-14. God can never lose anything He has ever created, and His Love can never fail. Ecclesiastes 3:14; I Corinthians 13:8; Luke 20:38; Isaiah 45:21-25; Psalm 111:7-8.