Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                   Chapter Eight

                                                                                                                                              Verses 19-24 continued

With a compassionate heart still, Jesus preached to them that because they adamantly adhered to their materialistic, worldly natures, they were not able to believe that He came from God or that He was their spiritual Savior. Jesus informed them that because of their unbelief, they would die in their sins. But Jesus did not tell them that they would remain in a state of death forever. Hebrews 2:9. Jesus also did not tell them that their living souls and spirits that He had created and put into them would be cast into an everlasting lake of fire. Revelation 20:5; Revelation 20:11-15. If that had been true, then that would have been a message of extreme importance which Jesus would have to have told them.

Jesus also did not tell them that He had a plan to keep alive their living souls and spirits forever. Genesis 3:20; Luke 20:38; I Corinthians 15:22; Psalm 36:6; I Timothy 4:10; Ecclesiastes 3:14. Jesus did not tell them that in the end of the world He would appear to them within the regions of death, and He would cause them to repent and believe in Him as the Lamb of God their Savior of their own free will so that He could use His fiery wrath against evil to dissolve their systems in order to separate their living souls and spirits from their dead and evil natures. Revelation 5:11-14; I Corinthians 3:11-15; II Peter 3:9-13. Perhaps, Jesus only told them that they would die in their sins because He knew that that would be as much as they would be barely able to understand. Perhaps, He also told them that because He hoped they would finally open their spiritual natures to hear and believe His gospel and become saved by His grace. John 5:24.

But there came a time when Jesus did tell an unbelieving Pharisee who had invited Jesus to eat a supper that he should do good works because he would be rewarded for doing so "at the resurrection of the just." Luke 14:12-14. Since this unbelieving Pharisee could not have been saved by grace, then Jesus had to have spoken about the general resurrection in the end of the world. II Timothy 4:1; John 5:28-29. When Jesus said that this would be a resurrection of the "just," He could not have meant the justification that results from salvation by grace. Romans 5:1. Jesus could only have meant that He will raise the repentant soul and spirit of this Pharisee whom He created and loves from the regions of the dead and recreate him with rewards for his earthy good works and with a new life on His recreated earth. John 5:28-29; John 11:25; Revelation 5:11-14; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 22:11-12.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                  Chapter Eight

                                                                                                                                              Verses 19-24

The enemies of Jesus asked Him where His Father was because they thought that Jesus had to have an earthly father. Jesus answered that they could not know His Father because they had paid no attention to the compassion that He had shown to others. Jesus told them that if they had only opened their spiritual natures to see His compassion and miracles, then they also would know His Father. Apparently, these enemies of Jesus had paid no attention to the Old Testament teaching that God is merciful and compassionate. They seemed to think of God as being merely the protector of their self-righteous authority.

By the way these people spoke to Jesus, they demonstrated that they were enraged at Him as much as is possible to hate. Yet, they still could not arrest Jesus, and they did not ask themselves why they were blocked from being able to arrest Him.

Jesus told them that He would go His own way by which He meant that He would be able to continue His ministry until His Father allowed His enemies to arrest Him. Jesus informed them that they would still search for their Messiah because they believed that he would only liberate them from the Romans. But Jesus came to liberate them from sin and evil and the power of the Devil which they could not understand would be their most important liberation possible. Jesus further informed them that because they would not believe in Him as their spiritual Savior, then God would never allow them to live in Heaven with Him. Jesus told them that because of their unbelief, they would die in their sins, but He did not tell them that they would remain in a state of death forever. Hebrews 9:27; Revelation 5:11-4.

These Jews, still thinking solely in material ways, believed that Jesus contemplated suicide. They thought of Jesus as being evil and themselves as being righteous. They probably thought of suicide because they hoped Jesus would commit suicide.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                 Chapter Eight

                                                                                                                                              Verses 13-18 continued

Jesus told His enemies that they judged life only according to their material philosophy. All that mattered to them was their self-glorification, pleasure, wealth, and power over others. They altered or misinterpreted the Word of God to justify their material philosophy. Matthew 23:1-36.

Jesus informed them that He would not judge any man. Jesus meant that He would make no final judgments about any individual human while He was on the earth. John 12:47; John 5:45. Christ has reserved His final judgments about the fate of all humans not saved by grace to the end of the world. John 12:48. Christ will not judge humans saved by grace because He took their judgment upon Himself on the cross. Hebrews 10:12-14; I Peter 1:18-19.

Jesus then admitted that He does make true judgments while on the earth because His Father gave Him the authority to make such judgments. Jesus made judgments about the sin and evil that humans practice, but He made no judgments about the fate of the individual souls and spirits of any humans while He was on the earth. Jesus preached against the sin and evil within humans, and He informed humans that they needed to repent and believe in Him as their Savior from sin, evil, and eternal death. John 3:17-21; John 5:24. In the end of the world, Jesus will appear to all living humans confined to the regions of death and cause them all to repent and believe in Him as the Lamb of God of their own free will. Revelation 5:11-14. Christ then will use His fiery wrath against evil to dissolve all their systems in order to separate their cleansed and forgiven living natures for Him to 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; Matthew 13:47-50; Luke 3:16-17; Numbers 31:23; John 5:28-29; John 11:25; Luke 20:38; I Corinthians 15:22; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 20:11-15; Revelation 21:1-5; II Timothy 4:1.

Jesus then informed His enemies that according to their own law they had to accept the same witness of two men to be true. Jesus knew that they knew deep in their hearts that He bore a true witness about Himself by the compassion He demonstrated and the miracles that He did. Every human knows deep within their living natures that God created to be good the difference between that which is true and that which is false, but the evil natures of humans tries to make the false to be true. Deep within their hearts, Jesus' enemies knew fully well who He was, but they rejected Him because of their evil, stubborn pride in their hearts. The Devil can cause the evil natures of humans to desire to murder God just as the Devil so desires. John 8:44-45

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                  Chapter Eight

                                                                                                                                              Verses 13-18

The Pharisees accused Jesus of being the kind of person who desires only to glorify Himself, not God. So often, people who falsely accuse others of doing wrong happen to be guilty of that same offense. As Jesus clearly pointed out to them, the Pharisees and the scribes used the name of God to glorify themselves and to justify their oppression over those over whom they had authority. Matthew 23:1-36.

Jesus admitted that He spoke about Himself, but He spoke with confidence that He knew the truth because He came from Heaven, and He would return to Heaven. Jesus knew that deep in their spiritual natures His enemies knew that Jesus came from Heaven, but their excessive pride engendered in them by their evil natures would not allow them to become spiritually conscious of the fact that Jesus came from God and would return to God. Jesus knew that the image of God which He creates and puts into every human recognizes the Word of God when they hear it or read it. The men who would have stoned the woman taken in adultery dropped their stones and walked away because of the conviction of the Holy Spirit that awakened their spiritual natures. Humans become very uncomfortable and often very angry when anyone speaks about Jesus because their evil natures cause them to desire to get rid of God and to go their own ways. But Christ holds the power to eventually purge the evil natures from all living humans and return them all to reconciliation with Him. John 12:31-32; Colossians 1:15-23; I John 3:8. Jesus came to utterly destroy all the evil works of the Devil, not living humans whom He creates and loves.

The Devil cannot abandon his rebellion against God because he has become excessive pride itself. He has become totally evil. The Devil knows that the spiritual death that he injects into the inner beings of all humans has the power to engender an excessive pride that will often cause humans to stubbornly reject spiritual truth when they hear it or read it. The Devil desires to murder God so that he can invent his own nasty, moral code, and so do many humans. Nietzche understood that. John 8:44.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                 Chapter Eight

                                                                                                                                              Verse 12 continued

God preached His gospel to the world just prior to His creation of it. God said, "Let there be light" which instantly dispelled the darkness that covered the world. Genesis 1:2-3. God created material light, but that light symbolically represents His spiritual Light which will instantly dispel the evil darkness in the hearts of all believers saved by grace. John 3:21; John 8:12. When God recreates His new Heaven and earth, He will dispel all darkness from His new creations. God will infuse His entire new creations with both material light and spiritual Light. Revelation 21:23-27; Revelation 22:5. God has learned that evil entered His creations through the cover of darkness. God created evil only in the sense that He accidentally allowed evil to enter His creations when He created darkness. Isaiah 45:7. God has an infinite knowledge of only all that is holy and pure. God had no knowledge of evil until it entered His creations through the rebellion of Lucifer. Ezekiel 28:15. God feels guilty about that even though He knows He has no reason to feel that way. Isaiah 45:7. God will infuse His new creations with material light and spiritual Light in order to purge all death and darkness and burn it all in the lake of fire. Revelation 20:11-15. Evil will never be able to enter God's creations again.

God also had the Apostle John to write that His Light will light "every man that cometh into the world." This truth can only mean that God's Spirit will preach the gospel to the hearts of every human who ever lived, and it also means that Christ will light up the dark regions of the dead with His appearance to every living human that He had to confine there in a great worship service near the end of the world. Colossians 1:23; Revelation 5:11-14. The overwhelming Majesty and Love displayed in His appearance will cause all living humans confined there to repent and put their faith in the Lamb of God of their own free will. Christ will use His fiery wrath against evil to dissolve their systems in order to separate their repentant, living natures for Him to recreate with new bodies to live forever on His new earth from their dark and dead natures that He will cast into the lake of fire. Revelation 20:11-15; Luke 3:16-17; I Corinthians 3:11-15; II Peter 3:9-13; Revelation 21:1-5; Psalm 75:3; Numbers 31:23; John 5:28-29; Matthew 13:36-43.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                  Chapter Eight

                                                                                                                                              Verse 12

Jesus returned to preaching boldly about salvation by grace. Jesus proclaimed Himself to be the Light of the world, that is mankind. Jesus preached that whoever would follow Him; that is, believe in Him as their Savior, He would bring them out of darkness; that is, out of the dark evil of the world and into His Light of truth and love. This message from Jesus happened to be very similar to that which He taught Nicodemus. John 3:1-21. To repent and believe in Jesus as one's Savior causes a person to become "born again," that is, to become completely transformed in spirit and soul by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Light, which is the Spirit of Christ, comes into the inner being of the believer and completely dispels all of the dark evil inside that believer and translates that believer into the kingdom of God. Colossians 1:12-14. The Spirit of God completely cleanses that believer's soul and spirit of all sin and evil with the blood of Jesus and forgives that believer and wholly recreates that believer's soul and spirit by giving him or her the perfect righteousness of Christ Himself by the means of which God can accept that person into Heaven to live with Him there forever. Revelation 1:5; I Corinthians 6:11; I Peter 1:2-4; II Corinthians 5:17; II Corinthians 5:21; Romans 8:14-17.

The Spirit's transformation and recreation of the inner being of the believer happens instantaneously the moment that believer repents and believes in Christ as his Savior. The Holy Spirit lights up that believer on the inside which annuls the dark and evil nature of that believer. The believer immediately passes "from death unto life." John 5:24. Once a believer saved by grace has received the very righteousness of Christ which recreates his soul and spirit, then that believer can no longer sin in his or her soul and spirit. I John 3:9; I John 5:18.

But the Spirit does not immediately cleanse and forgive the fleshly nature of the believer saved by grace. The fleshly nature of the believer can still cause that believer to sin. Romans 7:15-25; I John 1:8. The Spirit uses a different method to cleanse and forgive the fleshly sins of the believer saved by grace. The believer must repent of his sins and ask for forgiveness every day. I John 1:9. When he does this, the Spirit washes him clean with the spiritual water that flowed from Jesus' side on the cross and the Spirit forgives him. Jesus shed material water on the cross, but the Spirit transforms that water into spiritual water. John 13:1-11; I John 5:6-8. But this raises the question: Does the believer saved by grace who fails to daily repent lose his salvation by grace? John 10:28-30. The Almighty Power and Love that is God can never lose anything that He ever creates, and He never takes back any gift that He gives. Ecclesiastes 3:14; Romans 11:29. God also never fails to make His Word good. Numbers 23:19. God also never breaks His part of any covenant that he makes with humans. Psalm 89:34. God will cause every backslidden believer to repent of all of his or her sins and become fully sanctified by the Holy Spirit just prior to His Rapture of His Church. I Thessalonians 3:13; Ephesians 5:25-27. Not only this, but the Almighty Power of God has gained complete victory over all sin and evil, and He will purge it all from His creations and recreate it all to be righteous. II Peter 3:9-13; Revelation 1:17-18; Romans 8:18-23; Colossians 1:15-23; Revelation 21:1-5; Revelation 22:11-12; John 5:28-29.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                 Chapter Eight

                                                                                                                                               Verses 1-11

The scribes and Pharisees who brought the woman taken in adultery to Jesus misquoted God's law. They proclaimed that Moses commanded that the woman be stoned to death, but the law required that the man also must be stoned to death. They had not brought the man to Jesus even though they had caught her in the act. Leviticus 20:10; Deuteronomy 22:22.

This action by Jesus' enemies demonstrated that they did not care about enforcing the law as written. They only cared about using the law in order to get a charge against Jesus. They knew that Jesus had demonstrated compassion toward sinners, and they hoped that Jesus would deny the law so that they could get a charge against Him. Instead, Jesus probably wrote the Ten Commandments on the ground so that they could see what He was writing. He then challenged them all who had not sinned to cast the first stone at her. Jesus used the power of the Holy Spirit to bring conviction to every one of them that they too had sinned. Some of them had also probably committed adultery, and they knew in their hearts that they also deserved to be stoned to death. Being in the grip of God's power to awaken their consciences, they all dropped their stones and walked away. They did not repent or believe in Jesus, and they also did not ask themselves what had caused them to walk away. But unknown to their conscious minds, they had just witnessed the power and compassion of God who can bring overwhelming conviction to the hearts of men and who can pardon the penalty of sin without breaking the law.

Jesus then raised Himself from being stooped to write on the ground, and He asked the woman if any man had condemned her. She replied that no man had condemned her. She was relieved that Jesus had saved her from certain death. Jesus told her that He also did not condemn her. Jesus demonstrated that He had forgiven her even though she had not asked Him for forgiveness. This woman could not have been saved by grace because she demonstrated no repentance or faith in Jesus as her Savior. She was simply relieved that she had not been stoned. Yet, Jesus forgave her sin. By doing this, Jesus demonstrated that eventually God will pardon and forgive all sinners, not just those saved by grace.

In the end of the world, God will cause all living souls and spirits that He has created in His image and whom He loves and whom He had to confine to one of the regions of death to repent and believe in Him as the Lamb of God so that He can save them with a lesser form of salvation and raise them from the dead for Him to recreate to live on His new earth. God will use His fiery wrath against evil to dissolve all their systems in order to separate their living natures that He will save from their dead and evil natures that He will cast into the lake of fire. I Corinthians 3:11-15; Revelation 5:11-14; Numbers 31:23; Psalm 75:3; II Peter 3:9-13; Luke 3:16-17; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 20:11-15; Luke 20:38; I Corinthians 15:22.

Jesus also told this woman to "go, and sin no more." Jesus could not have meant just adultery because He told her not to sin at all. But Jesus knew that she could not keep His commandment just as He knew the Israelites, and the rest of humanity, could not keep His Ten Commandments. Jesus meant that she should repent of her sins and strive to live a clean life. Jesus also meant that when she inevitably did sin, she should trust in God's pardon and forgiveness just as the Israelites had trusted in the sin offering and the burnt offering for the pardon and forgiveness of their sins. God's provision for forgiveness happens to be as much of a part of His law as are the Ten Commandments.

This woman did not understand that Jesus had given her an eternal forgiveness, but the next time she sinned she definitely remembered what Jesus had said and that He had rescued her from being stoned. This story illustrates the fact that eventually God will cause all living humans whom He creates and loves to repent of their sins caused by their evil natures and become saved forever either by His grace or by His appearance to them in the end of the world. John 5:24; Revelation 5:11-14. God's creations can never cease to exist, and God's Love can never fail. Ecclesiastes 3:14; Psalm 111:7-8; I Corinthians 13:8.

The Old Testament provides examples of a form of lesser salvation that cannot be by grace. Certain scriptures indicate that God will provide an eternal salvation on the earth for all who fear Him and keep His commandments. This form of salvation cannot be by grace because God gives His grace solely apart from any good works, and God gives humans saved by His grace an eternal home in Heaven, not on the earth. The righteousness that these scriptures speak about can only be the image of God that He puts into all humans. God will preserve His entire creations, including His righteousness that He has put into every human. God will eventually cause all humans to fear Him and obey His commandments which include repentance and faith in Him as their Savior. Psalm 50:23; Psalm 25:12-13; Psalm 37:29; Proverbs 28:18; Proverbs 10:12; Psalm 36:6; Psalm 107:9-15; Psalm 68:18; Psalm 86:9; Isaiah 45:20-25. There are many others.