Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                   Chapter Eight

                                                                                                                                               Verses 41-47

Because of the stubbornness of these Jews and their refusal to learn from the written Word of God or hear Jesus' true preaching about it, Jesus became very blunt and direct with His preaching to them. Jesus boldly told them that they were actually doing the evil deeds of their father because they sought to kill Him. These unbelievers represent all humans who wholly give their lives over to the influence of evil. But even the worst humans still possess a living soul and spirit that God put into them that He can never lose. Ecclesiastes 3:14; Luke 20:38.

These Jews then openly revealed the fact that they had investigated the life of Jesus. They did so to try to find something that they could use against Him. They had learned that Jesus' mother had been pregnant before she married her husband Joseph. Like so many self-righteous and cruel people in history, they implied that something was wrong with Jesus simply because of the way He was born. They were actually accusing Jesus of not being a child of God when they told Him that God was their father, and they implied that Jesus could not be a child of God because they thought He was illegitimate.

Jesus rebuked them by telling them that if God were their Father, they would love Him because He had shown nothing but the love and mercy that the Old Testament taught about God. Jesus preached to them that they could not hear the truth of God's Word because they had wholly given themselves over to practice evil.

Jesus bluntly told them that because they had chosen to be cruel and evil, that meant that the Devil was their real father. The Devil had put the idea into their hearts to murder Him. But even the very best humans have pondered this idea at some time in their lives. Jesus told them that the Devil had always been a murderer and a liar, and they could not hear and believe the truth because they listened only to the lies of the Devil. The Devil and the demons never tell humans anything but lies. They may speak some half-truths, but these are only very clever lies. Genesis 3:5.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                  Chapter Eight

                                                                                                                                              Verses 39-40 continued

Because a blood offering must always precede a burnt offering, God will bring many living humans to faith in that particular seed of Abraham called the Lamb who will wash away all of their sins and evil with the blood He has shed for them on the cross, and He will save them by His grace. Exodus 12:1-11; I Peter 1:18-21.

But through His burnt offering, God has provided a means to a lesser form of salvation for all living humans who do not become saved by grace. Leviticus 5:7-10; I Corinthians 3:11-15. Christ will appear to all living humans confined to the regions of the dead near the end of the world, and in a great worship service in which He will display to them such Holy Majesty and such  Almighty Love for them, that He will cause them all to repent and believe in Him of their own free will. Revelation 5:11-14. Immediately following this great worship service, God will use His fiery wrath against evil, which the burnt offering symbolizes, to dissolve all their systems in order to separate their redeemed, living natures for Him to recreate in body, soul, and spirit to live eternal, righteous lives on His new earth from their dead and evil natures that He will cast into the eternal lake of fire. II Peter 3:9-13; Psalm 75:3; Matthew 13:36-43; Luke 3:16-17. The inner beings of all humans contain both tares and wheat or chaff and wheat.

For all living humans saved by grace, God will give the perfect righteousness of Christ Himself by means of which He can accept them into Heaven to live with Him there forever. II Corinthians 5:21; Romans 8:14-17. God will raise all repentant, living humans from the regions of death, and He will give them the same form of righteousness that He gave to Adam and Eve when He created them, but they will never be able to sin again because God will have purged all evil from His new creations. Revelation 20:5; I Corinthians 15:35-49. God has promised that He will save all living humans that He creates and loves. Genesis 3:20-21; Luke 20:38; I Corinthians 15:22; Ecclesiastes 3:14; I Corinthians 13:8. Christ has promised that He will "make all things new," which must include all living humans since God made "all things." Revelation 21:5. Christ has promised that in the end of the world He will make an absolute separation of all that is good from all that is evil. Revelation 22:11-12.

Because of His great Love for humanity that can never fail, Christ will save forever every human who ever lived even though all individual humans have, at one time or another, desired to murder Him. I Corinthians 13:8. Those Jews who sought to murder Jesus merely represented the desire of every person in the entire human race. Acts 4:25-28.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                  Chapter Eight

                                                                                                                                              Verses 39-40

These Jews protested to Jesus that they were descendants of Abraham as if that were enough to make them right with God. If these Jews had only opened their spiritual natures to learn from their scriptures when they read them, they would have understood that Abraham did some good works, but he also sinned. That fact should have made them realize that sin was Abraham's problem and theirs as well. Genesis 12:10-20.

Jesus told them that if they were Abraham's seed, then they should do the same work that Abraham had done in order to be right with God. Had these Jews paid close attention to their scriptures, they would have learned that Abraham became right with God simply because he believed God's promises that He would give to him and his seed the land that God had promised him for an everlasting inheritance. Genesis 15:1-21; Genesis 17:1-14. These Jews should have noticed that God did not give spiritual righteousness to Abraham because of his good works. God gave Abraham His own righteousness because of his faith. Genesis 15:6. God also gave the rite of circumcision to Abraham and all his seed to symbolize that God would cut the unrighteousness out of Abraham's seed who believed in God's promises to them, and who were faithful to God, and God would replace their unrighteousness with His own righteousness. Genesis 17:9-14.

Abraham had to believe that God would raise him and all of his righteous seed from the dead in order for God to keep His promises to him. Abraham also had to have believed that God would provide some way to remove the unrighteousness from him and all of his faithful seed. Abraham displayed his faith when he told the young men that both he and Isaac would return from the burnt offering on the mountain. Abraham also displayed his faith that God would provide a sin offering for all of his seed who would become saved by God's grace when he told Isaac that God would provide Himself as a Lamb in Isaac's place. Genesis 22:1-18; Hebrews 11:17-19.

Abraham's sin offering and burnt offering were not meant for just Abraham and his seed. God promised Abraham that because of his faith and the faith of his righteous seed, God would provide a way to bring every living human that He ever created to that same blessed faith that will save them either by His grace or by the burnt offering. God will give that same faith to every living human either for salvation by His grace or for resurrection from the regions of the dead for Him to recreate to live forever in their own promised land on God's new earth. Genesis 22:18. Abraham made a burnt offering on Mount Moriah of a ram provided by God which meant that God would provide a higher or a lesser form of salvation for all living humans. God gave this same promise to Noah when He commanded Noah to make the first burnt offering. Genesis 8:20-21. But a sin offering must always precede a burnt offering.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                  Chapter Eight

                                                                                                                                               Verse 34-38

Jesus then clearly preached to these unbelievers that His message was about spiritual liberation from the bondage of sin, not physical liberation. These Jews looked for Jesus to liberate them from bondage to the Romans, and they ignored the fact that their main problem was their bondage to sin and the Devil which their own scriptures taught them.

Jesus used the word "house" as having a symbolic meaning. It seems to have meant all of God's creations, which also could mean the Kingdom of God. God's servants, who happen to be every human who ever lived, cannot stay within the Kingdom of God unless they become saved by grace. They cannot remain within the Kingdom of God because the sin and evil within them causes God to have to consign their living souls and spirits along with their dead and evil natures to the regions of death after their physical deaths. Their living souls and spirits have become stained by sin, and God cannot allow sin and evil to remain within His creations. The regions of death lie outside the Kingdom of God. Psalm 119:89-91; Hebrews 9:27. Physical death, in itself, cannot be a punishment for sin and evil. Physical death merely translates a believer saved by grace to Heaven, or it causes God to have to consign the living souls and spirits of those who have become marred by sin and evil to the regions of spiritual death. But God has a plan to save all living humans confined to the regions of death by bringing them all back to faith in the Lamb of their own free will but with a lesser form of salvation. Revelation 5:11-14; Isaiah 45:20-25; John 11:25; John 5:28-29; Revelation 21:5; Hebrews 9:27.

Every human created in God's image resides within the Kingdom of God and is therefore a servant of God. Luke 17:20-21. Every individual happens to be born with a good and living nature given by God, and with a dead and evil nature injected into them by the Devil. Genesis 1:27; Genesis 1:30; Genesis 2:17; Romans 5:12. But if the living souls and spirits that God has created can become so corrupted by sin and evil that they become lost forever from God's creations in a lake of fire, then God will have lost a part of His creations, and that He cannot do. Ecclesiastes 3:14. Besides that, God has promised that He will "make all things new," which can only mean His entire creations. Revelation 21:5.

When an unbeliever dies, God must cast their living souls and spirits into one of the regions of death because they have become marred and corrupted by sin and evil, which is also spiritual death. But Jesus gives them hope because He abides within His creations forever, which means His Love abides forever. His Love cannot fail. I Corinthians 13:8.

Jesus preached to them that those who commit sin are the servants of sin which would cause them to die in their sins, but He also preached that He had the power to liberate them from bondage to sin and the Devil if they would only believe in His power to do so while they were still alive in the flesh.

Jesus further preached to them that He knew that they were Abraham's seed by which He meant that He knew that they knew that they were God's chosen people and special servants of God, and yet even so, their evil natures within them sought to murder Jesus. The evil natures of all humans have, at one time or another, sought to be rid of God's Love and authority. Acts 4:25-28. That evil desire to murder God nailed Jesus to a cruel cross, but in His great Love for all His living humans, Jesus voluntarily took their sins and evil natures on Himself on a cruel cross so that He could forever rescue and separate their living natures from their dead and evil nature for Him to cast into the lake of fire. Revelation 20:5; Revelation 20:11-15.

Jesus further informed them that He preached in the Will of His Father, but they sought to murder Him because of the evil influence of their father who is the Devil.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                  Chapter Eight

                                                                                                                                              Verses 30-33

By the way these Jews subsequently mocked Jesus and made false accusations against Him, they demonstrated that their faith was shallow and short-lived. In order to become saved by grace, one must commit one's entire life to the service of Christ. Jesus told them that they must commit their lives to faith in His Word in order to become His disciples. Jesus had preached about shallow faith before. Matthew 13:5-6; Matthew 13:20-21. False faith always proves to be ephemeral. It withers and dies.

When Jesus told these Jews that He always did His Father's Will, they evidently misunderstood what Jesus meant. They thought that God would send their Messiah to liberate them from the Romans. They had no concept that the Messiah could liberate them from sin and evil.

But the fact that a shallow faith can wither and die raises the question: Can a person who sincerely repents and commits their life to Christ ever lose their salvation by grace if they fall back into a life of sin? According to the Word of God, they cannot. God knows who sincerely repents and believes and who does not. God will forever save by His grace anyone who sincerely repents and believes even though He knows that in their future that person will fall back into sin. Jesus knew that Peter would deny Him. John 13:36-38. God saved Lot by His grace even though He knew that he would go to live in Sodom. II Peter 2:6-9. God never fails to keep His part of any covenant; that is, an agreement with any human, and He never reneges on any promise that He ever makes. Psalm 89:34; Romans 11:29. God knows exactly how to call every backslider saved by His grace to a renewed repentance and faith in Him. II Peter 2:9; I Thessalonians 3:13; Ephesians 5:25-27. Every living human that God saves by His grace, He saves for His own purposes which no one has a right to question. I Timothy 1:9. Jesus preached that the backslider will become choked and unfruitful by the sins of himself and the world, but he will not wither and die. Matthew 13:7; Matthew 13:22.

Jesus preached to these false believers that if they would ever commit their lives to faith in His Word, which is the Truth, then He would liberate them from slavery to sin and the Devil. But by their response to Jesus' gospel message, they demonstrated that they missed His spiritual message, and they still clung to the idea that Abraham had made them physically free even though at that time they were under bondage to the Romans.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                  Chapter Eight

                                                                                                                                              Verses 27-29

Jesus had already told these unbelievers many times that He came from His Father and that He did the work of His Father. But they could not believe that Jesus came from God because to them God was merely the protector of their authority and the Savior of the nation of Israel. Humans often conceive of a god that they can control. Jesus had told them that they thought they could please God through religious practices, and they had ignored the fact that God's judgment rested on His mercy and faith in Him as being compassionate to repentant sinners. Matthew 23:23; Psalm 51:1-19. Many people use the name of God as a means to gain power over others. For this reason, the scribes and Pharisees could not believe that Jesus came from the Father.

Jesus then revealed to these unbelievers one of the most profound truths that He ever taught. Jesus told His most virulent enemies that when they would have Him nailed to a cross, then deep in their hearts they would know exactly who He was and that His works and His sermons came directly from His Father. This truth that applies to Jesus' worst enemies must also apply to every human who ever lived. God creates every living human in His image and that image has faith to recognize the Word of God when they hear it. Genesis 1:27; Genesis 1:31; Romans 12:3. They may hate it and fight against it when they hear it, but they will always recognize it.

The spiritual death that the Devil has injected into the inner beings of all humans influences all humans with a desire to get rid of God so that they can practice their sinful pleasures and their lust for power over others without any accountability for their evil to a Holy God. Genesis 2:17. To the extent that this evil influences humans, some react with hatred toward God, but others who allow their spiritual natures to somewhat prevail inside themselves, acquire a desire to be rid of their spiritual evil. The former tend to become atheists, but the latter tend to become believers saved by grace. But the spiritual evil in all humans nailed Jesus to the cross. Acts 4:25-28. But Jesus prayed from the cross that His Father would forgive all of them even though they all desired to murder Him. Luke 23:34.

Just as the evil nature of humans influences living humans to commit sins and gives them a desire to get rid of God, the Holy Spirit influences all living humans to allow the faith that God has put in to their good, spiritual natures to trust in Christ as their personal Savior. John 1:9. For this reason, the Holy Spirit has preached the gospel to every human who ever lived or will live. Colossians 1:23. Only the Holy Spirit can preach the gospel. The Holy Spirit can bring living humans who have never heard the gospel and who do not have a Bible to faith in Christ deep in their hearts even though they do not know His name. The doctrine that humans go to Hell because the Church fails to send preachers to preach the gospel to them can only be wrong. The fact that Jesus knows every one of His sheep and can never lose a single one of them belies this doctrine. John 10:27-28. Preachers of the gospel cannot be a part of the gospel. I Corinthians 15:1-4. Nevertheless, the Church should obey God and send preachers and missionaries to preach the gospel to those who have never heard it so that those who have been saved by the Holy Spirit will come to a conscious realization that they have been saved by God's grace, and they will then have a desire to join a church and serve God. Matthew 28:18-20.

Jesus then reaffirmed His preaching that He came from His Father to demonstrate His Father's Love and compassion for a lost human race. Luke 19:10. The living human race would have been lost forever in spiritual death had not Jesus come to earth to save it with a higher and a lesser form of salvation. Hebrews 2:9. If Jesus tasted death for every human then He cannot fail to save every living human whom He creates and loves. Ecclesiastes 3:14; I Corinthians 13:8.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                  Chapter Eight

                                                                                                                                              Verses 25-26

These Jews became perplexed because to their way of thinking Jesus had made outlandish claims about being sent from God and coming from Heaven. So they asked Jesus again who He was. Jesus answered that He had already told them many times who He was, and He had proven who He was by the miracles which He had done.

Jesus then told them that He had many more sermons to preach to them, and He had many more judgments to make about them. Jesus did not tell them that He would judge them as persons because He had said before that He would make no such judgments while He was in the world. John 8:15. Jesus specifically taught that He would make no judgments of humans while He was in the world in His physical from. John 12:47. Jesus made judgments about humans, but He made no judgments of humans. Jesus makes only two kinds of judgments of the beings of humans. He judges the souls and spirits of all humans not saved by grace immediately after their physical deaths to determine which region of death to which He will send them, and He makes His final judgment in the end of the world. Hebrews 9:27; Revelation 5:11-14; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 20:11-15; Revelation 21:1-5; Revelation 22:11-12. Jesus does continuously judge about humans. Jesus preached against human sin and evil, and He warned humans that if they failed to believe in Him as their Savior, then they would die in their sins, but He made no judgments about the fate of the beings of any human while He was in the world. John 12:47-48.

Jesus then taught that He came to preach His Father's gospel, not just to the Jews as their Messiah, but He came to preach the truth of His gospel to the whole world, meaning all mankind, The Jews believed that their Messiah would come just for them, to liberate them from Roman dominance. They must have been shocked and further perplexed when they heard Jesus proclaim that He came to preach a true gospel that He had received from His Father to all mankind, including their enemies. The Jews thought of themselves as being a very special people because they believed in the one true God, and that in the end, God would save only them, and God would condemn all the worthless Gentiles who worshiped idols.