Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                   Chapter Fifteen

                                                                                                                                              Verses 26-27

Jesus returned to preaching to His disciples about the Comforter that He would send to them. The Spirit of Christ still inhabits His true Church made up of all believers saved by grace. Believers saved by grace are in all denominations. Some deceived believers may be in the cults. Jesus taught that His Spirit would cause some of His Apostles to remember much of what He had taught them, and His Spirit would inspire them to write the New Testament. John 14:26.

Jesus taught that only the Holy Spirit could preach His gospel. John 16:8-9. Only the Holy Spirit possesses the necessary power to preach His gospel. Jesus taught His disciples, and His Church, that the Holy Spirit would cause every believer to be a witness for Him. Acts 1:8. But just as Jesus was Lord and Master of His disciples, the Holy Spirit is the Lord and Master of His Church. No believer should witness for Christ, and no preacher should ever preach the gospel unless instructed and empowered by the Holy Spirit. Believers should never decide on their own to witness for Christ. John 15:5. When believers witness on their own, it often becomes ineffective, and it may even drive some unbelievers further from faith in Christ. Every believer should pray and seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit as to when they should witness for Him. Souls are won to faith in Christ only at particular times and places as appointed by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit desires that the Church work together as a team. I Corinthians 12:1-31. The Holy Spirit decides how every believer should fit into His Church. The Holy Spirit may require one particular believer's only witness in his entire life to be his baptism in water, and yet, the Holy Spirit may appoint another believer to be an evangelist who preaches and wins thousands to Christ.

The Church, being comprised of weak humans, cannot possess the power within them to preach the gospel to the whole world. But the Almighty Holy Spirit certainly has the necessary power to preach the gospel to every human until God removes Him from the world prior to the Tribulation period. Colossians 1:23; II Thessalonians 2:7-8. But even during the Tribulation, God will not allow His gospel to go unpreached. God will send an angel to preach His gospel during the Tribulation that will last for seven years. Revelation 14:6-7.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                   Chapter Fifteen

                                                                                                                                              Verses 23-25

Jesus then informed His disciples that those who hated Him also hated His Father. Jesus' enemies who sought to kill Him actually hated the God whom they claimed to love.

Jesus had severely rebuked the Pharisees and the Sadducees because they had to a large extent replaced God's Law with their own invented laws that they used to excuse their sins, and they thought of themselves as having made themselves righteous and good when they actually needed to humble themselves to God and repent of their self-righteousness and their oppression of their people. The prideful Pharisees and Sadducees were in the first stages of those who desire to replace the true and living God with their own invented religion that they worship as their god. Humans often make a religion their god. Jesus had reminded them that for a long time they had been guilty of murdering the true prophets of God in order to protect their invented religion. The Sadducees, who were materialists, simply ignored the spiritual teachings of the Old Testament. The Pharisees actually sought to replace the true and merciful God of the Old Testament with their own invented religion that they thought would make them righteous and good. Matthew 23:1-36; Luke 18:9-14.

Jesus taught His disciples that if He had not come to perform the miracles that could only have come from God, and if He had not claimed to His enemies that He was God in human form, then they would have had no sin. The root of all evil is the "love of money." I Timothy 6:10. More people worship money than any other god. This phrase symbolically means that all sins are basically the desire to get rid of God so that one can become one's own god by the means of one's religion or by one's own power to live by one's own immoral code. If Jesus had not come to save all of His living humans by the sacrifice of Himself in their place, then humanity would not have had the opportunity to attempt to murder God. Jesus could not have charged them with having any sins. God would have overlooked their inevitable sins, but their sins would nevertheless still cause them to retain an eternal spiritual death which the Devil had injected into their inner beings. The Devil would still have an eternal claim on their lives. Jesus came to earth to break the Devils claim on all of God's living humans that He creates and loves and to cleanse and forgive them of all their sins that cause spiritual death. Hebrews 2:5-18; I John 3:8; John 5:28-29; Acts 24:15; Revelation 21:5. If Jesus had not come to earth to save humanity, then the Devil would have exercised his right to claim the souls and spirits of all living humans and keep them within the regions of death forever. The Devil would have destroyed a part of God's creation forever. But God can never lose anything He has ever created, and His Almighty Love can never fail. Ecclesiastes 3:14; I Corinthians 13:8.

Jesus reminded His disciples that there were Old Testament prophecies that Jesus' enemies would hate both Him and His Father for no good reason. Psalm 35:19; Psalm 69:4. Prideful rebellion against God happens to be a vain and empty reason to desire to murder Him. This prideful sin and evil within all humans nailed Jesus to the cross. Acts 4:25-28. But Jesus took away all of that prideful sin and evil through His death, burial, and resurrection. John 12:31-32; I John 3:8; I Corinthians 15:1-4; Revelation 5:11-14.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                  Chapter Fifteen

                                                                                                                                               Verse 22 continued

All humans who come to realize that they are deliberate sinners by the conviction of the Holy Spirit when they hear or read the Word of God come under a more severe judgment of God if they reject His salvation by grace. God's judgment comes upon all sinners because as soon as a person realizes by the conviction of their conscience that they have done something wrong, then they immediately acquire spiritual death. But to the same extent that God's judgment comes upon all sinners, the righteousness of One gives the free gift to all humans. The free gift is God's salvation of which He has two forms. God's higher form of salvation is by His grace. God's lesser form of salvation happens when Jesus appears to all of His living humans confined to the regions of death and causes them all to repent and believe in the Lamb of God of their own free will. Revelation 5:11-14. Faith and love that are freely given can only be real because it cannot be programmed. God's Almighty Love and Intellect gives Him the exact knowledge He needs to devise a plan that will save all humans from sin and spiritual death. Romans 5:12-21. God can never lose anything He has ever created, and His Almighty Love can never fail. Ecclesiastes 3:14; I Corinthians 13:8.

When the Law came which is the Word of God, sin abounded because humans became more responsible to repent of their sins because the Word gave them a greater awareness of their sins and evil. But when the entire Word of God came, which was the addition of the New Testament, then grace became more powerful than sin and spiritual death because humans learned about the sacrifice and resurrection of Christ that can save them from sin and spiritual death while still alive in the flesh. But Jesus came to sacrifice Himself to purge all sin, evil, and spiritual death from His entire creation, and rise from the dead victorious over the Devil and all evil. John 12:31-32; I John 3:8; Hebrews 2:9-15; Revelation 1:17-18; I Timothy 6:13; I Timothy 4:10; Revelation 21:5. No verse in the entire Bible (KJB) teaches that if any person rejects the grace of God until their physical death, that person will remain in a burning Hell forever. God will save all living humans from sin and spiritual death either by His higher form of salvation by His grace or by His lesser form of salvation when He appears to all living humans confined to the regions of death and causes them all to repent and believe in Him of their own free will. Romans 5:18-19; John 5:24; Revelation 5:11-14; I Corinthians 3:11-15; Philippians 2:9-11; Genesis 8:20-21; Revelation 21:5.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                   Chapter Fifteen

                                                                                                                                              Verse 22 continued

The Holy Spirit works through the spoken and written Word of God to bring clear conviction to the hearts of sinners that they need to repent of their sins and evil and put their trust in Christ to save them. When Jesus came and preached the Word of God, He used the Holy Spirit to bring conviction to His hearers of their need for repentance and faith in Him. Jesus also authorized the writing of the New Testament so that the written Word of God could be finished so that it could be preached and read so that its convicting power could save lost sinners. Acts 2:37-41; John 14:26.

God has revealed His Word in other ways. God reveals His Word in His creations, but that revelation does not cause the Holy Spirit to bring conviction of sin to unbelievers. Psalm 19:1-6. The first spiritual humans knew that God exists because of His creations, but over time, that sinful pride which causes humans to desire to be independent of God compelled humans to invent their own gods who allowed them to have their own immoral code. Romans 1:18-32.

When God created man in His image, He gave humans a conscience to tell them right from wrong. But the conscience of humans is weak. I Corinthians 8:6-7,10,12. Humans can rationalize their conscience. But humans cannot easily rationalize their spirit when they hear or read the Word of God that tells them they are sinners in need of a Savior. Humans can convince themselves that they have to do wrong in some cases in order to achieve a necessary goal. Only the Holy Spirit can use the power of God's spoken or written Word to bring clear conviction to human consciousness that they are sinners in need of a Savior. John 8:9.

God does not hold humans responsible for their sins and evil who have never heard or read His Word. God knows that they have a weak conscience and that their spiritual deaths within them inevitably causes them to sin. They cannot deliberately sin, like Adam did, because the spiritual death within them compels them to sin. Romans 5:12-14; Acts 17:29-30.

The Bible (KJB) clearly teaches that three different regions of death exist. Revelation 20:13. God created Hell because that happens to be His burning wrath against evil and spiritual death. Deuteronomy 32:22. God also created the Sea into which He casts the separated sins and evil of humans saved by grace, and into which He also casts those sinners who have never heard or read the Word of God because He does not hold them accountable for their sins. But God also cannot accept the spiritual death within them. Micah 7:19. God may have accidentally created the Bottomless Pit because when He created reality out of nothing, He left a non-existent void behind from which emerges all evil that has a negative power that tries to destroy reality. This negative power happens to be less than nothing. Job 10:21-22; Isaiah 40:17; Isaiah 45:7. The Old Testament consistently describes sin and evil as being vanity; that is, emptiness and pride. God probably casts into a burning Hell only those humans who deliberately practice evil and who have heard or read the Word of God. God requires sinners saved by grace to daily repent of their sins because they know the Word of God. I John 1:9.

If God has representations of His spiritual creations in His material world, then the earth and sky could represent the beauties of Heaven. The oceans could represent the spiritual Sea. Volcanoes could represent the burning Hell. God could also have a representation of the Bottomless Pit in the Black Holes in space. Black Holes completely absorb all material reality including light itself. The bottom of a Black Hole can only be an absolute nothingness similar to the Bottomless Pit.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                  Chapter Fifteen

                                                                                                                                              Verse 22

Jesus' teaching in this verse happens to be most difficult to understand. But one can always speculate.

When Jesus said that He came to speak to the unbelievers, He had to have meant that He spoke God's Word. The Holy Spirit gives the spoken and written Word of God great power to bring conviction to the hearts of unbelievers that they are sinners who have offended God and that they need Christ to save them from eternal spiritual death. Romans 10:17. When Jesus taught that if He had not come to speak God's Word to them "they had not had sin," He could not have meant that they would have no sin at all because in the next phrase He said that "now they have no cloak for their sin." Jesus could not have contradicted Himself. Jesus had to have meant by saying "they had not had sin," that without the spoken and written Word of God, they could never gain a clear consciousness of their sin. The Jews had the Word of God but in their attempts to prove their own righteousness, they ignored that part of the Word of God that informed them that they had all sinned against Him. Psalm 51:4-5.

Sin causes spiritual death, and spiritual death causes sin. Romans 5:12. When all humans inherited a weakness for sin from Adam because of free will, that gave the Devil the ability to inject spiritual death into all humans who knowingly sin. Romans5:12-13. For this reason, little children who die go to Heaven because they have not reached an age where they can know that they have sinned. Matthew 19:13-15. Until a person knowingly sins, the Devil cannot inject spiritual death into them. The conscience that God gives to every living human He creates tells them when they have sinned, but if they do not have the Word of God to tell them they have sinned against God, He does not hold their sin against them. Acts 17:29-30. Nevertheless, as soon as a person realizes that they have sinned, the Devil injects spiritual death into them. Romans 5:12-14.

Innocence holds the power to annul sin and spiritual death with it. Jesus proved that in His death, burial, and resurrection. Acts 2:25-31. If Adam had only called on God for help when he learned that Eve had sinned, God could have annulled Eve's sin because she was still innocent even after the Devil had deceived her. She was like a little child. I Timothy 2:14. Eve did not knowingly sin until she gave the forbidden fruit to Adam because she knew it would corrupt him.

Pride happens to be the worst sin that humans can commit because pride is the satanic idea that humans can get rid of God and create their own moral code and their own heaven on earth. Followers of Nietzche and Marx have especially devoted themselves to this type of sin which is also deliberately evil. Evil attaches itself to all sin, but there can be some good in sin as when Adam sacrificed himself to fall to Eve's level so that he could love her and try to protect her. Romans 5:14. But when Adam deliberately sinned because he knew he had disobeyed God' Word, he committed an evil act of rebellion against God because of his pride. Sin and evil can be cleansed and forgiven by God when a person repents and believes in Christ because He bore the sins and evil of all mankind on His cross. I John 2:2. But spiritual death itself, which is totally evil, can never be cleansed and forgiven by God because it never repents. Matthew 12:31-32. Christ will cleanse and forgive living humans saved by His grace with His blood and water He shed on the cross, and He will annul their spiritual deaths. John 5:24. Christ will also use His fiery wrath against evil to cleanse and forgive the rest of living humanity because they will all repent and believe in Him as the Lamb of God of their own free will when He appears to them in a great worship service near the end of the world. Revelation 5:11-14; I Corinthians 3:11-15; Leviticus 5:7-10; Genesis 8:20-21; II Peter 3:9-13. Christ took away the spiritual deaths of all humans when He died on the cross, and He will cast the separated, spiritual deaths of all living humans into the eternal lake of fire in His final judgment. Revelation 20:11-15; Hebrews 2:9-18. In other words, in Christ's final judgment, he will purge all sin, evil, and spiritual death from His entire creation so that He can recreate it all to be wholly righteous. Revelation 21:5; II Peter 3:9-13.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                  Chapter Fifteen

                                                                                                                                              Verses 18-21

Jesus turned from preaching about the mission of His Church, and He began to preach about the relationship of His Church to the world. Jesus informed His disciples, and His Church, that the unbelievers of the world would hate His Church to the same extent that they hated Him. Jesus informed His disciples, and His Church, that they were no longer a part of the world. He had called them out of the world to spiritually inhabit the Kingdom of God. The Church happens to be the Kingdom of God in the world, and the world knows it. The unbelievers of the world can readily see that believers saved by grace are a peculiar people, and they do not like that. I Peter 2:7-10.

Jesus prophesied that the unbelievers of the world would persecute His Church just as they persecuted Him. Jesus' prophecy has certainly come true. The unbelievers of the world have caused His Church to suffer, but not even close to the suffering that Jesus endured on the cross. But Jesus has given His Church a cross to endure so that His Father could give His believers even greater rewards in Heaven. Matthew 16:24; Matthew 5:10-12. Many unbelievers have been brought under the conviction of the Holy Spirit and have been saved by grace when they observed the faithful and patient endurance of persecution by the believers in Christ's Church. Acts 7:58-60; I Corinthians 15:9-10.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                   Chapter Fifteen

                                                                                                                                              Verses 15-17 continued

Jesus then commissioned His entire Church to produce its fruit by which He meant that His Church should preach the gospel to win others to salvation by His grace. Jesus also commissioned His Church to teach the Word of God and baptize in water in order to sanctify those who believe. Matthew 28:18-20. But only the Holy Spirit can bring conviction to sinners who hear or read the gospel that they need to repent and accept Christ as their Savior. John 16:7-11. Preachers never save souls. Only the Holy Spirit, who appoints the preachers to preach, can save by God's grace. But where preachers never preach, the Holy Spirit appoints Himself to bring every human under the conviction that they need a Savior. Colossians 1:23. But because of limitations in their spirits and understanding, those humans who become saved by the direct witness of the Holy Spirit do not become fully sanctified or fully understand who their Savior is until the Church comes to teach them the Word of God and baptize them in water to become members of a local church. Matthew 28:18-20; Acts 9:1-19.

Jesus also taught His disciples, and His Church, that whatever they asked their Father for in His name, He will give them whatever that ask for. Some unbelievers have charged that the Word of God cannot be true because sometimes God does not give believers what they ask for in Jesus' name. But these unbelievers forget that an eternal God provides eternal answers to the prayers of His saints. When saints pray for others to be saved, God saves them all either by His grace or in a great worship service near the end of the world. John 5:24; Revelation 5:11-14. When saints pray for others to be healed, God heals everyone in eternity. God does not answer prayers not prayed according to His Will. But God will give an eternal answer to every prayer that His saints pray according to His Will.

Jesus again commanded that His saints must love each other. The Church of Christ cannot be the light of the world that Jesus commissioned it to be unless His saints love each other as a witness to the world of their faith in Christ. The Church must demonstrate to the world what the power of God's Love can do. John 13:34-35; Matthew 5:14.