Verily, verily, I say unto you, that an hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that have heard shall live.
Read Full Chapter →Commentary for this Verse
In John 5 Jesus announces that a new hour has arrived — an hour in which His own voice raises the dead. Two questions follow: who are "the dead," and what makes His voice able to do this?
Who "the Dead" Are
The word is not describing corpses in a graveyard. It describes the people in front of Him — busy, religious, and lifeless toward God.
It is indeed the sad truth: men busy with all the world's activities are here "the dead." The question is not stricter morality or holier religion. They may acquire one or the other or both, and still lack life. Dogma cannot give it any more than practice. It flows from the Son of God, who gives life to whom He will. Yet it comes by faith, through the word which the Spirit applies with living power.
Some take "the dead" here to mean people who have already died. One writer answers that plainly:
It is an inexcusable mistake to apply "the dead" in John 5:25 to those who have died. The phrase describes instead the common condition of fallen mankind, dead in trespasses and sins (Eph. 2:1, 5). "An hour is coming, and is now here" tells us what the Son of God has been doing ever since He came. He works by the gospel, which gives life to those who hear His voice.
The Voice, Not Just the Words
The verse does not say the dead hear His words; it says they hear His voice. One writer points to an example from the book of Acts.
In Acts 13:27 we learn that the people of Jerusalem heard the actual words of the prophets every Sabbath day. Yet they did not know "the voice of the prophets". It is clear, then, that we may hear the words and miss the voice… The voice is the true meaning of the words. It is the message the words contain. The meaning of the voice of the Son of God is the revelation of God in love acting in sovereign grace toward man.
That shifts attention away from a message and onto a Person:
We naturally ask what words they hear. But it is not yet the words that are in question — it is the Voice. There are words, of course; but the point is that the Voice is that of the Son of God. The eye is fixed on the Person who speaks. It is the Son of God who is made known, and the dead become alive by it.
How a Dead Man Can Hear
A dead man cannot hear. One writer takes that objection head-on.
Can a dead person hear? In a natural sense it is a contradiction in terms. Yet Scripture tells us that Lazarus, the widow's son, and Jairus' daughter all heard that voice. So it is with dead souls… The Speaker is the Son of God. And God, in the Person of His Son, gives life. He gives life — not notions, not creeds. Our part is that of faith.
"And Now Is" — The Hour We Are Still In
Jesus says the hour is coming and has already begun. The word "hour" here is not sixty minutes.
The hour here refers to what has been going on ever since Christ was on earth up to this very moment. "The hour" there takes in nearly two thousand years.
Sovereign Grace, and an Open Offer
The Son gives life to whom He will. That ends the long argument about how a person gets life.
A greater blessing was now within the reach of every one, if they would receive it… Here He stated man's condition by nature — dead in trespasses and sins. He declared man's need, and He announced the way to meet it. Man needed what he could never get by his own effort — spiritual life… From now on, all debate about how to get it was over.
The Son of God Now, the Son of Man Later
Christ's work has two stages, and He takes a different title in each.
Next He shows man's real state — not weak only, but "dead" before God. And even now the voice of His Son calls, so that men who have heard may live… For the Son had come. As the Father has life in Himself, so He gave the Son also to have life in Himself. Being man, He receives all from the Father… So He gives life now. At the end He will carry out judgment, by the authority given Him, because He is Son of man.
Summary
- Dead. Not people in the grave, but living people who are dead toward God. No morality or religion can cure it.
- Voice. You can hear the words and still miss the voice. The voice is the meaning inside them, and it reveals a Person acting in sovereign grace.
- Hour. It began when Christ was on earth and has run for nearly two thousand years — we are still inside it.
- Live. No one achieves life; the Son gives it — not notions, not creeds. Faith is our only part.
- Coming. The voice that raises souls now will raise bodies then — He gives life as Son of God, and judges as Son of Man.