JESUS: VOICE / WORD
Everything was created with God’s Word that later became flesh according to John (Jn 1:1-14). So, the voice of the Son of God is powerful.
When Jesus raised the daughter of Jairus, “He took the child by the hand and said to her, ‘Talitha koum,’ which means, ‘Little girl, I say to you, arise!’ The girl, a child of twelve, arose immediately and walked around” (Mk 5:41-42).
When Jesus restored the life of the son of a widow in Nain, he said to the dead body, “‘Young man, I tell you, arise!’ The dead man sat up and spoke, and Jesus gave him to his mother” (Lk 7:14-15).
At the raising of Lazarus on the fourth day of his death, Jesus “cried out in a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come out!’ The dead man came out, tied hand and foot with burial bands, his face wrapped in cloth. So Jesus said to them, ‘Untie him and let him go’” (Jn 11:43-44).
Jesus said, “Amen, amen, I say to you, the hour is coming and is now here when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live” (Jn 5:25). Here the dead can also mean those living people who are spiritually dead.
The spiritually reborn will die and will hear the voice of the Son of God again at his second coming. “The Lord himself, with a word of command, with the voice of an archangel and with the trumpet of God, will come down from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first” (1 Thess 4:16). Jesus said, “the hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and will come out, those who have done good deeds to the resurrection of life, but those who have done wicked deeds to the resurrection of condemnation” (Jn 5:28-29).
Thus, there are two hearings of the voice of the Son of God. The first one is for those physically alive to rise from a sinful death to a spiritual life through a baptism of water and the Spirit (Jn 3:5). The second one will be at the return of the Messiah, to rise from their graves for eternal reward or punishment. Thus, the dead can mean living sinners or those lying in their graves, the voice can be the gospel of Jesus or his last call to life from the graves, and life can be Christian living after baptism or a post- resurrection life to eternity.