>>> Continued from previous message
One cannot divorce this verse from what preceded. Jesus just got done
expressing all that the Father had done is delegating divine authority
to Him. When one hears Christ's word in the gospel, and believes on
"him that sent" Christ, he must embrace all that is encompassed in the
Father sending the Son into the world. They must embrace the Son as of
the same nature, with the same power, with the same authority and
with the same honor. To refuse to do that is not to hear Christ's
word and believe on him who send Christ. Jesus connects His words with
the Father's authority together and what God has joined together let no
man put asunder.
It is in the light of all that has gone before of thus far that our Lord
utters these words that we are seeking to examine:
       25  Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now
      is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they
      that hear shall live.
Now our Lord is going a step back to show what happens to a sinner who
has heard and believed as stated in verse 24. Before we look closely at
this verse it will be of profit to look again at the 24th verse and
examine the tense of the verbs "He that heareth my word, and
believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life,". What we have
here are two present participles "hearing and believing" and a present
tense verb "hath". Our Lord is saying that the one who is hearing
and believing already has eternal life. It does not say "shall
have" or "shall be given". This is significant if we are to compare it
with this 25th verse. Is the voice in verse 25 the same as the word in
verse 24? It is in examining the tenses of the verbs that help us to get
a proper perspective as to what is being said.
We have an aorist participle "those having heard" followed by a
future indicative verb "shall live". This is very significant because
the hearing of Christ's voice precedes the living whereas in verse 24
the hearing of Christ's words is simultaneous with the possessing of
eternal life. This is because present participles (hearing and believing)
express action simultaneous to the main verb which in this sentence
is "hath".
So what we would have here if we put these two verses together:
Christ speaks to the dead soul-they hear-they live (possess eternal life)-
as a result when the gospel is preached they hear with spiritual ears -
believe on Him who sent Christ.
It needs to be given biblical warrent to not only show that the voice is
not the gospel but that it is infact the Spirit of God going forth in
regeneration. A few texts of Scripture will suffice to give ample proof
of this.
The first text that should come to the minds of our readers is John
6:63.
           63  It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth
          nothing: the words that I speak unto you, [they] are spirit,
          and [they] are life.
In this text our Lord is showing that not only is it the Spirit himself
that quickens but thet the words of Jesus are spirit and life. One may
ask whether or not the words of Jesus that he is speaking of is indeed
the gospel. The word translated "words" is he greek "rhema" which is
better translated as an utterance. This coupled with the fact that it
was words that HE SPEAKS that are life is an indication that the Spirit
that quickens, vs 63a, is the same as His words spoken.
Another verse that we are going to compare this verse and our text with
is John 3:8. In that verse Jesus tells us:
           8  The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the
          sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and
          whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the
          Spirit.
What is interesting is that these words can grammatically be translated
as "The Spirit breathes where He desires and you hear His voice, but you
do not know from where He comes and where He goes- so is everyone who is
born of the Spirit." Some interlinear Bibles translated it just that
way. The reason is because the word for Spirit is the same as the word
for wind and the word for voice is the same as the word for sound.
But is that contextually correct. It is out opinion that the context
would seem to better translate the verse as our translators did. But we
believe that it is no coincidence that the use of voice and sound as
well as Spirit and wind are interchangable. It is possible that our Lord
could have been driving home the very truth that is expressed in John
5:25 an 6:63. A careful meditation on the interlinear reading in light
of our study will be of profit to our readers.
One final text to compare is John 10 where Jesus repeatedly speaks of
the Sheep hearing His voice. There are a few verses in that chapter and
it would beyond the scope of this study to examine them all but one
verse will drive home the point. Verse 27 reads thus:
           27  My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they
          follow me:
All of the sheep of Christ, His elect, will hear His voice which is
Spirit and life and will come forth and follow Him in repentance in
faith.
In the light of these three passages in John's gospel we will leave it
to the readers own conscience as to whether or not there is enough
scriptural evidence for the voice of Christ being the work of the
Spirit.
In the next verse our Lord gives further  reasons why He has this power
and authority to call dead sinners to life:
       26  For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to
      the Son to have life in himself;
This verse is connected with the subordinating conjuctions "for even as"
stating the direct connection between the two verses. As the Father is
the possessor of life, seing that He is the self existent one the
"I am", so is Christ himself. He can speak life to dead sinners because
He himself is life.
Then to further buttress this he says:
       27  And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because
      he is the Son of man.
Note the co-ordinating conjunction  "and" that connects His possession of
life in himself with the authority to execute judgement. This is an
interesting connection because it points back to verse 21 and 22. There
Jesus mentions the Son's authority to quicken whom he will and his
judicial authority. Here he mentions the power of life in himself and
then He says He has authority to "execute judgement also". The also
points to something else. It would appear to point back to that 22nd
verse where he says the Father "committed all judgment unto the Son".
Here he states that He has authority to "execute" that judgement. The
reason He gives for this authority to execute judgement, which I think
is an allusion to the great white throne, is "because he is the
Son of man." Up to this point he used the "Son of God" which spoke of
His deity but here he is referring to is full humanity. Because he is the
God-man He is able to be the judge of both the living and the dead.
Next note the close connection the next verse has to all this.
His authority to execute judgement is expressed in what follows:
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 þ SLMR 2.1a þ "The the Word was God"
--- FLAME v1.1
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