The Voice That Empties Graves Text: John 5:25-30
Introduction: The Decisive Word
We live in a world that is drowning in noise. We are bombarded by a cacophony of voices, all clamoring for our attention, all demanding to define our reality. The voice of the news anchor, the voice of the celebrity, the voice of the algorithm, the voice of our own disordered desires. And underneath all of it is the low, constant hum of the secular assumption that the final word, the one that silences all others, is the flatline. For the modern man, death is the ultimate reality, the great silencer. It is the period at the end of a meaningless sentence.
Into this din, Jesus Christ speaks. And when He speaks, His voice does not add to the noise; it cuts through it with the authority of a creator and a judge. His voice is the signal, and everything else is noise. In the passage before us, Jesus makes one of the most staggering claims in all of Scripture. He claims that His voice has absolute authority over the realm of the dead. He claims that His voice is the decisive reality, the one that determines whether a man lives or dies, not just for seventy years, but for eternity.
He speaks here of two resurrections. One is happening right now, in this present age. The other is coming at the end of all things. But both are accomplished by the same instrument: the voice of the Son of God. The central issue for every human being who has ever lived is therefore a simple one. Have you heard His voice? Because one way or another, you will. The only question is whether you hear it now as a call to life, or whether you hear it then as a summons to judgment. Your response to the first call determines your standing at the second.
The Text
Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself; and He gave Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, and will come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment. I can do nothing from Myself. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.
(John 5:25-30 LSB)
The Resurrection That Now Is (v. 25)
Jesus begins with a solemn declaration, underscoring the gravity of what He is about to say.
"Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live." (John 5:25 LSB)
The double "truly" is a divine underlining. Pay attention. This is not speculation; this is revelation. He then uses a classic biblical construction: "an hour is coming and now is." This is the tension of our age, the "already and not yet" of the Kingdom of God. The final hour is coming, but in the person and work of Jesus, that hour has broken into the present. The future has invaded our time.
But who are these "dead"? Given what He says later about those "in the tombs," it is clear He is not talking about physical corpses here. He is talking about the spiritually dead. He is talking about us. Paul tells us in Ephesians that before Christ, we were "dead in our trespasses and sins" (Eph. 2:1). This is not a state of being merely sick or wounded or in a spiritual coma. It is a state of being spiritually a corpse. A corpse cannot assist in its own resurrection. It cannot respond, it cannot choose, it cannot cooperate. It can only do one thing: decay.
Into this graveyard of humanity, the Son of God speaks. And when He speaks, something happens. "Those who hear will live." This "hearing" is not a simple auditory event. The Greek word implies a hearing that receives, that understands, that obeys. It is an effectual hearing. It is the same voice that said "Let there be light," and there was light. It is the voice that called Lazarus out of his tomb. When Jesus speaks to a dead heart, He does not offer a suggestion. He imparts life. This is the new birth. This is regeneration. It is the first resurrection, a spiritual one, from the death of sin to the life of righteousness.
The Authority of the Son (v. 26-27)
Jesus then explains the foundation of His authority to give life and to judge.
"For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself; and He gave Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man." (John 5:26-27 LSB)
Here we have the doctrine of the Trinity in miniature. The Father has "life in Himself." This is divine aseity. He is the uncreated, self-existent source of all being. He depends on nothing and no one for His life. Then, in a mystery that transcends our reason, He has granted that this same quality of self-existent life be in the Son. This is not the Son becoming divine; it is a statement about the eternal relationship between the Father and the Son. The Father is the fountain of the Godhead, and the Son is the eternally begotten of the Father, sharing the one divine essence. As the God-man, Jesus is the conduit of this divine life to us.
And because He has life, He also has the authority to judge. This authority is given to Him specifically in His capacity as the "Son of Man." This is a direct, unmistakable reference to Daniel 7, where "one like a son of man" comes to the Ancient of Days and is given an everlasting dominion, glory, and a kingdom. The Jews listening would have understood this. The Son of Man is the Messianic title for the final, righteous judge of all the earth. The beautiful irony is that He is qualified to judge humanity precisely because He became a man. He is our kinsman-redeemer and our perfect representative. The one who will sit on the great white throne is not a distant, abstract deity, but the man Christ Jesus.
The Resurrection That Is Coming (v. 28-29)
If the first resurrection was not astonishing enough, Jesus tells them not to be surprised, because something even more universally visible is on its way.
"Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, and will come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment." (John 5:28-29 LSB)
The "hour that now is" was for the spiritually dead. This "hour that is coming" is for the physically dead. Notice the scope: "all who are in the tombs." This is universal. Every person who has ever lived and died will be included. There are no exceptions. The voice of the Son of God will penetrate every grave, every urn of ashes, every watery depth. That voice will reanimate every corpse and reconstitute every body.
But they do not all come forth to the same destiny. There is a great bifurcation. There are two, and only two, final destinations. There is a resurrection of life and a resurrection of judgment. This is not annihilation for the wicked; it is a resurrection to face judgment, a body suited for eternal damnation.
Now, we must be careful. Jesus speaks of "those who did the good deeds" and "those who committed the evil deeds." A superficial reading might lead one to believe in salvation by works. But that would be to rip this verse out of the context of the entire Bible. The good deeds do not cause the resurrection of life; they are the evidence of it. They are the fruit of the first resurrection. Those who have been made alive by the voice of the Son of God (v. 25) will inevitably, though imperfectly, begin to do good works. Their lives are changed. Conversely, those who commit evil deeds demonstrate that they never experienced that first resurrection. Their works are the fruit of a dead and rebellious heart. Your works do not save you, but they are the public evidence of whether or not you have been saved.
The Perfect Standard of Judgment (v. 30)
Finally, Jesus affirms the absolute righteousness of His coming judgment.
"I can do nothing from Myself. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me." (John 5:30 LSB)
This is our great assurance of perfect justice. Human judges are fallible. They can be bribed, they can be deceived, they can be ignorant, they can be motivated by personal ambition or prejudice. Christ's judgment is not like this. He states that He does nothing "from Myself." His judgment is not an independent, arbitrary act. He judges as He "hears" from the Father. There is a perfect, unbroken unity of will within the Godhead.
Because He does not seek His own will, but the will of the Father who is the ultimate standard of goodness and righteousness, His judgment is therefore perfectly and unimpeachably righteous. There will be no appeals on that final day. There will be no mistrials, no overlooked evidence, no biased juries. Every thought, word, and deed will be judged with perfect clarity and perfect justice by the one who is perfectly aligned with the will of God. For the believer, this is a comfort. Our case has been settled out of court, paid for by the blood of the Judge Himself. For the unbeliever, this is a terror. There is no escape from the verdict of a perfectly righteous God.
Conclusion: Two Calls, Two Destinies
So we are left with this stark reality. There are two resurrections, and both are initiated by the voice of Christ. The first is spiritual, happening now, when a sinner dead in his trespasses hears the gospel call and is given life. The second is physical, happening at the end of the age, when all the dead are raised from their graves.
Everything hinges on the first. If you hear His voice now, in the call of the gospel to repent and believe, you are given a life that death cannot touch. And when you hear His voice on that final day, it will be a call to enter into the fullness of that life, a bodily resurrection to glory. Your judgment is past; it was borne by Christ on the cross.
But if you refuse to hear His voice now, if you harden your heart and remain in your spiritual death, you will still hear His voice on that last day. You cannot avoid it. But it will not be a call to life. It will be a summons from the tomb to the courtroom, a resurrection not of life, but of judgment. It will be the voice of the one you rejected, now acting as your righteous and inescapable judge.
The hour "now is." His voice is going out in the preaching of this Word. The call is for the dead to hear and live. Do not marvel. Listen.