Jesus Today. . .

THE VOICE OF THE SON OF GOD

The Greeks and the Romans conceived of their gods in terms of seeing them, and thus they carved their likenesses in wood and stone, some noble and some ignoble. The Greek gods were usually handsome, not unlike the Greeks themselves, while the Roman gods were often horrendous and fearful to behold. But it was common in ancient religions for the gods to be seen in one way or another and for their likenesses to be carved into images of all sorts.

Our forebears of the Old Covenant Scriptures were unique in that they were persuaded that “no man hath seen God at any time,” but they were persuaded that He had spoken to certain ones among them. While there was for a long time a proclivity toward idolatry, which found the Israelites carving gods of wood and stone and even gold, after the order of their pagan neighbors. Still they never dared to form a likeness of Yahweh God, for no man could look upon Him and live. Nonetheless His voice could be heard sometimes by certain ones.

Once the last vestige of idolatry had been burned from Israel through long years of captivity, they became fanatical about anything that even approximated a likeness of a god. Jewish leaders would not even allow the Romans to bring their ensigns into Jerusalem since they had images upon them, and when Pilate allowed them to enter anyway, they constrained him to remove them. Wallpaper was an ancient art, but the Jews had nothing on their walls that resembled an image. Gods that could be fashioned by men’s hands were false, they were persuaded, and they were devoted to the God that could be heard but not seen.

True, there were manifestations of Yahweh’s presence, epiphanies the theologians call them, such as Moses’ experience before the burning bush. It is significant that the narrative reads, “God called to him out of the bush, ‘Moses, Moses’” (Ex. 3:4). All Moses saw was a bush aflame, but he actually heard the God of heaven call to him by name. In the case of Elijah in the cave (1 Kgs. 19) we are told that “Behold, the Lord passed by,” and the prophet looked for him in the windstorm, then in the earthquake, and then in the fire. Elijah sensed His presence but He was in none of these phenomena. Then there came “a still small voice.” At the presence of the voice the prophet wrapped his face with his mantle and stood in the presence of God. But he saw nothing. He heard the still small voice. “Behold, there came a voice to him, and said, ‘What are you doing here, Elijah?’” (verse 13).

Over and over again in Scripture the phrase appears “The word of the Lord came to _______.” Such as in Hosea 1:1: “The word of the’ Lord came to Hosea” and Joel 1:1: “The word of the Lord came to Joel.” Sometimes a prophet “saw” the word, if not God, as in Isa. 2:1: “The word which Isaiah the son of Amos saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.” It was Jeremiah that made it personal: “Now the word of the Lord came to me, saying.” And the cry of the prophets was, “Hear the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob,” as in Jer. 2:4.

They were persuaded that the power of the word was the power of God. The reason why all the earth was to stand in awe of Yahweh was “For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded and it stood forth” (Ps. 33:8). They were persuaded that “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all their host by the breath of his mouth” (Psa. 33:6).

It would have to follow therefore that “In the beginning was the word.” It could never read In the beginning was the computer or In the beginning was General Motors. What could have been in the beginning except God’s word? At last that word was revealed in the flesh, in the person of Jesus Christ, a man. In an oblique way God could now be seen: “He who has seen me has seen the Father” (Jn. 14:9).

Still it was the voice of God that was the arbiter even in the mission of the Messiah: “In many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets; but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son” (Heb. 2:1-2). Even with the Christ it was the testimony of God that mattered: “If I bear witness to myself, my testimony is not true, there is another who bears witness to me, and I know that the testimony which he bears to me is true” (Jn. 5:31).

Thus the word of the Messiah was the word of God speaking through him, and it was Jesus’s word more than his presence that made the difference in people’s lives: “You are already made clean by the word which I have spoken to you” (Jn. 15:3). There are suggestions that the presence of Jesus was not sufficient, but that he must speak words, as in the faith of the centurion: “But say the word, and let my servant be healed” (Lk. 7:7).

All this can serve as background for one of the most exciting truths in Scripture, which points to the power of the voice of the Son of God: “Truly, truly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live” (Jn. 5:25). Since he had just given the promise of eternal life to those that believe (verse 24), we may conclude that he is referring to the righteous dead in verse 25. The believers in their graves will hear the voice of the Christ and live.

When this truth quickened the minds of his hearers, Jesus went on to say: “Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come forth, those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment” (verse 29).

This clearly refers to both the righteous and the unrighteous. It is a sobering thought that it will be on this occasion that the wicked will for the first time obey the voice of heaven’s envoy to earth. From their graves they will hear the voice of the Son of God, not unlike Lazareth who heard the Lord’s cry, Come forth! But they come forth to be judged. The righteous will hear his voice and will come forth to “the resurrection of life.”

It is to be regretted that the old doctrine of “no soulism” and “no judgment for the wicked,” as Alexander Campbell described it in his confrontation with J. B. Ferguson, continues to be taught, even among the heirs of the Stone-Campbell Movement. Both books and bulletins are declaring that there is no hell, that the wicked dies like a dog dies and simply ceases to exist, for man has no immortal soul. The term hell only symbolizes this kind of destruction.

While I would grant that we do not have immortal souls but rather we are immortal souls or spirits and have bodies, I strongly disagree with the doctrine that the grave marks the end for the wicked. Apart from all else that might be said on the subject, I rest my case on the words of our Lord in the verses under consideration. Jesus says that all who are in the tombs will hear his voice, and the word for all in the Greek is emphatic. All will obey his voice and come forth, the righteous and the unrighteous alike, some to a resurrection of life and some to a resurrection of judgment. It is difficult to see how language could be any plainer than that.

Perhaps Acts 24:15 makes it equally clear: “having a hope in God which these themselves accept, that there will be a resurrection of both the just and the unjust.”

Yet we are assured by recent publications, one by a respected Church of Christ minister, that death marks the end for the unrighteous, that there will be no resurrection, no judgment, and no hell, for the promise of a resurrection is only for the righteous. It must be granted that the call of the Son of God to the wicked in their graves is hardly a “promise,” for it is rather the call to judgment.

We give the wicked disbelievers (notice that I did not say unbelievers, for there is an important difference) a false security when we teach them that their rebellion against the God of heaven can be no more serious than physical death. Paul spoke of the judgment to come in such terms that even kings were disturbed (Acts 24:25). Should we speak otherwise? It would be good news of sorts if those in rebellion against God had no more to worry about than dying and ceasing to exist. The old philosopher Socrates was persuaded that this kind of death, ceasing to exist, would be better than life as man now knows it.

But the voice of God that first spoke to man in the garden of Eden will speak to him in his grave. The Son of God will call to all those in their graves and they shall come forth, all of them. But he calls them to different destinies. Some he calls to life eternal, a blessed fellowship with the Father; others he calls to judgment.

The words of Jesus are thus words of judgment as well as of hope, depending on the response we make to what heaven has done in our behalf. “He who rejects me and does not receive my sayings has a judge,” Jesus told his hearers, “the word that I have spoken will be his judge on the last day” (Jn. 12:48).

Such teaching should bring us to our knees. If we heed his word now we shall live. And what a blessed hope! It need not be otherwise. But those who choose to make it otherwise will one day heed his voice nonetheless, from their graves. - the Editor