THE VOICE OF THE SON OF GOD

T. Austin-Sparks

"The hour cometh, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice
of the Son of God; and they that hear shall live." (John 5:25)

STUDENTS of John's Gospel will know that chapter 10 marks the end of a series of spiritual truths and principles which are largely individual, and that from then onwards those truths are taken up in a collective way. From chapter 12 the Lord Jesus is found more particularly occupied with the corporate life of His people. Chapter 11, therefore, stands exactly halfway, with ten chapters on either side, and this is the chapter in which Lazarus hears the voice of the Son of God and lives.

After the raising of Lazarus a little group is found with him gathered around the table at a feast made for the Lord Jesus. This company suggests two entities: Israel and the Church. Israel's history will be exactly that of Lazarus. There will be a sickness in which Christ will not intervene. He will deliberately remain away from Israel (as such), even though she is greatly beloved, waiting until there is no further hope except the miracle of resurrection. Israel will "stink" in the nostrils of the world. There will be no ordinary remedy for her. Only by a resurrection as from the dead by the voice of the Son of God will the nation have its glorious future.

Since, however, there is always a double view of the truth in John's Gospel, we may say that Lazarus brings the Church into view typically. The company gathered around Christ after the raising from the dead of Lazarus typifies the Church as the company of those who have their very being by reason of the resurrection miracle. This is quite clearly stated in the most "Church " part of the Bible, the letter to the Ephesians. "You did he quicken when ye were dead through your trespasses and sins ... and made us to sit with him in the heavenlies" (Ephesians 2:1 & 6), which is illustrated by the fact that "Lazarus was one of them that sat at meat with him " (John 12:2). The very heart of this message is found in Christ's words: "The dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God".


FIRSTLY, it is obvious that something more than a typical faculty of hearing is in mind. The dead have no such faculty. There must be a hearing which is not natural, which is deeper and more inward than the natural. Nor is it just that by God speaking some actual result occurs. There must be a hearing for there to be a result. Briefly, then, a living relationship with Christ and its corporate expression, the Church, is the [89/90] result of a hearing of His voice, which is something more than merely human words. It is possible to hear the verbal statement of truth, and to do so many times and over many years, but never really to have heard the Lord's voice. It is possible, after having heard those truths so often and so long, suddenly to hear that Voice, with the result so new and wonderful that it is as though we had never before heard at all.

Living relationship with Christ is not an emotional or intellectual reaction to a presentation of gospel truths, it comes not merely by signing a card or making a "decision". This may have an apparent effect and be overruled and used by the sovereignty of God, but it not seldom adds to what is one of the Church's most difficult problems, namely an unworthy regard for the Christian life with a number of people who claim to have tried it and found that it did not work. The fact that there is much indifference to Christianity today is partly due to the message having been cheapened and vitiated. No, the New Testament insists that the basis of all true spiritual life is by the voice of the Son of God being heard deep down in the human spirit. This may or may not be a matter of actual spoken words, but when it happens the one concerned is truly able to say: "The Lord has spoken to me" or "I know that the Lord has made me aware of His will". It is a voice -- a power -- through words, but it is something more than words.

EVERYTHING depends upon this. "They that hear shall live." Our very life, in the divine sense, depends upon it. Our salvation issues from it. And what is true initially is also valid continuously in principle. There are, of course, obvious and unmistakable duties, but otherwise for all major decisions in life we should listen for the voice of the Lord. Paul based his whole ministry upon this principle. When God speaks in this way, it is not only a case of something being said but of things being done. We who hear that blessed voice know when something has happened in us or to us. Such a knowledge is essential to stability. There are times when people radically change positions which they once held so strongly. After taking up such matters and affirming that they are the greatest things which God has shown them, they subsequently repudiate them and change their whole attitude. If this is not a question of deliberate disobedience, the only reasonable explanation seems to be that in the first place what they believed did not come from heaven but from men. It may have come by some mental or emotional acceptance in which the impact was so strong and so temporarily satisfying that it was taken up in a superficial way. Those concerned were not really broken in soul and humbled before God. Since this was not a hearing in the spirit of the voice of the Son of God it could not last, so the life has become characterised by lack of permanence.

Of course this is quite a different matter from the changes which mark true development and growth. Very big changes may take place in this area, but not in the basic revelation. It is most important that, as to the basic knowledge of the will of God and the revelation of Himself to us, we go on to the end as we started at the beginning, though enlarged and with possible changes of outward features.

Further, in the moment when God speaks to us in Christ, eternity has broken through time, registering lasting values in us. All that belongs merely to time and earth has been suspended, and there is brought into our lives that which was in God's mind "before the world was" even His plans for the ages of the ages. Our very existence is bound up with this. "Upon this moment hangs eternity."

THEN again, it is most solemnly important to recognise that this hearing of the voice of the Son of God is a sovereign act of God, only possible when and as He chooses. Unless God speaks, all men's speaking is dead. Neither those who are in view nor those who are trying to help them can choose the time. That sovereign decision is most clearly seen in Christ's attitude over Lazarus. There were many human factors at work, and the Lord was involved in misunderstanding because of His behaviour; nevertheless He would not move until the time of God had come. The point is this, that when that voice is heard then it is God's moment, and we can never say if or when that time will come again. The Lord Jesus asked: "Why do ye not understand my speech? Even because ye cannot hear my word" (John 8:43). God had spoken and they had not responded, and now they could not hear, even when He spoke to them.

The question may arise as to what is the first and immediate effect of God speaking to us. It will not necessarily be exhilarating. Mere [90/91] exhilaration can be deceptive; it is not necessarily eternal life. There is a great difference between rest, peace and quiet joy and mere excitement. It may more likely be a solemn awe and fearfulness, but with quiet assurance.

The first effect of hearing the voice of the Son of God is the gift of faith. What could not be contemplated before now becomes possible. What we knew to be hopeless, now becomes a living prospect. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy begat us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead" (1 Peter 1:3). It is a resurrection hope. How hopeless and impossible the situation was with Lazarus until he heard the voice of the Son of God! The strain goes out of life when God enters, and the impossible mountains are no longer there.

TWO things remain to be mentioned. If the dead are to hear the voice of the Son of God and live, it will only be the dead who do so. We have seen that the Lord Jesus was very deliberate in His determination that Lazarus should really be dead before He came on the scene. He first used figurative language: "Our friend Lazarus sleepeth", but when His disciples did not appreciate His meaning He said emphatically: "Lazarus is dead". The sisters knew what the state would be ordinarily after four days in an Eastern tomb. Was Lazarus dead? Indeed he was. This was essential to the divine principle. We are at times too much alive in our own efforts, ambitions, activities, etc, to stand a chance of hearing this voice of the Son of God, and as a consequence our works are "dead works", having the life of nature but not the life of God. If the greatest thing that can happen to mortals is to happen to us, we, like Paul, will have to be smitten to the ground to hear that voice (Acts 9:4). There is no hope until we are dead:

"I lay in dust life's glory dead,

And from the ground there blossoms red

Life that shall endless be."

Finally, what is the nature of your relationship with Christ? You may believe in Christian doctrine concerning the deity of Christ and believe it very intensively, but if it is only a doctrine, an objective fact, it will not carry you through the tests which come to all true Christians. Make sure that you have really heard His voice for yourself. You will only truly live if you can say for yourself: "I was brought up out of death by hearing the voice of the Son of God and I constantly find new life by hearing that voice."

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