85. Live
John 5:25 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.
We shall live! We shall live now and we shall live forever after temporal death. The Gospel of John is full of this promise to Live, to have eternal life now and forever. The hour is coming and now is: the hour is both now and later. Since believers have the Life now, this Life is eternal and so believers will have it later as well.
The promise of living is usually connected with believing and with hearing. Those who hear will live, both immediately and after this age. Faith comes from hearing. Hearing the Gospel message precedes believing, and the very hearing causes the believing. Hearing > Faith > Life. One leads to the next leads to the other. We can think of the “voice of the Son of God” coming to us at three different times: 1) when Jesus is living as a man on the earth He preaches the Gospel and announces the kingdom; 2) when Jesus speaks during our lifetime, and we hear the Gospel and are passed from death to life immediately in our time on earth; 3) when Jesus returns to earth at the Second Coming the voice of the Son of God will ring out for all the earth to hear, and when it happens the dead will live at the Resurrection.
Since it so important to hear the voice of the Gospel it would certainly behoove us to hear the Word of God (Jesus speaking) as often as possible: every Sunday in church; every day in our personal conversation with God; every opportunity to be in the Word and in Bible study. Every time we hear the voice of the Son of God the dead will live. The first submission we need is to the truth that we are dead in sin and it is impossible for us to live. The second submission we need is to the truth in Christ that the Lord Himself raises us to live, really live. I was dead in trespasses and sins, but God made me alive together with Christ. The good news of this promise: I can live in newness of life today.