After Jesus has asked God to glorify His name, God speaks audibly from heaven. What follows this miraculous incident is very instructive for us today.
They are still blind
Even though God spoke audibly from heaven, they still did not see the truth. Some even decided that God’s voice must have been thunder. Others decided that an angel was speaking to Jesus even though Jesus is clear that God was speaking to them. We so often place our hopes in things which God has not ordained to bring salvation. Even if God spoke audibly to you or someone else it would not deliver you or them from their spiritual blindness.
God’s voice exposed their judgment
Jesus is emphatic that this voice came for the Jews and Greeks gathered around Him, not for Himself. He declared that now was the judgment of God. In John 3:19 Jesus tells us that what exposes our condemnation is our refusal to come to the light. This voice was not given to show them the way; it was given to show them that they were lost and under God’s judgment. They were so far from God that they could not even recognize God’s voice. In just a few short days they were going to look the Son of God square in the face and yell for His crucifixion.
Jesus’ death brings freedom
The people were under the bondage of Satan, and they were powerless to leave. Jesus’ death was going to smash Satan so that the people of God might be delivered from bondage. It is only the preaching of the cross that will deliver men from Satan’s power.
Jesus’ death brings salvation
Jesus’ death on the cross would draw both the Greeks and Jews to salvation. Those who were unable to discern God’s voice would only be saved by Jesus’ death. It is this proclamation of the Gospel that draws men to Christ and saves them from their sin. Nothing else can open the eyes of the blind. Nothing else can change a sinner’s way. It is only the proclamation of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Application
Will you proclaim the Gospel?
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