Q: What resurrection did Jesus mean when he said in John 5: 25, "Very truly I tell you, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. 26 For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself".  Is this the first resurrection mentioned in Revelation 20:6, or is it the final physical resurrection in which Paul talks about the redemption of our bodies (or physical bodies)?

Ephesians 2: 5, "made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,"
Colossians 2: 12, "having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead."
Colossians 3:1, "Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God."

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A:  The context in which Jesus spoke the words at John 5:25, explains what he meant when he said that "the dead" who hear the voice of the Son of God "will live". Is Jesus talking about the future first resurrection? or the general resurrection of the righteous and the unrighteous"? or is it even a "resurrection" that he is referring to? (John 5:28,29; Acts 24:15; Luke 20:37,38) Quoting from the English Standard Version Bible, Jesus said: “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live." (John 5:24,25; ESV)

To understand what Jesus meant, we need to consider the circumstances under which he said those words, and to whom he was saying them. 

Jesus had cured a man on the Sabbath day who had been sick for thirty-eight years and unable to walk. Rather than rejoice over the miracle that he had just performed, the Jews were outraged because he had done it on the Sabbath. The apostle John tells us that "on this account the Jews went persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things during the Sabbath." When Jesus addressed their accusation by telling them that "My Father has kept working until now, and I keep working," they "began seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath but he was also calling God his own Father, making himself equal to God." (John 5:5-18) Now consider: would Jesus be talking about the "first resurrection"―which is for the holy ones who will rule with him in his kingdom―to those who rejected him and were seeking to kill him? Not a chance! (Compare Matt. 7:6; 13:11; 19:27,28; Rev. 20:4, 6; Dan. 7:18)

If Jesus is not talking about the first resurrection, is he perhaps pointing to the future resurrection of "the righteous" and "the unrighteous" that he mentions in verses 28 and 29, where he says: "Do not marvel at this, because the hour is coming in which all those in the memorial tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who did good things to a resurrection [ana′stasis] of life, those who practiced vile things to a resurrection [ana′stasis] of judgment"? (John 5:28,29; Acts 24:15) In verses 24 and 25, which we are here discussing, Jesus does not mention any resurrection [ana′stasis] of the dead, as he does in verses 28 and 29; but he is simply telling the unbelieving Jews that "the dead" who hear the voice of the Son of God "will live"; yes, that whoever hears his voice and believes him that sent him, namely, God, will not come under judgment but has passed over from death to life.

That he is not talking about a future resurrection is clear from the fact that he is telling the Jews that this is already occurring in the case of those who are listening to him. When Jesus says in verse 24, according to the New World Translation, "He that hears my word and believes him that sent me has everlasting life, and he does not come into judgment but has passed over from death to life," he is speaking in the present tense. That is why other translations render his words as, "has passed from death to life" (ESV); "has already crossed over from death to life" (CJB); "have already gone from death to life" (CEV); "have already left death and have entered into life" (ERV); "has been transferred out of mavet (death) into Chayyim (Life)" (Orthodox Jewish Bible). 

In verse 25, Jesus says further: "Most truly I say to you, The hour is coming, and it is now, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who have given heed will live." (NWT) Some scholars view the words "and it is now", or "and is now here", as an interpolation since they are missing in the oldest manuscripts; and although a copyist may have taken the liberty to add the words, they are not out of harmony with Jesus' words in the previous verse.

Jesus was impressing on the Jews who refused to listen to him the importance of exercising faith in him because their relationship with God was at stake, and so was their prospect of everlasting life. In harmony with this, he told them on another occasion: "Therefore I said to you, You will die in your sins. For if you do not believe that I am he, you will die in your sins." (John 8:24) The Jews prided themselves as a righteous people, in contrast to the Gentiles, because they were Abraham's children and had God as their Father. But Jesus set them straight about their relationship with God when he told them: "If you are Abraham’s children, do the works of Abraham. 40 But now you are seeking to kill me, a man that has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do this. 41 You do the works of your father.” They said to him: “We were not born from fornication; we have one Father, God.” 42 Jesus said to them: “If God were your Father, you would love me, for from God I came forth and am here. Neither have I come of my own initiative at all, but that One sent me forth. 43 Why is it you do not know what I am speaking? Because you cannot listen to my word. 44 You are from your father the Devil, and you wish to do the desires of your father. That one was a manslayer when he began, and he did not stand fast in the truth, because truth is not in him. When he speaks the lie, he speaks according to his own disposition, because he is a liar and the father of the lie. 45 Because I, on the other hand, tell the truth, you do not believe me. 46 Who of you convicts me of sin? If I speak truth, why is it you do not believe me? 47 He that is from God listens to the sayings of God. This is why you do not listen, because you are not from God.” (John 8:39-47)

Jesus' message to the unbelieving Jews was very clear: If they refused to listen to him they would die in their sins for having rejected the only means by which forgiveness of sins is possible; and rather than be reconciled to the One whom they claimed as their Father, they had in reality the Devil for their father. (John 3:16; Acts 4:12; Rom. 5:8-11) The Jews viewed themselves as righteous, and yet Jesus told them in effect that they were dead in their trespasses and sins, and without God. Only by accepting him could they pass over from death to life, not in some future resurrection, but right now as his apostles had already done. The apostle John writes: "See what sort of love the Father has given us, so that we should be called children of God; and such we are. . . We know we have passed over from death to life, because we love the brothers. He who does not love remains in death." (1 John 3:1, 14; John 13:35)  

If the Jews―God's covenant people―were dead without Christ, how much more so would people of the nations be dead in their sins and trespasses without Christ, people who were "alienated from the state of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise," and who "had no hope and were without God in the world." (Eph. 2:11-13) That is why Paul explains in his letter to the Ephesians: "You were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the [flesh] and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest [of mankind]. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus." (Eph. 2:1-7; ESV)

All of us were "dead" in our sins and trespasses before we responded to the voice of Jesus, at which time we became "alive together with Christ"; and on account of our faith in his shed blood―the "blood of the covenant"―we have become reconciled to God by the forgiveness of our sins. (Matt. 26:28; 2 Cor. 5:19) Jehovah has "raised us up," not in a future resurrection, but right now, raising us up from the condemnation of death to a position of glory as his sons and daughters; for we are alive to him now, and can look forward to the everlasting life that Adam lost for us by his rebellion, but which Jesus has bought back. (2 Cor. 6:16-18; Gal. 3:26)

It should be noted that nowhere in the Scriptures is the word "resurrection" [ana'stasis] ever used in connection with this "passing from death to life"; nor is it a being "born again." We are "reconciled" to God according to his original promise, which he made immediately after the rebellion in the Garden of Eden when he expressed his purpose of "undoing the works of the Devil" by means of the Seed, which was fulfilled in Christ Jesus. Our reconciliation is according to God's purpose, and it originates with God. For that reason the Scriptures say that we "were born, not from blood or from a fleshly will or from man's will, but from God." (John 1:12,13) The words "born" and "originate" are used interchangeably by the apostle John when he writes: "Everyone who has been born from God does not carry on sin, because His [reproductive] seed remains in such one, and he cannot practice sin, because he has been born from God. The children of God and the children of the Devil are evident by this fact: Everyone who does not carry on righteousness does not originate with God, neither does he who does not love his brother." "We originate with God. He that gains the knowledge of God listens to us. . . and everyone who loves has been born from God and gains the knowledge of God." "We know that every person that has been born from God does not practice sin, but the One born from God watches him, and the wicked one does not fasten his hold on him. We know we originate with God, but the whole world is lying in the power of the wicked one." (John 3:3, 7,8; 1 John 3:8-10; 4:6,7; 5:18,19) We are not "born again" as Jesus said to Nicodemus (for Jesus meant something entirely different from what we are here discussing), but we are "reconciled" to God and "declared righteous for life," having already passed from death to life! (Rom. 3:23-26; 5:9-11, 18,19)

Should any one of us fall asleep in death, God does not consider us to be "dead" but merely asleep in the dust, with the assurance that he will awaken us in the resurrection yet to come. The "holy ones" who will rule with Jesus in his kingdom will have a share in the "first resurrection"; while all those who are alive to God now can confidently look forward to the "resurrection of life", which will take place under the rule of God's kingdom to which all of God's faithful men and women of old looked forward to as well. (1 Cor. 15:20-22; 1 Thess. 4:13,14)

Throughout the Scriptures God tells us that the righteous ones are alive to him, and that he cares for them and protects them, and listens to their prayers. But that is not the case with anyone wicked who refuses to listen to Jesus and lacks faith in God, for they are dead to him. (Luke 9:60) Also, we should not presume to be "alive" to God simply because we profess to have faith in Jesus. To the congregation in Sardis Jesus wrote: “I know all the things you do, and that you have a reputation for being alive—but you are dead. Wake up! Strengthen what little remains, for even what is left is almost dead. I find that your actions do not meet the requirements of my God. Go back to what you heard and believed at first; hold to it firmly. Repent and turn to me again. If you don’t wake up, I will come to you suddenly, as unexpected as a thief." (Rev. 3:1-3, NLT; Psalms 1:6; Prov. 15:29; Luke 20:37,38; Matt. 7:21-23)

Yes, a person can be alive though he is dead and asleep in the grave; while someone can also be dead although alive.
 

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