33 Therefore Pilate entered again into the Praetorium, and summoned Jesus and said to Him, “Are You the King of the Jews?”
34 Jesus answered, “Are you saying this on your own initiative, or did others tell you about Me?”
35 Pilate answered, “I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests delivered You to me; what have You done?”
36 Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm.”
37 Therefore Pilate said to Him, “So You are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say correctly that I am a king. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.”
Everyone who is of the Truth hears the voice of Jesus. This clearly means that there are those who are NOT of the Truth and who do NOT hear the voice of Jesus. There are two areas of consideration in this particular phrase. The first is about whom Jesus was talking - “Everyone who is of the Truth...” The second is the word “hears” in “...hears My voice.”
So I ask, who are those who are of the Truth and who are those who are NOT of the Truth? Jesus is undeniably referring to two different groups of people. Should we first establish what Jesus is talking about when He says “truth,” that he came “to testify to the truth”? Jesus identified Himself as the Truth in John 14:6 when He said I am the way, the truth, and the life: So Jesus was saying all those who are of Him (Truth) hear His voice. Who are those who are of Jesus? That can easily be answered in Ephesians 1:3-4 when Paul writes that God has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ because we were chosen in Him before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight.
Who are those who are NOT of the Truth? It is just as obvious those who are NOT of the Truth are those who were not chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. These are they who will always reject the Son (Truth) because God’s wrath is on them and it will remain on them (John 3:36). These are they who have no hope of being saved (Ephesians 2:12, 1 Thessalonians 4:13).
Now for the second point of this Bible Truth: everyone who is of the Truth hears the voice of Jesus. Is Jesus talking about hearing in the audible sense? Hearing with the physical ears that which is spoken? No, of course not. The Greek word that is translated “hears” is the word akouo (Strong’s G191) and one of the meanings is to comprehend or to understand. In the context of this passage and many others, everyone present heard Jesus speak but not everyone understood what He said. He specifically referred to this fact when He confronted the Pharisees in John 8:43. Jesus said to them, “Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word.” When Jesus spoke the Good News, it had to be understood in the spiritual realm and lost men are spiritually dead (Ephesians 2:1, 2:5; Colossians 2:13). This is why Paul wrote that the man without the Spirit (a lost man) will not accept the things from the Spirit of God, they are foolishness to him and he CAN’T understand them because they are spiritually discerned (1 Corinthians 2:14).
Many times during His earthly ministry Jesus said let him who has ears to hear, let him hear (Matthew 11:15; 13:9; 13:43; Mark 4:9; 4:23; 7:16; Luke 8:8; 14:35). He was obviously not referring to physical ears, but spiritual ears. The fact that He even said it at all incontrovertibly implies there ARE those who do NOT have ears to hear or eyes to see.
Just as a when shepherds would bring their flocks in to a common pen at night and then call them out the next morning. Every sheep hears each shepherd but they understand only their shepherd and respond only to their shepherd. The shepherds to whom they don’t belong are a stranger to them and they will run from him (John 10:5). There is no sheep that will follow a stranger. Just as there is no lost person who will follow Jesus, it’s their nature to reject him.
I’m sure those who believe in decisional salvation will claim that a lost man can become of the truth by simply believing the Gospel, by trusting Christ as his personal Savior, and by repenting of his sins. Unfortunately for that theory, every one of those actions is impossible for a lost man. A lost man won’t believe or accept anything from the Spirit of God and he will consider it foolishness (1 Corinthians 2:14). A lost man won’t trust Christ because Jesus said the lost man hates Him and won’t come unto the Light (John 3:20). A lost man won’t repent of his sins because every imagination of the thoughts of his hearts is only evil, continually (Genesis 6:5); he is used to doing evil and can NOT change (Jeremiah 13:23); he loves the darkness (John 3:19).
In summary, only those who are of the Truth, only those who are of Christ, can hear (understand and comprehend) His voice. We become children of God NOT by human decision (John 1:13).
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