John 7:46, “The officers answered, Never man spake like this man.”
In John chapter seven we read about the Lord going to the feast of Tabernacles in Judea. The Jews at this time had already begun to plot and scheme in their minds about ways to “kill him” (John 7:1). In an effort to take the Lord, “the Pharisees and the chief priests sent officers to take him (John 7:32). When the commanded officers returned to the Pharisees and chief priests without the Lord with them, they were asked “Why have ye not brought him” (John 7:45)? The officer’s response is our study verse previously cited. The officers had never heard a man speak as Jesus spoke. They had never heard a man speak with such boldness and authority (John 7:26, “he speaketh boldly”); care and mercy (John 7:37, “If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink”); and wisdom (John 7:19-24). Truly there had never been a man, nor will there ever be a man, that spoke as Jesus, Who is the eternal Son of God manifested in perfect humanity. The voice the officers heard that day was one that was (and is) able to do what no other voice of man could do. Please consider:
(1) The voice of Jesus is the voice that created the world and man! In Psalms 33:6-9 we read, “By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. He gathereth the waters of the sea together as an heap: he layeth up the depth in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the LORD: let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him. For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.”
(2) The voice of Jesus is the voice which calls His children from being dead in sins to life in Him by regeneration! In John 5:25 we read, Verily, verily, I say unto you, 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.”
(3) The voice of Jesus is the voice which will translate the living and raise the dead at His second and final coming! In 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 we read, “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord”; in John 5:28, “Marvel not at this; for the hour is coming, in which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation”; and in Job 14:14-15, “If a man die, shall he live again? All the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come. Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee: thou wilt have a desire to the work of thine hands.”
Surely, after considering these verses of scripture we can say, as the officers said, “Never man spake like this man”, the ”man Christ Jesus” our Lord, our Savior and the only mediator between God and man (1 Timothy 2:5). Amen!