Charles Ellicott Commentary John 5:25

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour cometh, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and they that hear shall live." — John 5:25 (ASV)

The hour is coming.—The same solemn words repeat in another form the same great truth. The reference here, as in this entire paragraph (John 5:21–27), is to the spiritually dead. This is shown by the phrase “now is,” which cannot be applied to the physical resurrection , and cannot be explained by the instances of physical restoration to life during our Lord’s earthly ministry; and also by the last clause, where “live” must mean the higher spiritual life, as it does throughout the whole context. It is also shown by the parallelism of the clauses with those of the previous verse:

He that heareth. . . . the dead shall hear
My word. . . .the voice of the Son of God,
Hath eternal life. . . . they that hear shall live. The world is like a vast moral graveyard where men lie dead in sin—sense-bound, hand and foot, with spirits buried in bodies that should be holy temples but have become like unclean tombs. But the voice of the Son of God speaks. Spirit, love, and life pass through the chambers of death, quickening souls whose death is still only a sleep. And those who hear and obey come forth into new life.