THE GOD OF THE LIVING

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Feb 6, 1901

“THE GOD OF THE LIVING.”

What Does Matt. 22:23-32 Teach?

AMONG the scriptures used to prove the conscious state of the dead is a conversation between Jesus and the Sadducees, recorded in Matt. 22:23-32; Mark 12:18-27; Luke 20:27-38. Let us consider the whole scripture and note what it teaches. We quote the combined account from the “Interwoven Gospels,” by Pittenger. The reader will find all in comparing the three accounts.

“On that day came to Him Sadducees, which say that there is no resurrection; and they asked Him, saying, Master, Moses said, If a man die having no children, his brother shall marry his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother. Now there were with us seven brethren; and the first married and deceased, and having no seed, left his wife unto his brother; in like manner the second also, and the third, unto the seventh. And after them all the woman died. In the resurrection therefore whose wife shall she be of the seven? for they all had her. But Jesus answered and said unto them, Is it not for this cause that ye err, that ye know not the Scriptures nor the power of God? The sons of this world marry and are given in marriage; but they that are accounted worthy to attain to that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage; for neither can they die any more; for they are equal unto the angels; and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection.”

“But as touching the dead, that they are raised; have ye not read in the book of Moses, in the place concerning the Bush, how God spake unto him, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? He is not the God of the dead, but of the living; ye do greatly err; for all live unto Him.”

1. First of all we notice that those who came to Jesus were those who “say there is no resurrection.” They held only to the books of Moses as authoritative, and as they thought the resurrection could not be proved by Moses, they believed that Jesus could not answer their stock argument, which was evidently too much for the Pharisees. The question was that of the resurrection. The question they ask, after relating the story of the septenary marriage, is, “In the resurrection therefore whose wife shall she be?”

2. Our Lord did not reply that the resurrection state was immaterial, and that the important thing was the state of the soul between death and the resurrection: nothing of the kind. He said, “Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God.” They did not know enough of God’s power to believe that He could raise the dead; and they did not know enough about the writings of Moses to know that this very thing was taught.

For (1) in that better world, attained to by a resurrection out from among the dead, the first resurrection, men neither marry nor are given in marriage; they are immortal sons of God, recreated thru the resurrection. (2) Moses shows that the dead will be raised by calling God the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It is truth patent to all that God is the God of the living. It would dishonor both Him and His worshipers to say that He was God of the dead. No, “He is the living God.” But Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were dead. Their sepulchers were among the Jews. How could the God of the living be said to be their God?—In the very way over which the Sadducees caviled,—by the resurrection. Altho dead, He “calleth those things which be not, as tho they were.” He called Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob His children as tho alive, because “all live unto Him;” in His purpose they as truly lived as the raised from the dead.

Jesus quotes Ex. 3:6 to prove “that the dead are raised, even Moses showed” (Luke 20:37); and “as touching the dead, that they rise, have ye not read in the book of Moses” (Mark 12:26)?

Now did the Sadducees refute Jesus?—They did if Jesus proved the conscious state of the soul in death, if He proved that men are alive when they are dead. But they did not refute Him if He proved the resurrection, which He did. And the multitudes, and the scribes, and the Sadducees knew that He had met their unbelief and sophistry, and had shown its fallacy.

Those who would make Jesus teach by this that the dead were alive and conscious, when He started out to show the resurrection, would put the Master and themselves in a pitiable plight, indeed. The simple facts are that He taught that the dead are raised, and that the resurrection is the only hope of the dead.