2401.—The God of the Living.
We have been somewhat bothered over Mark 12: 26, 27. It seems to infer that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were alive at the time that Moses saw the burning bush. How does it harmonize with Rom. 14: 9? If our inquirer would stop to think of the object that our Lord had in making the statement that He did, he would have no question whatever over it. The Jews did not ask Him any question in regard to the intermediate state. They did not ask Him that when the woman died whose wife should she be. Their question was upon the resurrection. The Sadducees did not believe in a resurrection, and by this cavil they hoped to disprove it. So they brought up the old story of the wife with seven husbands, and asked the question, "In the resurrection, whose wife shall she be?" The reply of Jesus is that they erred because they knew not the Scriptures nor the power of God, for "when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage." And then He proves that there must be a resurrection, "But as touching the dead, that they are raised" not as touching the dead that they are now living, but "as touching the dead, that they are raised." Luke has it, "But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed, in the place concerning the bush, when he calleth the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Now He is not the God of the dead, but of the living; for all live unto Him." Luke 20: 37. It would be no honor to make Him the God of the dead. He is not a dead Deity; He does not rule over a dead kingdom; He has not the homage of dead subjects. All these come in consequence of sin, but He is the living God; and just as truly as He lives, all who are His live in His purpose, and so He counts them alive, because in that purpose they will be raised from the dead; "calleth the things that are not, as tho they were." See Rom. 4: 17. This you will find in perfect harmony with Rom. 14: 9 and with all the rest of the Scriptures. How utterly inconsistent it is to say that the Saviour set out to prove the resurrection and then proved that man needs none. Let us have such argument to a false theology, but not to the divine Teacher.