The
same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Him and asked
Him, saying: “Teacher, Moses said that if a man dies, having no children, his
brother shall marry his wife and raise up offspring for his brother. Now there
were with us seven brothers. The first died after he had married, and having no
offspring, left his wife to his brother. Likewise the second also, and the
third, even to the seventh. Last of all the woman died also. Therefore, in the
resurrection, whose wife of the seven will she be? For they all had her.” Jesus
answered and said to them, “You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor
the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in
marriage, but are like angels of God in heaven. But concerning the resurrection
of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac,
and the God of Jacob’? God is not the God of the dead, but of the
living.” And when the multitudes heard this,
they were astonished at His teaching.
(Matthew 22:23-33)
Then
some of the Sadducees, who deny that there is a resurrection, came to Him and asked Him, saying: “Teacher,
Moses wrote to us that if a
man’s brother dies, having a wife, and he dies without children, his brother
should take his wife and raise up offspring for his brother. Now there were
seven brothers. And the first took a wife, and died without children. And the
second took her as wife, and he died childless. Then the third took
her, and in like manner the seven also; and they left no children, and died.
Last of all the woman died also. Therefore, in the resurrection, whose wife
does she become? For all seven had her as wife.” Jesus answered and said to
them, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage. But those who are
counted worthy to attain that age, and the resurrection from the dead, neither
marry nor are given in marriage; nor can they die anymore, for they are equal
to the angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection. But even
Moses showed in the burning
bush passage that the dead are
raised, when he called the Lord ‘the
God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ For
He is not the God of the dead but of the living, for all live to Him.” (Luke 20:27-38)
These texts are included to once again show a clear
biblical teaching on a future resurrection of God’s people. Everything that
Jesus says in these two texts is within the framework of ‘the resurrection’.
As with Paul in Philippians, it is only those ‘who are counted worthy’ who may
participate in the resurrection in mind, and I would view this criterion as
minimising the focus from the general resurrection of God’s people to one key
aspect of it: the ‘resurrection to life’
of John chapter five. It is within the certainty of there being a resurrection
of the redeemed that we are informed of two possible outcomes: resurrection to
life or resurrection to condemnation (Daniel 12:2; John 5:29; Acts 24:15). As I
understand it, these are not
two outcomes that are intended to encompass all humanity (‘Christian’ and ‘non-Christian’)
but rather a judgement of God’s people alone, separate from the judgement of
the rest of the world.
It is beyond the scope of this document to articulate
and defend this view of the resurrection but I feel it is important to state
that, just because one is redeemed, it does not suffice that one should enter
and reign in the coming Kingdom with Christ – only a life of faith guarantees such (picking up our cross and
following Him, striving to enter at the narrow gate, presenting our bodies as living
sacrifices, etc.) Anything else is sufficient only for the resurrection with a
negative outcome. In the texts above it would seem that Jesus’ attention is
upon the ‘resurrection to life’, the
resurrection to which we should all be striving to attain.
The Jews were clearly familiar with the idea of a
general resurrection of God’s people, informed perhaps by texts such as Daniel
12:1-3, Ezekiel 37, Job 19:25-27. There is no question of the
existence/nonexistence of marriage in Heaven, only ‘in the resurrection’.
No comments:
Post a Comment