Question:
What is Jesus teaching when he said, “For he is not a God of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto him.” (Luke 20:38)? Was he saying that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are alive in heaven?
Answer:
We will address this common question here again, though we have already done so in a longer post (see “CHRIST IS NOT THE GOD OF THE DEAD BUT THE LIVING“).
We wish our querist would read the context. Note why the Sadducees asked the question they did. Their inquiry was not about man’s intermediate state, but rather concerning the resurrection: “In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife of them shall she be?” That is the question at hand. Yet, some would use this text to argue that the soul is immortal and exists in a conscious state after death, completely disregarding the logic of the situation. What a reflection on the reasoning power of the Master!
Jesus begins by attempting to prove to the Sadducees—who only acknowledged the books of Moses but denied the resurrection—that there will indeed be a resurrection. However, rather than proving that the dead will rise, He demonstrates that the dead live regardless of a resurrection, suggesting that such an event is unnecessary. What, really!
However, Jesus did not reason in this manner. He effectively proves that there will be a resurrection, citing Moses as evidence. He argues that God identifies Himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, which implies He is the God of the living. If they were eternally dead, He would be calling Himself the God of the dead. In His purpose, they are not dead; they will live again. All the promises of the new heavens and the new earth are extended to them; therefore, in God’s plan, they live. He calls “things that are not as though they were” (Romans 4:17). Consequently, He speaks of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who are deceased, as though they were alive because, in His purpose, they will rise in the resurrection.
The logic of our Lord was sound, and He did indeed prove from the books of Moses that the dead would live again. Why attempt to distort the Master’s words?
