Alive to Him

Scripture: Luke 20:27-40

27 Then Jesus was approached by some Sadducees—religious leaders who say there is no resurrection from the dead. 28 They posed this question: “Teacher, Moses gave us a law that if a man dies, leaving a wife but no children, his brother should marry the widow and have a child who will carry on the brother’s name. 29 Well, suppose there were seven brothers. The oldest one married and then died without children. 30 So the second brother married the widow, but he also died. 31 Then the third brother married her. This continued with all seven of them, who died without children. 32 Finally, the woman also died. 33 So tell us, whose wife will she be in the resurrection? For all seven were married to her!” 34 Jesus replied, “Marriage is for people here on earth. 35 But in the age to come, those worthy of being raised from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage. 36 And they will never die again. In this respect they will be like angels. They are children of God and children of the resurrection. 37 “But now, as to whether the dead will be raised—even Moses proved this when he wrote about the burning bush. Long after Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had died, he referred to the Lord as ‘the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ 38 So he is the God of the living, not the dead, for they are all alive to him.” 39 “Well said, Teacher!” remarked some of the teachers of religious law who were standing there. 40 And then no one dared to ask him any more questions. (Luke 20:27-40 NLT)

The Sadducees and Pharisees didn’t agree on much, but they agreed that Jesus was a threat to the status quo and needed to be eliminated. The Sadducees only accepted the books of Moses as authoritative. They read the books of history, poetry, and the prophets but didn’t consider them “inspired.” So because there is no clear teaching on resurrection in the Books of the Law, they believed death is the end. When they posed their “foolproof question”, Jesus rebuked them for not accepting all the Scriptures and for making their God too weak to resurrect the dead! Jesus answered the Sadducees from their own “Bible” (Exodus 3:6) and told them they really didn’t have a clue about heaven and about how powerful God is!

Here’s the message for me (and I hope, for you) today: We shouldn’t reject truth just because we don’t understand how it works. Nor should we waste time and energy trying to figure out how everything is and will be in the unseen, eternal realm, based on how things are here and now. These things are knowable by revelation, not reasoning. And they’re revealed at God’s pleasure, not ours.

Prayer:

Father, Thanks for truth revealed and faith for what we don’t understand! May we learn to love the truth you’ve given us and trust you for everything else! In Jesus’ name!