“Some of the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection,
came to Jesus with a question. “Teacher,” they said, “Moses wrote for us that
if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry
the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. Now there were seven
brothers. The first one married a woman and died childless. The second and then
the third married her, and in the same way the seven died, leaving no children.
Finally, the woman died too. Now then, at the resurrection whose wife will she
be, since the seven were married to her?” Jesus replied, “The people of this
age marry and are given in marriage. But those who are considered worthy of
taking part in the age to come and in the resurrection from the dead will
neither marry nor be given in marriage, and they can no longer die; for they
are like the angels. They are God’s children, since they are children of the
resurrection. But in the account of the burning bush, even Moses showed that
the dead rise, for he calls the Lord ‘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, for to
him all are alive.” Some of the teachers of the law responded, “Well said,
teacher!” And no one dared to ask him any more questions.” (Luke 20:27-40)
The question is carefully designed to make the resurrection claim
as ridiculous and ludicrous as seven brothers would be in a very awkward
position if it were true. It sounds logical, reasonable, and even intelligent.
But what does Jesus answer? Matthew put these words of Jesus first, saying “You
are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.”
(Matthew 22:29) It must be a statement of great offense to the Sadducees who
are supposed to be considered as the dedicated students of the Scriptures in
knowing and understanding. As always, our Lord Jesus truthfully answers for
them in love. They are in error in knowing what would look like in the age to
come, so their question simply reflects their blindness and ignorance. They are
just saying what’s happening in this age that people get married and die. What
does it mean that people will neither marry nor be given in marriage and they
can no longer die, for they are like angles? This is a new revelation taught by
the Son of God himself though it is faithfully in line with the Old Scripture
as our Lord Jesus tells a story of Moses in the account of the burning bush
where he was shown that the dead rise, for he calls the Lord “God of Abraham,
and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”
I believe our Lord Jesus is shining the light on marriage
which is written in the Scripture as the highlight of God’s creation. Almost
everyone marries both male and female. In heaven, our Lord says people will not
marry nor will be given in marriage. Why do then people marry and are given in
marriage in this age? Why did God institute marriage between Adam and woman,
the first couple on earth? Marriage is a profound teaching vehicle for God to
use in our humanity. Apostle Paul calls marriage a profound mystery. “For this
reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and
the two will become one flesh. This is a profound mystery—but I am talking
about Christ and the church.” (Ephesians 5:31-32) Marriage is a picture and
image of the union between God and his children in Christ. What is marriage? It
is the union of one man and one woman in body, soul, and spirit. It is to know
each other, going through lifetime commitment and many ups and downs. Knowing
the spouse is a life long process. Knowing what? I think it is to learn how
much they are different each other and gradually how to love each other as
Christ submitted himself to the Father. Male and female are opposite in sex and
different in many ways. Differences between man and woman are visibly obvious
physically and psychologically, but no difference spiritually. Knowing the
spouse is so significant as our Lord Jesus says this, “Now this is eternal
life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have
sent.” (John 17:3) Marriage is designed to understand life eventually.
What is a tool God has hidden in marriage? It’s sex. Only
within the marriage boundary between one man and one woman, sex is permitted
liberally and freely. “Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed
kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral.”
(Hebrews 13:4) Premarital sex, any sex outside of marriage called adultery, and
the same sex marriage are wrong and evil in God’s eyes. It is a serious and
dangerous violation of the Law of God. Because it involves the sexual union in
the act of sex. Apostle Paul reveals further regarding the sacredness of human sexual
relations. “Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one
with her in body? For it is said, ‘The two will become one flesh.’ But whoever
is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit.” (1 Corinthians 6:16-17)
Sexual relations are not something that people can enjoy and forget about even
in prostitution. It is the expression and language of exquisite intimacy,
becoming one flesh through the union of sex. There is no such free joy ride of
any sexual relations outside marriage. The ignorant cannot avoid the painful
and hurting consequences. Why is it so intimate? Because it involves spiritual
union beyond physical union. Paul continues to plea the saints in Corinth to
flee from all sexual immorality, including modern day pornography.
“Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person
commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own
body. Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is
in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought
at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.” (1 Corinthians 6:18-20)
Through marriage in this age, God is teaching the ultimate holy
union between Christ and the church. That is not the second thought of God.
We’re made so before the creation of the world. We’re made as the temple of
God, the dwelling place of the Lord forever. God is our inheritance and we are
his inheritance for he bought us with a price. We’re never made to live on our
own independently without him. All marriage vow must be kept pure by yielding
one to the other. “The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and
likewise the wife to her husband. The wife does not have authority over her own
body but yields it to her husband. In the same way, the husband does not have
authority over his own body but yields it to his wife. Do not deprive each
other except perhaps by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote
yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you
because of your lack of self-control.” (1 Corinthians 7:3-5) Marriage in this
age is temporal and will not survive through death. But the value and principle
of marriage survives forever.
Through marriage, God is teaching how we become one
regardless of differences in nature. This picture teaches how we come to become
one with God though we are his creature, fallen and lost in rebellion against
him and becoming his enemies. So, we no longer die because we are one with God
who is eternal and immortal. We are one with God in Christ, constantly eating
his body and drinking his blood out of rivers of living water. Heaven is definitely
described as follows in the Scripture. “He will wipe every tear from their
eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old
order of things has passed away.” (Revelation 21:4) Because we will be drinking
the living water which will become a spring of water welling up to eternal
life. “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks
the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will
become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:13-14)
We are the children of God and thus inherit the life of the
Father in Christ as the children of the resurrection. We have been yearning and
hungering and thirsting for being clothed with the righteousness of God. That
cloth has been prepared for the believers even before the time began. “For we know
that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God,
an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. Meanwhile we groan,
longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, because when we are
clothed, we will not be found naked. For while we are in this tent, we groan
and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed
instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up
by life. Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has
given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.” (2 Corinthians
5:1-5)
David calls Jesus the Lord who is the son of David because
God is the God of the living, not the God of the dead. Jesus became the son of
David to fulfill the Scriptures, making himself nothing and humbling himself to
present his body to the Father as the sin and drink offering on a cross. But those
who continue to live unrealistically by being boast of themselves and
hypocritically by robbing the honor and respect and power and glory of God on
their own will be punished most severely (Luke 20:45-47). With the hope of the
resurrection being clothed with the heavenly dwelling which God designed, we make
a living everyday worthy of the Lord, offering our bodies to the Father in
heaven as the living sacrifice. “Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand
firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the
Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” (1
Corinthians 15:58) Because what will be happening to the believers in Christ at
the last trumpet call is that we will all be changed in a flash, in the
twinkling of an eye. At the last trumpet call, the dead will be raised imperishable,
and we will be changed (1 Corinthians 15:50-53). And we will be with the Lord
forever.
April 1, 2017
© 2015-2017 David
Lee Ministries – All Rights Reserved.
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