Acts 23:8; Matthew 22:23-32
The Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit.
The same day came to him the Sadducees, which say that there is no resurrection, and asked him, saying, Master, Moses said, If a man die, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother. Now there were with us seven brethren: and the first, when he had married a wife, deceased, and, having no issue, left his wife unto his brother: Likewise the second also, and the third, unto the seventh. And last of all the woman died also. Therefore in the resurrection whose wife shall she be of the seven? for they all had her.
Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven. But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.
THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): The Sadducees, those freethinkers of the age, denied that there will be a resurrection of the dead, or that there is any such permanent being, as an angel, in the invisible world, or a separate spirit of man that survives the death of the body, and subsists in a state of disunion from it.
JOHN GILL (1697-1771): The Sadducees expressly denied that the resurrection could be proved out of the law.
J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): What a remarkable text our Lord brings forward, in proof of the reality of a life to come.
C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Jesus might have referred to many passages in the Old Testament about the resurrection; but as the Sadducees regarded the Pentateuch with special honour, He quoted what Moses had recorded in Exodus 3:6: “I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob;” and then added His own comment and exposition: “God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.”
H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): But where is there anything in that about resurrection?
ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): Let it be observed, that Abraham was dead upwards of 300 years before those words were spoken to Moses.
J. C. RYLE: Two centuries had passed away since Jacob, the last of the three, was carried to his tomb. Yet God spoke of them as being still His people, and of Himself as being still their God.
H. A. IRONSIDE: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were not blotted out of existence; they had not become extinct through death; they are still living. God did not say to Moses that He “was” the God of Abraham, of Isaac, of Jacob when they were here in the world. He said, “I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”
C. H. SPURGEON: There is much teaching in this truth, that “God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.” Some suppose that, until the resurrection, the saints are virtually non-existent; but this cannot be. Though disembodied, they still live.
THOMAS COKE: Christ’s argument was this: “As a man cannot properly be a father without children, or a king without subjects, so God cannot properly be called in this sense God or Lord, unless He has His people, and be Lord of the living. Since, therefore, in the law He calls Himself the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, long after these patriarchs were dead, the relation denoted by the word God still subsisted between them; for which reason they were not annihilated, as the Sadducees pretended, when they affirmed that they were dead, but were still in being, God’s subjects and glorified saints.”
JOHN BUNYAN (1628-1688): To be the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, is to be understood of His being their God under a new covenant consideration, as He saith, “I will be their God, and they shall be my people,” Ezekiel 37:27.
H. A. IRONSIDE: It is necessary that there be a resurrection for Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, because God had made a promise to them which had not been fulfilled. He promised to give them the land of Canaan that they might possess it to the end of the time, and they never possessed it while on earth. They dwelt in the land as strangers, but the promise will be fulfilled when God brings them back from the dead.
THOMAS COKE: Wherefore, as the patriarchs “died without having obtained the promises,” Hebrews 11:39, they must exist in another state to enjoy them, that the veracity of God may remain sure. Besides, the Apostle tells us, that “God is not ashamed to be called their God, because he has prepared for them a city,” Hebrews 11:16…This argument was very conclusive against the Sadducees, who denied the immortality of the soul, and the resurrection of the body: but it proves at the same time the resurrection, because the souls of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, not being Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob themselves, it follows, that God could not properly be styled their God, unless they were to rise again from the dead.
JOHN GILL: Thus our Lord fetches His proof of the doctrine of the resurrection from a passage out of the law which respects the covenant relation God stands in to His people, particularly Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; which respects not their souls only, but their bodies also, even their whole persons, body and soul; for God is the God of the whole.
THOMAS COKE: The argument taken either way is conclusive; for which cause we may suppose, that both the senses were intended, to render it of full demonstration.
C. H. SPURGEON: Jesus does not argue about it—He states the fact as beyond all question. The living God is the God of living men, and Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are still alive, and identified as the same persons who lived on the earth. God is the God of Abraham’s body as well as of his soul, for the covenant seal was set upon his flesh. The grave cannot hold any portion of the covenanted ones; God is the God of our entire being—spirit, soul, and body.
MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Lastly, We have the issue of this dispute. The Sadducees were “put to silence,” Matthew 23:34, and so put to shame.
JOHN GILL: These two things were the spring and source of their errors: “Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.”
J. C. RYLE: Let us settle it in our minds, that the dead are in one sense still alive. From our eyes they have passed away, and their place knows them no more. But in the eyes of God they live, and will one day come forth from their graves, to receive an everlasting sentence. There is no such thing as annihilation. The idea is a miserable delusion.
ADAM CLARKE: Our Lord confutes another opinion of the Sadducees, that there is neither angel nor spirit; by showing that the soul is not only immortal, but lives with God, even while the body is detained in the dust of the earth, which body is afterwards to be raised to life, and united with its soul by the miraculous power of God.
J. C. RYLE: We are told plainly—we shall be “as the angels of God.” Like them, we shall serve God perfectly, unhesitatingly, and unweariedly. Like them, we shall ever be in God’s presence. Like them, we shall ever delight to do His will. Like them, we shall give all glory to the Lamb. These are deep things. But they are all true—May we never forget this! Happy is he who can say from his heart the words of the Nicene Creed, “I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.”
ADAM CLARKE: “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved,” Romans 10:9. Believe in thy heart that He who died for thy offenses has been raised for thy justification; and depend solely on Him for that justification, and thou shalt be saved.
