God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.

 

God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.

 

Mark 12:26-27『And as touching the dead, that they rise: have ye not read in the book of Moses, how in the bush God spake unto him, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living: ye therefore do greatly err.』

This article is a quote from Exodus 3:15, “And God said moreover to Moses, thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, the LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations.』

The people of Israel cried out to God in Egypt. So the Lord God said that He heard their cry. When God made a covenant with Abraham, He promised land and descendants, and He continued this covenant with Isaac and Jacob. The Lord God shows that He is not someone who forgets a covenant after making it, but someone who fulfills the covenant in His own time.

In Exodus 3:6-10, Jehovah God tells Moses to go to Pharaoh in Egypt and lead the people into Canaan. The story of the Exodus is a journey from Egypt to Canaan, which symbolically represents leaving the world and entering the kingdom of God. Moses represents Jesus Christ, the world represents the spirits of angels who sinned in the kingdom of God and were trapped in the dust and became human, and Canaan represents the spirits who died in Christ being resurrected and returning to the kingdom of God.

The God of the living, not the God of the dead, is not the God of those who live in the flesh on earth, but the God of those who have been resurrected in Christ and live in a spiritual body and have a life in heaven. The dead refers to the physical body, and the living refers to the spiritual body. All who do not believe in the present resurrection are spiritually dead.

At the time of Jesus, the Sadducees did not believe in the prophets, but only in the Pentateuch. Therefore, they did not believe in the resurrection or angels. Therefore, they thought that the resurrection could not be proven with only the Pentateuch, which they recognized as canonical. The reason the Sadducees tried to trouble Jesus with this question was because Jesus emphasized the resurrection in his teachings.

The Sadducees tried to refute Jesus by proving that there is no resurrection by citing the Pentateuch’s law of consummation. In other words, if there is a resurrection of the wicked and the righteous, whose wife should the one who was married to seven men by the Pentateuch law become in heaven at the time of the resurrection? They attacked Jesus, who spoke of the resurrection, with a difficult question. Jesus answered that there is no marriage in heaven even if there is a resurrection, so there is no problem. Jesus shattered the Sadducees’ idea that they could not prove the resurrection with only the Pentateuch, which they recognized as canonical. Jesus’ answer to the Sadducees, who thought that there is no resurrection or angels, was that there is a resurrection idea even in the Pentateuch. This can be found in Mark 12:24-25.

『And Jesus answering said unto them, Do ye not therefore err, because ye know not the scriptures, neither the power of God? For when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage; but are as the angels which are in heaven.』

Eisin hos angelos (εἰσὶν ὡς ἄγγελοι) means like angels, and in Luke 20:36 it says, "Neither can they die any more, for they are equal to angels (isangeloi ἰσάγγελοι), and are children of God, as children of the resurrection." This means that at the resurrection, the spirit is equal to the angel, so it returns to the spirit of the angel.

Today, church people think of resurrection as the resurrection of a dead body. A person is a living being that is a combination of body and spirit. When seen with the eyes of the flesh, he is a living being, but spiritually, he is separated from God and is therefore dead. In this way, the spirit among the dead is also dead. However, resurrection from the dead means the resurrection of the dead spirit. Jesus Christ is the first fruit that was resurrected from the dead.

The Bible records that Jesus raised the physically dead three times. Lazarus, Jairus' daughter, and the widow's son died, but Jesus raised them. However, the Bible does not call them resurrections. The reason is that the dead body came back to life. The resurrection of Jesus does not mean that the dead body came back to life, but that the spirit came back to life from the dead and was clothed in a spiritual body. That is why the resurrection of Christ is called the first fruits. Those who believe that the physical body died with Jesus in Christ also believe that they were resurrected with Christ.

God who appeared to Moses appeared as the God of the ancestors. However, Jesus speaks of God as the God of the living, not the God of the ancestors. The God of the living means the God of the covenant, the God who raises the spiritually dead. In other words, it is not the God of the past who appeared among the dead, the bloodline of the ancestors, but the God who was resurrected as a spiritual body. Therefore, the God of Abraham should be understood as the God of Abraham, the ancestor of those who were promised the resurrection life through faith, not Abraham as the bloodline that the Jews thought of.

The God of the living is the God of those who have been promised resurrection life or who believe that they currently have resurrection life. The word “living” means the resurrected One. He is not someone who remains on the cross, but someone who has been resurrected and is presently with us. Therefore, the saints in Christ have also been spiritually resurrected and are sitting at the right hand of God. Ephesians 2:5-6 『Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:』 If the resurrection were a physical resurrection, such an expression would not be used. Therefore, the resurrection is coming alive spiritually and returning from the world of darkness to the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God becomes heaven (he basileia ton uranon) in the hearts of the saints.