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Matthew 22:23-33
The Pharisees, chief priests, and the elders have been striving to discount Jesus and His teachings in the presence of the multitudes (Matthew 21:23-22:22). In Matthew 22:23-33 the Sadducees (a separate sect of religious leadership) came to Jesus with their questions to try and trap Jesus in His own words. We learn in Matthew 22:23b that the Sadducees did not believe in resurrection, yet they proceeded to ask Jesus a question about the resurrection body after physical death has taken place.
Jesus astonished His hearers with His answer to the question of life after death as He proclaims in Matthew 22:30 NKJV, “For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels of God in heaven.” Jesus proves resurrection to the Sadducees as He quotes Scripture that they were sure to believe in and in reverse fashion traps the Sadducees in their own words as they proclaim to believe the Scriptures yet contradict themselves by not believing in the resurrection. Jesus quotes Exodus 3:6, 15, “‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’?” Jesus continues in Matthew 22:32b stating, “God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.” If God is (meaning presently and actively) the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and they have died physically, then they must be alive in heaven in the spiritual resurrection body.
This is a promise of a new resurrection body in heaven for all who believe in God and seek His will for their lives.
The Sadducees, like the Pharisees considered themselves the religious leaders of the day. But they only adhered to the parts of Scripture that they decided for themselves was right in their own eyes. They believed only in the parts of Scripture that fit their lifestyle, such as many people and political parties do today. Some scholars would say that the Sadducees considered themselves more political than religious.
Believing in God is not picking and choosing what parts of Scripture we believe in and what parts we do not believe in, but as we grow in our salvation relationship with Him, that we continue to study Scripture and learn more and more about the way in which God would have us to live our lives – in Christ. The Old Testament and the New Testament all work together to teach us about the great plan of salvation in Christ Jesus for all who will put their faith in Him.
Dear LORD,
Please help us to see that Your Word is not a book for us to choose which portions to believe in and which parts we discard, but that as the author of the book of Hebrews proclaims in Hebrews 4:12 (NKJV), “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” In Jesus name I pray, amen.