Faith First Media

Luke 20:38 Commentary

by Matthew Elton

copyright 2009 Matthew Elton

Question:

Luke 20:38 states"Now He is not the God of the dead but of the living; for all live toHim." Does this mean that the deadare currently living with God in heaven?

Answer:

No. Take a look atthe context of Luke 20:38. Jesus wasspeaking to a group of Sadducees - a Jewish sect who believed that there willbe no future resurrection of the dead. Since the central message of Christ's teaching is that there will be afuture resurrection of the dead when the Kingdom of God is fulfilled on Earth, theSadducees attempted to disprove what Christ was teaching about the Kingdom of God by tricking him with apuzzle regarding marriage in the resurrection. Their attempt failed, since Jesus said that "those who areconsidered worthy of taking part on that age and in the resurrection from thedead will neither marry nor be given in marriage." Jesus then went on to prove from the Old Testamentthat the future resurrection will indeed take place, by quoting Exodus 3:6,where Moses declared that YHWH is "the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac,and of Jacob." When Moses declared this, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob wereall dead, and none of them were in heaven. Acts 2:34 says, "David did not go up to heaven". John 3:13 tells us that no one besides Jesushas ever gone to heaven - "No one has ascended to heaven but He who camedown from heaven, that is, the Son of Man [Jesus Christ] who is in heaven."

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are dead and they are currentlyburied in the grave (Hebrew "sheol"). Sheol is sometimes mistranslated as "hell" but it literallymeans "grave". It cannot behell in the Greco-Roman conception of hell as a "place of eternal separationfrom God" because Psalm 139:8 and Amos 9:2 clearly tell us that YHWH ispresent even in Sheol. Sheol is thegrave - a literal hole in the ground - and it is the place that all people gowhen they die. In Psalm 6:5 David fearsthat he is going to die, and he pleads for God to save his life, because if heis dead and in Sheol, he will no longer be able to praise God. The concept that David's soul would existconsciously in heaven when David dies contradicts not only this scripture(since David would be able to praise God in heaven) but the entire message ofthe Bible in general, especially other key scriptures such as Acts 2:34, whichstates that "David did not go up to heaven". Ecclesiastes 9:10 states "Whatever yourhand finds to do, do it with all your might; for there is no activity or planningor knowledge or wisdom in Sheol where you are going." This makes it extremely clear that the deadwho are buried in the grave are not alive - they are literally dead and theyare not conscious.

There will come a time in the future when all the dead willrise and becoming living once more. Theywill then be judged - the righteous unto eternal life in the Kingdom of God ona new and perfect Earth, and the unrighteous will be thrown into the lake offire where they will receive the wages of their sin (Revelation 21:8), which is a second death (Ezekiel 18:4,Luke 13:3, Romans 6:23, Matthew 7:13, Revelation 21:8) - this time a permanentdeath in which body and soul perish forever (Matthew 10:28) .

This is also why John 3:16says those who believe in Jesus "shall not perish". Billions of people who believe in Jesus havedied and rotted in Sheol. They are nolonger living. But they have notperished because their death is not permanent. If something perishes, it is gone forever. But no one who has ever died is gone forever- all shall be raised again at the end of the age, when Jesus returns andeveryone who has ever lived is judged. At that time, those who are thrown in the lake of fire will then perish,while the righteous will receive eternal life in the Kingdom of God. This is why Jesus used the word"sleep" synonymously with the word "death" (Luke 11:11-14). The dead are not conscious (Ecclesiastes 9:10)but because they will soon be raised to consciousness when Jesus returns, it isas if they are sleeping. When you die,the very next thing you will know is the resurrection. Perhaps thousands of years will pass betweenthe moment you die and the moment Jesus returns and the dead are raised, butyou will not be consciously aware of any of those years. This is why for the Apostle Paul, beingabsent from the body is synonymous with being present from the Lord. Death was no longer a foe for him, for heknew that if he died, the next thing he would know would be his Lord's return!

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are dead. They are not alive in heaven (John 3:13). Why then did Jesus say that because YHWH is called "The God ofAbraham, Isaac, and Jacob" he is therefore "not the God of the deadbut of the living"? In the contextof the rest of Christ's teachings regarding the coming Kingdom of God and the future resurrectionsof the dead, the answer clear. Look atthe context of the verse once more. Jesus was debating a group of Sadducees who do not believe in the futureresurrection of the dead. Jesus usedthis Old Testament verse to prove that the future resurrection will indeedhappen. God is the God of the living, sowhy then is he called "The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob?" It's because Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob arenot permanently dead - from God's point of view (and God transcends time - athousand years to God is like a single day) they will soon be resurrected backto life in the Kingdom of God when the resurrection of the dead occurs. This is why Jesus said, "He who believesin me shall live, even if he dies". Christians die every day. But forthe believer in Jesus Christ, death is not permanent. The unrighteous will perish permanently inthe lake of fire when they experience the Second Death. The Christian will not, for all who trust inJesus as their Lord will be raised again unto eternal life when Christ returnsat the end of the age and the Kingdom of God is fulfilled on Earth. For the follower of Jesus Christ, death isnot a permanent destruction, but rather a temporary "sleep" in whichthe very next conscious thought will be the experience of Jesus returning torestore the Earth to paradise.

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