“And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God: ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living.”
Matthew 22:31-32 ESV
These words have been going through my mind as my father’s death approached and finally came. And in them, we find great comfort and hope. We find comfort and hope as we grieve those who have gone on before us, and as we consider our own mortality.
The Sadducees, who did not believe in the resurrection, came to Jesus and posed to him a hypothetical scenario. He answered them, saying that they knew neither the Scriptures nor the power of God. He then shared with them the words seen above.
In the Scriptures, God declared that he is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And notice the tense. He didn’t use the past tense, but the present.
He didn’t say that he was their God. He said that he is their God. He is their God even though they’d died long before.
He is not the God of the dead, Jesus says, but of the living. These men, in other words, were not dead and gone. They were yet living.
In the context of the gospel, we understand what Jesus was saying. When we die, our life does not cease. Even though our body dies and is laid in the grave, that is not the end of our story. As believers in Jesus, our spirit goes to be with the Lord. And, in the end, our bodies will rise from the grave to be with him forever.
In the same sense, I can say that the Lord is my father’s God. He is his God even though his life in this world has come to an end. He is now present with the Lord in spirit. And one day, at the end of this age, his body will rise to live forever in the new creation.
Further, the Lord is my God. And this will remain true even when my life in this world comes to an end. He is and will be my God throughout all eternity.
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