April 21 - The Resurrection Life
Jesus, in His response to the Sadducees who did not believe in the possibility of resurrection, gave a very vivid description of what the resurrection of the righteous is all about. It is good to look forward to what is ahead and have the confidence of entering into our eternal phase of life. The light Jesus shed on our resurrection state could also help us in evaluating our present state of life and relationships.
The sons of this age, Jesus explains, marry and are given in marriage, but those in the resurrection state will not. After the resurrection from the dead, the sons of God or sons of the resurrection do not marry or are given in marriage. In a word, there is no marriage in heaven. All human relationships will terminate, every resurrected person will only be related to God as sons. The earthly social relationships will be replaced by our spiritual relationships, to God and to one another. On other occasions, Jesus also hinted at the temporal nature of earthly relationships in favor of our spiritual or heavenly relationships. We are not to put our earthly relations ahead of our relating to God, we cannot love our family members more than God and those who are not related to us by blood are to be our real brothers and sisters because they do the will of God. Should we value earthly relationships more than God, we are not worthy of becoming His disciples.
On the topic of worthiness, Jesus also describes those who are in the resurrection of the dead as those that “are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead”. We must be worthy in the eyes of God in order to attain to that very special age. In that state, we shall never die. Death is not possible since we would have been resurrected and have overcome death like Jesus. All earthly relationships are to be ended by our physical death. Only spiritual relationships cannot be terminated by death, thus can go into eternity. For those who treasure spiritual relationship more than earthly, social relationships, are thus worthy of the resurrection. If not, we are just like dead persons and God is not a God of the dead but a God of the living. He is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob who are all alive in the Kingdom of God. If you put spiritual relationship with God first, then you are a living person worthy of the resurrection.
One day, you can be in heaven enjoying eternity with God and other saints. There will be angels and the sons of God celebrating eternity with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. What a holy bliss, all earthly relational problems and pains are gone. All our earthly relationships are marred by sin and we receive our hurts mostly from those that are closest to us. Have you been hurt or bothered by earthly relationships? Take courage! All earthly relationships are to be terminated by death. You are not going to carry the pains of present relationships into heaven. Be encouraged!
Ps 57:7-11 Josh 22:21-23:16 Luke 20:27-47 Prov 13:17-19