²³ The same day came to him the Sadducees, which say that there is no resurrection, and asked him,

²⁴ Saying, Master, Moses said, If a man dies, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother. Deut. 25:5-10

²⁵ Now there were with us seven brethren: and the first, when he had married a wife, deceased, and, having no issue, left his wife unto his brother:

²⁶ Likewise the second also, and the third, unto the seventh.

²⁷ And last of all the woman died also.

²⁸ Therefore in the resurrection whose wife shall she be of the seven? for they all had her.

²⁹ Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.

³⁰ For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven.

³¹ But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying,

³² I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. Ex. 3:6

³³ And when the multitude heard this, they were astonished at his doctrine.

³⁴ But when the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together. (Matt. 22:23-34)

Having failed to entangle the Lord in His public speech, the disciples of the Pharisees, and the Herodians, left Jesus. But the desire to discredit Christ did not go away. It only appeared in a new form, called the Sadducees. The Sadducees were the liberal theologians of their day. In only one area were they conservative, and that was with respect to the writings of Moses. The Sadducees gave his writings pre-eminence.

Unlike the Pharisees, the Sadducees rejected the oral traditions, which the Jewish nation had come to accept on the same level as the written words of Moses. So, in this matter, the Sadducees took the more conservative position. But having a high view of the Law of Moses did nothing to change the hearts of the Sadducees. These wealthy, aristocratic members of the governing body of Israel were political opportunist. They were willing to co-operate with Rome in order to retain their class privileges. One way they could do this was by embracing religious beliefs that Rome embraced.

Unfortunately, the religious beliefs of the Romans were influenced by Greek philosophy. For example, to many Greeks, the body was something evil. It imprisoned the soul. There was a desire to set the soul free from the limitations of the body. The body of man was not honored as it should have been.

In contrast, the Jewish religion did not teach that the body was inherently evil, but held that both body and soul were honored by God. When the Lord made man on the sixth day of the creation week, He declared all of His works were “very good.” The Jewish religion taught that there will be a resurrection of the dead, and the body will be honored with permanence. However, since Rome embraced Greek ideas, and since the Sadducees wanted to please the Romans, the Sadducees were willing to sacrifice historical beliefs to please others.

So, the Sadducees accepted the position that the soul and body perished together. They did not believe in the resurrection. And to prove their position, the Sadducees argued that the resurrection is not explicitly taught in the Law of Moses. The sanctions of the Law, they contended, always dealt with temporal rewards and punishments and have nothing to do with eternity (cf. Ex. 20:12; 23:25-26; Deut. 7:12-15; 28:1- 12, 15-68).

In addition to denying the resurrection, because they did not think Moses taught it, the Sadducees rejected the resurrection because they felt the concept was illogical. Since the idea did not make sense to them, it could not be true.

Historically, every heresy, and every false teaching in the church, can be traced to this pattern of thinking. Someone decides that a biblical teaching does not make sense, and sets out to deny, change, or destroy what has been commonly believed. One illustration of this is found in the Episcopal Church. The Episcopal Church has overturned 3,500 years of Judeo-Christian teaching by condoning gay marriage.

In 2015, the Episcopal Church officially approved same-sex marriage rites, allowing clergy to officiate weddings for same-sex couples. This decision reflects the Episcopalian commitment to diversity, inclusivity, equality within its community. The Lutheran Church panel rewrote Christian ethics rather than reaffirm plainly what the scriptures teach about the sin of homosexuality.

Over the years, individuals have boldly denied, and tried to destroy many Christian beliefs, such as the Trinity, the verbal, plenary, inspiration of the Bible, the deity of Christ, and the Second Advent. People have deliberately rejected salvation by grace through faith alone, blood atonement,

and the essential unity between the spiritual Israel in the Old Testament and the Church of the New Testament. And more often than not, these days, the rejection of biblical truth is coming from within the Church!

Years ago, I went to hear a well-known evangelist who had traveled the world preaching and teaching the Bible. He had a very good message. I had many of his books, and he personally gave me a few more. However, there was a problem that was brought to my attention. Despite the fact the man had many excellent things to say, it turns out he was an annihilationist. That means he did not believe in the eternal damnation of the lost.

Like many people, this gifted evangelist did not want to believe in his heart what Jesus taught;

there is a place “where the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched” (Mark 9:48). Since many well-meaning people do not want there to be an eternal hell, there is a denial of an everlasting judgment. Some teach that ultimately everyone will be saved. Others teach the unrighteous will be annihilated. Still others, like the infamous atheist, Robert Ingersoll, teach any judgment to come is the figment of religious imagination, or so it is hoped.

To many people, hell is not logical, for it seems the punishment does not fit the crime. The question is asked, “How can anyone be happy in heaven, when loved ones are lost in hell?”  There is a biblical answer, even to that inquiry, but what is evident, is that the spirit of the Sadducees is still alive today. When individuals mock ancient truths, they do so because they are in error, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God.

We, as Christians, do not receive our religion from personal reflection, and fallen logic. We as Christians, do not base our theology on what is emotionally acceptable to our sensibilities. The true Church of Jesus Christ receives her religion by Divine revelation from heaven. We have the Scriptures and we know the power of God.

Had the Sadducees known the Bible better, they would not have tempted Christ, with what is known in debating circles, as a Straw Man Argument. A Straw Man Argument is proposing a hypothetical situation, which does not exist, in order to destroy the argument. The Straw Man the Sadducees set up concerned an individual who died having no children.

According to the Levirate law of Deuteronomy 25:5, his widow was to be wedded to one of his brothers. Now there were seven brothers. One by one the brothers married the same woman. Each marriage ended in a sudden death for the husband, and there were no children. Finally, the wife died. What the Sadducees wanted to know is this: “In the resurrection, whose wife would she be?”

The Pharisees had already debated this issue, and decided that in the resurrection, the wife would belong to the first husband. They had also discussed other important things, such as whether or not people are wearing clothes in the resurrection, and if so, what were they wearing.

As interesting as all these things were, the real question is what Jesus taught about the resurrection. I suspect that Jesus might have laughed out loud at the silly situation presented by the Sadducees.

The proposed case was preposterous. Can anyone image brothers, three through seven, in particular, wanting to take a wife whose previous husbands had died suddenly, and childless? I would think the brothers might be very worried at this point, about their own health, after marriage.

If Jesus did not laugh at the problem, it was because He was gracious, but He did challenge the conclusion of the Sadducees.

First, the Lord rebuked them for their lack of knowledge of Scripture. While the Sadducees were very familiar with the Law of Moses, they did not know, or understand the information they possessed. Had the Sadducees been as wise as they believed themselves to be, they would have discerned the teaching of the resurrection in such passages in the Law, as Exodus 3:6, 16. Jesus directs the Sadducees attention to the initial encounter Moses had with God on the backside of the desert, in the land of Midian.

While keeping his father-in-law’s flock of sheep, Moses saw a burning bush that was not consumed. Drawn by curiosity, Moses turned aside to see this strange event, and found God.

In a voice of revelation, God spoke to Moses, and said, “I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob.”

Had these men perished body and soul at death, the Lord could not honestly say, “I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” Moses was told that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob lived in another dimension of time and space. It is as simple, and as direct as that. Such understanding is a source of great comfort.

If our souls do exist beyond the grave, then there is no difficulty believing that God can cause both soul and body to be re-united again. What God did once through the miracle of birth, He can reconstruct in the resurrection. The Exodus passage does not give the details of the resurrection; it only touches it in broad terms. What we know of the resurrection of the body, is revealed to us by the teaching of Christ, by the testimony of Christ’s own experience, and by the truth of other portions of Scripture.

First, the teaching of Christ, concerning the resurrection, reveals that in the future things will be fundamentally different. Our relationships with each other will not be the same. While our love for one another will extend beyond the grave, there will be no marriages in heaven. For some married couples this may be a truth of sorrow, for others it may be a secret source of joy.

If divorce statistics are any indication, fifty percent of married couples in America are unhappy, and will find a way out of the relationship through legal means. No marriages in heaven will be a source of great joy for many. It will also solve practical problems, for some men and women have entered into a legitimate love relationship with another partner, after the death of their first spouse.

Catherine Marshall lived, and wrote about one of the greatest love stories of this century, in her book, A Man Called Peter. But seven years later she remarried, and loved unto death her second husband, who was an editor for Guide Post magazine.

It is good, that in the resurrection she should not have to choose between her husbands.In the resurrection, we will be like the angels of God, which means the focus of attention will be given to loving, and worshipping, and serving the Lord.

In the resurrection, God will provide us a body suited for life without end, according to the teaching of Scripture (1 Cor. 15:38-44). This is part of our blessed hope. Are we ready for such a body? Are we ready for the resurrection? Preparation for the resurrection involves three things.

First, the Word of God must be honored, because it is understood, and believed. The problem with the Sadducees is that they did not know the Scriptures. They were familiar with the Scriptures, but they did not know the true meaning of the same, because they had not been taught by the Holy Spirit. Our heart’s preparation for the resurrection, is believing that one day the dead shall live again.

Second, preparation for the resurrection involves regeneration. This means that God has come to you, and worked a work of grace in your heart personally, so that the Lord is loved, and you can sing.

“My hope is built on nothing less than
Jesus’ blood and righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame
but wholly lean on Jesus name.”

Third, preparation for the resurrection includes a looking forward to the second coming of Jesus Christ. There is coming a day when the skies are going to split open, and that same Jesus which was taken from us, shall return to us in the same manner that He went from us. With John, we cry out, “Even so come quickly, Lord Jesus. We are ready for the resurrection, or the transformation, if we are alive at His return.”