In my previous study I began to highlight Jesus’ discussion with the Sadducees (Luke 20:27-38), which on the one hand called the resurrection into question, but Jesus also placed the resurrection in the context of preaching the Gospel. Many Christians think Jesus spoke of an age when men and women wouldn’t marry or have children, but this is not the point of Jesus’ reply to the Sadducees (Luke 20:34-36). The context of the discussion concerns how men become the children of God (Deuteronomy 14:1). The Sadducees argued that the resurrection couldn’t be valid, because their myth (Luke 20:27-33), if placed in the context of the levirate marriage law, made the resurrection appear as though it were a ridiculous doctrine.
However, Jesus’ reply showed how their argument was based on the false assumption that the Mosaic Law would have a legitimate place in the next age or the age of the New Covenant (Jeremiah 31:31-36). Notice:
Jesus said to them, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage; for they cannot even die anymore, because they are like angels, and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection…” (Luke 20:34-36 NASB – emphasis mine)
Jesus’ argument assumes only two ages. The one is this age or the Mosaic Age (the Old Covenant), in which both he and his opponents, the Sadducees, lived. The other age is that age or the Gospel Age, meaning the New Covenant. Some folks believe that the age Jesus spoke of begins when we die or at the end of time, neither of which is a valid, Biblical point of view. God created time or the ages through the One who became Jesus (Hebrews 1:2). The Bible never speaks of the end of time, but, if it did, how could that, whatever that would look like, be a legitimate age (time). If time ends, then there is no age (time). The same would be true at death. When we die, how could we be considered to be living in a physical age (time)? If we go to be with Jesus, wouldn’t we go to him who lives beyond time? Does time exist in eternity? If so, then, in what sense did God **create** time through Jesus in the first place (Hebrews 1:2)?
Therefore, we must understand Jesus’ argument with the Sadducees in the context of creating or producing sons or children to God. As it pertained to this age or under the Old Covenant this was done through marrying and giving in marriage—an argument assumed by the Sadducees (Luke 20:27-33). However, things changed with the dawning of that age. Jesus’ argument underlined the fallacy of the Sadducees’ point of view by showing the Mosaic Law would no longer be valid in that age or the next age—the Gospel Age. During that age, the sons of God would be produced by resurrection, but what did Jesus mean by becoming the sons of the resurrection?
We need to understand when we become a child of God. Is it immediately after we believe the Gospel and submit ourselves to Jesus or don’t we become a child of God until after we die? Under the Old Covenant (this age in Luke 20) folks became the children of God through marrying and giving in marriage. However, concerning that age, when we become the children of the resurrection, notice what Paul says:
“…even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus…” (Ephesians 2:5-6 NASB)
Therefore, according to Jesus’ argument, as explained by Paul, we become children of the resurrection through the preaching and believing of the Gospel. Our resurrection is a spiritual one and has nothing to do with physical death and then a rising again to physical life. It has to do with how we become a child of God. Under the New Covenant this is done through the Gospel, not through the conjugal relations of a husband and a wife. If we keep Jesus’ discussion with the Sadducees in Luke 20 within its context, then the theology of Jesus’ argument becomes very clear. We are the children of the resurrection, i.e. the children of God through faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus (Galatians 3:26).
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