Charles Spurgeon Commentary Matthew 22:31-32

"But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, 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." — Matthew 22:31-32 (ASV)

Our Savior now gives these Sadducees further instruction “as touching the resurrection of the dead.” He used the formula He so often employed in speaking to those who professed to read the Scriptures, “Have ye not read? You reject the oral traditions which the Pharisees accept and teach in place of the commandments of God, have you not read that which was spoken unto you by God?” Jesus always manifested the utmost reverence for the revealed Word of God.

He here showed that the truth made known in the Scriptures is a very personal matter. This message was spoken to these Sadducees, although they did not know it; it was spoken by God, yet they did not receive it.

How necessary it is that we should search the Scriptures, lest there should be divinely-revealed truths that we have not even read! How needful, also, is the teaching of the Holy Spirit, lest we should read, as these Sadducees did, and yet not know the Scriptures!

Jesus might have referred to many passages in the Old Testament about the resurrection, but as the Sadducees regarded the Pentateuch with special honor, He quoted what Moses had recorded in Exodus 3:6, “I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob,” and then added His own comment and exposition, “God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.”

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had long been dead when the Lord spoke to Moses out of the burning bush. His words implied that the patriarchs were still living. His covenant was made with those who still existed.

There is much teaching in this truth, that “God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.” Some suppose that, until the resurrection, the saints are virtually non-existent, but this cannot be. Though disembodied, they still live. Jesus does not argue about it, but He states the fact as beyond all question.

The living God is the God of living men, and Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are still alive and identified as the same persons who lived on the earth. God is the God of Abraham’s body as well as of his soul, for the covenant seal was set upon his flesh. The grave cannot hold any portion of the covenanted ones. God is the God of our entire being, spirit, soul, and body.