John Calvin Commentary Luke 20:37

"But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed, in [the place concerning] the Bush, when he calleth the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." — Luke 20:37 (ASV)

But that the dead shall rise. After refuting the objection brought against Him, Christ confirms, by the testimony of Scripture, the doctrine of the final resurrection.

This is the order that must always be observed. Having repelled the slanders of the enemies of the truth, we must make them understand that they oppose the word of God, for until they are convicted by the testimony of Scripture, they will always be at liberty to rebel.

Christ quotes a passage from Moses because He was dealing with the Sadducees, who had no great faith in the prophets, or who, at least, held them in no higher estimation than we do the Book of Ecclesiasticus or the History of the Maccabees.

Another reason was that, as they had brought forward Moses, He chose rather to refer to the same writer than to quote any of the prophets. Besides, He did not aim at collecting all the passages of Scripture, as we see that the apostles do not always use the same proofs on the same subject.

And yet we must not imagine that there were no good reasons why Christ seized on this passage (Exodus 3:6) in preference to others; but He selected it with the best judgment — though it might appear to be somewhat obscure — because it ought to have been well known and distinctly remembered by the Jews, as it was a declaration that they were redeemed by God because they were the children of Abraham.

There, indeed, God declares that He is come down to deliver an afflicted people, but at the same time adds that He acknowledges that people as His own, in respect of adoption, on account of the covenant which He had made with Abraham.

How does it happen that God regards the dead rather than the living, but because He assigns the first rank of honor to the fathers, in whose hands He had placed His covenant? And in what respect would they have the preference, if they had been extinguished by death?

This is also clearly expressed by the nature of the relation; for as no man can be a father without children, nor a king without a people, so, strictly speaking, the Lord cannot be called the God of any but the living.

Christ’s argument, however, is drawn not so much from the ordinary form of expression as from the promise which is contained in these words. For the Lord offers Himself to be our God on the condition of receiving us, on the other hand, as His people, which alone is sufficient for the assurance of perfect happiness. Hence that saying of the Church by the prophet Habakkuk (Habakkuk 1:12):

Thou art our God from the beginning: we shall not die.

Since, therefore, the Lord promises salvation to all to whom He declares that He is their God, and since He says this respecting Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, it follows that there remains for the dead a hope of life. If it is objected that souls may continue to exist, though there is no resurrection of the dead, I replied, a little before, that those two are connected, because souls aspire to the inheritance laid up for them, though they do not yet reach that condition.