R.C. Sproul

And so he now begins to correct their thinking.

He says, for when they rise from the dead, now that's strike one as far as the Sadducees say because Jesus affirms resurrection here.

He is saying to the Sadducees, you're mistaken about the resurrection, because they will rise from the dead, but they will neither marry nor will they be given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.

Now remember, He's talking to people who don't believe in resurrection and who don't believe angels.

Jesus said, there is a resurrection, and when we are raised, we'll be like those angels that you deny.

Now what does he mean when he says there's no marriage or giving in marriage?

Now when I read this text to my wife, this is where I'm in jeopardy.

I say, Jesus says here in clear language that in heaven there is no marriage, and there's no giving in marriage.

So, my dear, that should end the discussion once and for all.

And it's almost like she says to me, well, if we can't be married in heaven, I'm not sure I want to go there.

And I say, well, if you're not sure you want to go there, then maybe you won't go there.

Don't leave, honey.

but I did give her some little grain of hope, and that's about all it is.

It's an infinitesimal particle of hope that maybe that's not what Jesus means here, because there are some thinkers who believe that what Jesus is saying is not that there would be no marriage, but He uses this Hebrew idiom of marrying and given in marriage, where in the gospel of Matthew, for example, when Jesus is talking about His coming in judgment,

He's saying of that day, no one knows the day and the hour, but that His coming would be like it was in the days of Noah.

People will be marrying and giving in marriage.

Now when you look back at the text that describes the flood that destroyed the world in the days of Noah,

We see that God looks at the world and sees that men were only wicked continually, and everybody was doing what was right in their own eyes.

And when they described the corruption of that day, and Jesus said it's going to be just like it was in Noah's day, people are going to be eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage.

Now some scholars, and there are very few of them,