SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/29/2023 8:57 AM
My Worship Time Focus: “Ignorance
of God’s Power”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
Matthew 22:30
Message of the verse: “30 “For in the
resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are like angels
in heaven.”
I want to begin with something that I quoted from
John MacArthur in our last SD to help us get a good start in this one: “The Lord then explains, in reverse order, how they misunderstood God’s Word and
God’s Power.”
You
may remember that in my discussion about the Sadducees that I stated that they
did not believe in the resurrection, and they did not believe in angels, and so
Jesus talks about both in verse 30.
Jesus declared here that men and women neither marry, nor are given in
marriage, in the resurrection. “The
relationship of marriage is beautiful and divinely ordained, but it is an
entirely earthly and temporal institution” (MacArthur’s commentary).
He
goes on to write “Sexual relationships, reproduction, and childbirth have no
place in heaven because there is no death there and no new life born as there
is on earth. Nor will there will be any
exclusive relationship in heaven, because everyone will be perfectly and
intimately related to everyone else, including to the living God Himself. In heaven, men will be like angels, equally
spiritual in nature, equally deathless, equally glorified, and equally
eternal. Luke reports Jesus’ additional
statement that resurrected believers ‘are sons of God, being sons of the
resurrection’ (Luke 20:36).”
One of the many problems of the Pharisees teaching
was about their view on the resurrection, as they taught that one’s
resurrection body will be the same as their earthly body had been. This teaching confused the believers in
Corinth about this subject. Paul, in
trying to explain in terms that those immature and misinformed Christians could
understand wrote the falling in 1 Corinthians 15:39-44 and 48-49 the following.
39 All flesh is not the same flesh, but there
is one flesh of men, and another flesh of beasts, and another flesh of
birds, and another of fish. 40 There are also heavenly bodies and earthly
bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is one, and the glory of the
earthly is another. 41 There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the
moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory. 42 So
also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown a perishable body, it
is raised an imperishable body; 43 it is sown in dishonor, it is raised
in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; 44 it is sown a
natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there
is also a spiritual body… 48 As is the earthy, so also are those who are earthy; and
as is the heavenly, so also are those who are heavenly. 49 Just as we have
borne the image of the earthy, we will also bear the image of the heavenly.
The truth is, and many have trouble is, that God’s
limitless power is easily able to transform the earthly into the heavenly. It is really foolish that someone deny the
resurrection idea that God is restricted to raising up dead bodies in the same
form as that in which they died. This
foolishness attracts the power of God.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: It is my belief that God can do anything that
He desires to do for His glory with of course the exception of committing a
sin, which He could never do.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust the Lord through His Spirit to cause me
to do the things that He has called me to do in eternity past in order to bring
glory to Him.
8/29/2023 9:30 AM
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