This World, That World (2)

Luke 20:34-38 (34) And Jesus answering said unto them, The children of this world marry, and are given in marriage: (35) But they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage: (36) Neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels; and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection. (37) Now that the dead are raised, even Moses shewed at the bush, when he calleth the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. (38) For he is not a God of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto him. As noted in the previous meditation on this text (This World, That World), Jesus was here refuting the great error of the Sadducees who denied the doctrine of the resurrection. Here are some more observations from this text: 1. That world, the “...world to come...” (LUK 18:30), is the home of the throne of the kingdom of God. Jesus Christ's kingdom is “...not of this world...” (JOH 18:36), but of that world. Messiah's Davidic throne of promise was ever meant to be established as “...a faithful witness in heaven” (PSA 89:35-37). There is a dark “...prince of this world...” (JOH 14:30) but that world has the “...Prince of Peace” (ISA 9:6), the “...KING OF KINGS...” (REV 19:16) reigning over all powers visible and invisible in heaven and earth (COL 1:16-20; 1PE 3:22). Jesus Christ is the “...prince of the kings of the earth...” (REV 1:5), be they men or spirits; God “...set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come...” (EPH 1:20-21). “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God” (COL 3:1). “And be not conformed to this world...” (ROM 12:2). 2. The children of this world marry, and are given in marriage. Marriage between man and woman was the first divinely ordained human institution. Jesus described it as being ordained “...from the beginning of the creation...” (MAR 10:6-9) when He spoke of Adam and Eve. This could not be true if, as some professing Christians affirm, the beginning of the creation took place eons before Adam and Eve. Marriage was also then ordained as the first form of human government wherein one human has rule over another. Some think that the woman's subordination to the man was a judgment brought in by the curse but Paul makes clear that the idea of a woman usurping authority over the man is wrong simply because God made Adam before He made Eve (1TI 2:11-13; 1CO 11:3-9); the curse came later. Mind that the original marriage was of one man and one woman, which Jesus Christ obviously confirmed as the only acceptable definition of marriage. Marriage has proven to be a durable institution, surviving all manner of rejection, abuses and perversions of its proper form. In the days of Noah, all flesh had corrupted God's way, thus provoking the Flood (GEN 6:11-13). Sodom and Gomorrah were infamous for “...giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh...” (JUDE 1:7), specifically demonstrated by the men of the city desiring to bugger the young men that came to rescue Lot (GEN 19:4-5). Yet in both of those depraved cultures (Noah's and Lot's), “...they married wives, they were given in marriage...” (LUK 17:26-29). From these examples it should be noted that divine obliteration did not await a total abandonment of God-ordained institutions. And, “Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed” (LUK 17:30). Only then will this world fully give way to that world and marriage abandoned.