But concerning the dead, that they rise, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the burning bush passage, how God spoke to him, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? (27) He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living. You are therefore greatly mistaken. (Mk 12:26-27)
Jesus is speaking with the Sadducees, who did not believe in resurrection from the dead.
In verse 27, the word mistaken correctly communicates deceived. This indicates to me that there is an important point hidden in this verse that we need to investigate.
Jesus was discussing resurrection from the dead with the Sadducees, and the disciples were pleased with Jesus’ statement above in Mark 12:27, since they felt it was His verbal victory.
We can see that the gospel of Luke echoes the main point:
For He is not the God of the dead but of the living, for all live to Him. (Lk 20:38)
This verse reminds us that “all live to Him,” meaning that to the Lord, no human being is ever dead or will be, but all mankind sustain an abiding conscious relation to Him. (Source of italicized, bold type material: Jamieson, Faussett & Brown)
The “all” who live to Him mean “those accounted worthy to obtain that world.” (see Lk 20:35) They maintain a loving covenant relationship with the Lord which will never end.
How helpful is this to us in the here and now? The Bible states that God made mankind in His own image. (Gen 1:26a; 27; 9:6) Because we’re made in the image of God, once a human being has been born on this earth, it means that their soul [the essence of their identity and consciousness] will live for eternity.
For we know that if our earthly house [our body], this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. (2 Cor 5:1, bracketed comment added)
We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. (2 Cor 5:8, emphasis added)
That is why God provided our salvation through Jesus Christ, so that we could spend eternity with Him. We live unto God while here in the flesh; and when we vacate our body, we go on to live with the Lord in Heaven.
We serve the living God (1 Thes 1:9; Heb 9:14)—the God of the living. Hallelujah!
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