Daily Devotion

 

The Sadducees, then, came with this question about who would be the husband in heaven of the women who was married to seven different men. They regarded such a question as the kind of thing that made belief in the resurrection of the body ridiculous. Jesus gave them an answer that has a permanently valid truth in it.  He said that we must not think of heaven in terms of earth. Life there will be quite different because we will be quite different. It would save a mass of misdirected ingenuity, and not a little heartbreak, if we ceased to speculate on what heaven is like, and left things to the love of God.

 

Jesus went further. As I said yesterday, the Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection of the body. They declared they could not believe in it. because there was no information about it, still less any proof of it, in the books of the law which Moses was believed to have written. So far, no Rabbi had been able to meet them on that ground, but Jesus did. He pointed out that Moses himself had heard God say, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob" (Exodus 3:1-6), and that it was impossible that God should be the God of the dead. Therefore, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob must still be alive. Therefore, there was such a thing as the resurrection of the body. No wonder the scribes declared it to be a good answer, for Jesus had met the Sadducees on their own ground and defeated them.

 

It may be well that we find this an arid passage. It deals with burning questions of the time by means of arguments which a Rabbi would find completely convincing, but which are not convincing to the modern mind. However, out this very aridity there emerges a great truth for anyone who teaches or who wishes to commend Christianity to his friends. Jesus used arguments that the people he was arguing with could understand. He talked to them in their own language; He met them on their own ground; that is why the common people heard Him gladly. Jesus used language, and arguments that people could, and did understand; He met people using their own vocabulary, on their own ground, and with their own ideas. We will be better teachers, and better witnesses for Jesus when we do the same.

Life Application: When you talk to someone about Jesus, do you use simple quotes from scripture, and in modern English? I don't quote from the King James version. There are several modern English translations. Use the one you are familiar with.

 

Praise/Prayer: Dear Father, I am so thankful for the modern translations of the Bible. It is so much easier to understand, and to memorize. I love You, my Father. You have done so much to make the Bible easier to teach to new converts. Thank You for love that never stops flowing. Amen!