What did Jesus say about angels?

The Lord answers their question first, and then rebukes the unbelief which had inspired it. The question He answers with a simple affirmation, in which He contradicts another article of their unbelieving creed, ― that there were no angels (Acts 23:8). It was sufficient to meet a mere argument from their ignorance with His own perfect knowledge. Angels there were, and in the resurrection the saints would be like these, neither marrying nor giving in marriage. They knew not the power of God, and could conceive of nothing else than a mere reproduction of earthly conditions. Their perplexity was but the fruit of their own carnal imaginations.

"The sons of this world," was His answer, "marry and are given in marriage; but they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world and the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. For [as we should read] neither can they die any more; for they are equal to the angels; and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection" (20:34-36). The Sadducees of that day, like many a person in subsequent ages, could conceive of nothing different from that which they had known. Here marriages take place. Hence in their thoughts, if there was a resurrection, marriages must also be contracted on high. Their deduction was fallacious. Marriages do not take place among the saints in heaven. And the Lord gives a reason for that, reported, as we find, only by Luke: "For [this important conjunction has been left out by the A.V.] neither can they die any more." Death reigns not there; hence marriage, by which the race is perpetuated on earth, has no place on high. Further, they are equal to angels, and all of them are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection. The test case, so conclusive to those Sadducees against a resurrection, broke down at once. The condition necessitated for its validity will not exist. The Sadducees, trusting to their very limited knowledge, made shipwreck of the faith by denying a fundamental truth, as we now know that of the resurrection to be (1 Cor. 15:13-17). He who came down from heaven here declares the condition of saints in heaven, thereby showing the baselessness of Sadducean ground and the folly of their contention.

Luke now adds a few words which are of universal importance, and deeply concern all men: "For all live to Him." Dead to us here, they live to God. Death, then, does not terminate any man's existence. They live to God. This refers of course to all the dead, and concerns therefore all the living. The Sadducees had raised a question of a resurrection of the body. The Lord in reply showed that He rejected all their distinctive tenets, as stated in Acts 23:8. The resurrection is a Scripture truth. Angels there are, and the saints when raised will be equal to them. Spirits, too, exist, for all the unclothed live to God. Into the far-reaching results of resurrection the Lord did not here enter. Resurrection from the dead was still a future event. When that, however, had been established by the Lord's resurrection, the Spirit of God opened up the subject further (1 Cor. 15).

Since the fact was there in Scripture the Lord, true to His Servant character, appealed to the Scripture and did not assert the fact dogmatically on His own authority. What He did state dogmatically is in verse 25, where he makes dear the state or condition into which resurrection will introduce us, thus going beyond what the Old Testament taught. The resurrection world differs from this world. Earthly relationships cease in those heavenly conditions. We are not to be angels, but we are to be "as the angels which are in heaven." Immortality and incorruptibility will be ours.

We find on another occasion that certain of the Sadducees came to Him, putting a difficulty, because of a woman supposed to be married to seven brethren. In the case reasoned on these seven successively died, and last of all the woman died also. In the resurrection then, they ask, whose wife should she be of the seven? The Lord at once points out that the difficulty was founded on ignorance of scripture or of the power of God. In the resurrection they shall neither marry, nor be given in marriage, but shall be like the angels; that is, like them in that respect, not in all things, for they will judge angels; but like them in so far as this, that there will be no distinction of sex — neither marrying nor given in marriage. "Neither can they die any more." But He adds, "They which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, [or rather 'dispensation'] and the resurrection from the dead," etc. This would be an extraordinary expression, if all were raised at the same time. "They that shall be counted worthy to obtain that age;" for the last word does not refer to the material world, but to a special dispensation or age, which the unworthy do not obtain. Weigh the force of the phrase. The resurrection of the saints is in an age peculiar to themselves. "They which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that age (the other dead are only raised after it), and the resurrection from the dead." The resurrection of Christ was not merely a resurrection of the dead, but out of the dead. He left them undisturbed in their tombs. There were certain saints who rose with Him, or rather came out of their graves after His resurrection; but the great mass of the dead were so far unaffected by Christ's resurrection. And so is it with the saints in principle. Theirs is to be a resurrection from among the dead. The rest of the dead must rise at another time; but they who shall be accounted worthy shall obtain that age, and the resurrection from the dead. They shall not die any more. Could God show more strongly, than by this language, a distinct and prior resurrection of the saints of God?

Some passages in Luke's Gospel may be profitably looked at in this connection. In Luke 14:14 we read, "Thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just." What does this mean if all rise together? Is it not something special, something blessed, that the Lord holds out in this place? Look also at Luke 20:35-36. In the course of His reply to the cavil of the Sadducees the Lord said, "They which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world (age), and the resurrection from (from among) the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage: neither can they die any more, for they are equal to the angels; and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection." Clearly this is not the mere general fact of resurrection. That cannot be a matter of attainment, for no one can shirk it. The most ungodly man must rise again and stand before the throne. Obviously the verse treats of the special portion of the saved when the Lord claims His own. Such will then be raised from among the great mass of the dead and made equal in condition to the angels. Our calling is superior, for we are children and sons, while angels are but servants; our condition until the Lord's coming is inferior, but this He will change then by His mighty power.

165 After settling the question as to this world between God and the people, He next meets the Sadducean or sceptical difficulty as to the next world; verses 27-38. The Lord shews the place of the risen saints in entire contrast with the world. The idea of a general resurrection is set aside. If all rise together, there is uncertainty, a common judgment, etc.; but if the saints are raised by themselves because they are children of God, leaving the rest of the dead for another and distinctive resurrection - a resurrection of judgment, all is changed. No passage of scripture speaks of both rising together. The resurrection is that which most of all distinguishes, and this for ever. It is the grand testimony to the difference between good and bad. The saint will be raised because of the Spirit of Christ that dwells in him - the application to his body of that power of life in Christ which has already quickened his soul. It is a resurrection from among the dead, as was Christ's. So here, "they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that age," for such it is, "and the resurrection from the dead." "They are equal to the angels, and are the children of God." Luke adds another characteristic point omitted elsewhere; "all live unto him." It is the present blessed living unto God of those who have died, and await the resurrection from among the dead.

Do the other passages which speak of this subject confirm this, or do they shew that some fallacies have entered into our minds, and that these passages do not teach this, however plain they may seem? All other passages fully confirm the doctrine, that there is a distinct resurrection of the just. "Thou shalt be recompensed," says the Lord, "at the resurrection of the just." There is such a thing as a distinctive resurrection of the just (Luke 14:14). Again (Luke 20:35), "but they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage: 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." Here some are counted worthy to obtain a resurrection from the dead, in which they are as angels, and proved to be the children of God because they belong to it and it to them. If all were raised together, this could not be true. There is a resurrection which belongs to the children of God only, and proves they are such.

One of these passages is Christ's answer to the Sadducees when they sought to perplex Him about the resurrection. He replies (the answer in Mark is similar), "They which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that age (not world), and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage; 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" (Luke 20:35-36). Here the expression used is resurrection from the dead, and does the passage imply a general or an exclusive resurrection? It cannot be a general resurrection, for all those who have part in it are like the angels, are the children of God, are counted worthy to obtain it, and die no more. It must be an exclusive resurrection, then, and observe how it corresponds morally with the "first resurrection," about which it is said that those who have part in it are "blessed and holy," beyond the power of "the second death," and priests of God and of Christ. What, then, is the "age" which these "children of the resurrection" are counted worthy to obtain? Here, again, we see the accuracy of Scripture, for surely this age can only be the period of a thousand years during which they live and reign with Christ.

But the doctrine of the first resurrection is not based upon this text alone. It is everywhere distinguished in the New Testament as "the resurrection from the dead" (not from death merely); a special, selective one. Thus in the Lord's answer to the Sadducees, "those that shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world and the resurrection from the dead … are equal unto the angels; and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection" (Luke 20:35-36).