ANNOUNCER: The Saducees one day asked Jesus a very convoluted question about resurrection and marriage, trying to trip him up, of course, but it didn’t work. Interesting, though, that we learn a lot from his answer. Let’s talk about it in the next few minutes here on Grace in Focus. Glad you are joining us, friend. This is a radio broadcast and podcast ministry of the Grace Evangelical Society. Our website is faithalone.org. Learn there about our free online seminary with application and registration windows open now. If you’re interested in a full scholarship because of our generous donors, then get the information you need to apply and then to register. The Grace Evangelical Theological Seminary. Find what you need at faithalone.org/seminary. 

Now it’s today’s question and answer discussion. Here are Bob Wilkin and Sam Marr. 

SAM: All right, Bob. We’ve got a question from Isaiah. 

BOB: The prophet? 

SAM: Not the prophet, though I don’t know if he had the answer to this either. But the question is about Luke chapter 20 and the passage is 27 through 40. And this is when the Sadducees, who don’t believe in the resurrection, are asking Jesus questions trying to trip him up. They’re kind of disingenuous questions. 

BOB: And you know how we know how we remember that the Sadducees don’t believe in the resurrection? 

SAM: Because they were “sad, you see.” 

BOB: Yes, very good Sam. You just spoiled it. Good job. So the Sadducees didn’t believe it. They gave him this story about Levirate marriage. What was Levirate marriage? And the Jewish people, what would happen if your brother died childless? 

SAM: If your brother died, then you would take his wife so that he would still have an heir. 

BOB: Right. And the heir wouldn’t be yours. It would be his. And then if you were already married, of course, this would require you to take on a second wife, but you’d be raising whatever children for your brother, not for yourself. And so the Sadducees give this story about, what about this woman who had a husband and he died. And the guy had six brothers and she marries the second one and he dies, the third one, he dies, the fourth, the fifth, the sixth, all seven. And then they think they’ve stumped Jesus forever by saying in the resurrection, who will she be married to? Which one of the seven gets to be her husband forever? And that’s what does He say in verse 35 of Luke 20? 

SAM: Well, 34 says “The sons of this age, marry and are given in marriage. But those who are counted worthy to attain that age, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage.” 

BOB: Okay. So there’s two things we need to discuss there. First of all, “those who are counted worthy to attain that age and the resurrection of the dead.” That sounds awful odd because John 3:16 has nothing about being worthy. It’s just believing in Ephesians 2:8-9 says it’s not of works lest anyone should boast. It’s the gift of God. And in John 4:10, Jesus said everlasting life is the gift of God and He gives it freely to whoever wants it. 

So how do we deal with the “counted worthy?” And what I would suggest, I looked to see what we had in our Grace New Testament Commentary. And Al Valdez wrote in his explanation here that in Luke/Acts, Luke many times talks about being worthy or unworthy, worthy and unworthy of everlasting life, worthy or unworthy, attaining to the resurrection. And a famous passage is in Paul’s sermon in Antioch, when in Acts 13:46, he preaches in a Jewish synagogue and they’re arguing against him and rejecting what he says. And he says, “You judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life. So we turn to the Gentiles.” Judging yourselves unworthy of eternal life in that Acts 13:46 passage is saying, because you’re unwilling to believe, you have determined that you are not equal to having eternal life because the only one who is equal to or worthy of having eternal life is one who believes in the worthy one, the Lord Jesus Christ, you’ve got to believe in him for the gift. 

So I don’t think that part is a problem. This is talking about being worthy of two things, what, that age and the resurrection, right? But essentially, it would include everlasting life. But the other part of it is they’re not given into marriage, right? And in fact, in the parallel in Matthew 22, it says they’re like the angels, right? 

SAM: It says that in this one as well, but it seems like they’re talking about different things. In Matthew 22, he says “for in the resurrection, they neither married or given in marriage, but they are like the angels of God in heaven.” So there it’s clearly saying that that’s the comparison. In Luke, he talks about them not dying because they are like the angels. 

BOB: Here’s what I would suggest Isaiah is from a dispensational standpoint, we know that what’s coming is the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we know there’s a part one and a part two. Part one is called the Millennium. The word Millennium means a thousand, and so the Millennium is the thousand year reign of Christ, Revelation 20, verses 4, 5 and 6. And that thousand year reign will be right after the Rapture and the seven year Tribulation period, and then a short gap of 75 days during which there will be cleanup and the judgment of the nations and possibly the Judgment Seat of Christ will be in there or the Judgment Seat of Christ will be during the seven years. 

But either way, then we go into the Millennium. In the Millennium, there’ll be two different classes of human beings. There’ll be glorified human beings who are resurrected and immortal. And then there will be non-resurrected human beings that are mortal, they can die. Those non-resurrected ones will either come to faith during the Millennium, and be born again and they won’t. Now, we can imagine that this will be a very fertile time for evangelism because Jesus will be present on earth. The apostles will be present. All the church age peoples will be present. All the Old Testament saints will be present. And so there will be lots of opportunities for people to come to faith in Christ. 

ANNOUNCER: The Grace Evangelical Society’s recently published Old Testament Commentary, Volume One is now available. Find it at faithalone.org/store. It’s where you can also find Bob Wilkin’s latest book, The Gospel is Still Under Siege, as well as many other titles by Grace Evangelical Society authors. Please come by and have a look today. You’ll find the GES store at our website, faithalone.org. That’s faithalone.org/store. Now back to today’s topic.

BOB: Okay, so in part one, the first thousand years, Sam, you and me and all the church age people, we’re not going to be having children. We’re not going to be given into marriage during that time. You have this life, and if the Lord Terri’s for a hundred years, you may have grandkids and great grandkids before the Rapture, but we really don’t know when it’s going to be. But the truth is, there will not be glorified saints given in marriage or having offspring. 

In part two, same thing. There will be even more glorified people because people coming out of the Millennium will be glorified. And then there is this question, and now we’re getting into the twilight zone here, but will there be people born on the new earth? Now, most people say, well, of course not. In fact, most people don’t even think we’re going to live on the new earth. They think we’re going to live in the third heaven. But among those who believe we’ll live on the new earth, very few think that there will be children born. 

But it seems to me based on quite a few different hints and scripture, I think there will be children born. For example, if Adam and Eve had not sinned, eventually they would have fulfilled the command to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. And once the earth was full, either God would have stopped reproduction or He would have said, okay, I want you to go out and populate all these planets I’ve given you. Because, you can see I’ve given you hundreds of billions of planets that people can live on. And remember Isaiah said in the Hallelujah chorus, you know, an Isaiah 9, as to the increase of his government, there shall be no wind. And of course Abraham was promised that his descendants would be like the sands of the seashore and the stars in the sky. Right now there’s about 30 million Jews on earth. That’s nothing like the stars in the sky. And even if there are a few billion Jewish people at the end of the Millennium, that still is a far cry from the trillions of stars there are out there. 

So I think there will be children born. But if so, none of the glorified people are going to have children. It’s going to be the people in natural bodies, if there are people in natural bodies. And by the way, the only way that can happen is if somebody is born, like Adam and Eve were created and that is they’re born innocent. But unlike Adam and Eve, they’re born with an inability to sin. In other words, they would be like Adam and Eve would have been if they had passed the test. At some point, God would have made them to where they wouldn’t sin. So yeah, I think there will be children born in eternity because I think God loves babies just like we love babies. And God wants variety and he wants things to keep increasing. But having said that, it’s going to be people in natural bodies. 

SAM: And it’s important to note that all of that is somewhat in the speculative area of interpreting Scripture. 

BOB: I think “somewhat” is an understatement.

SAM: It’s fully in the speculative area where we just don’t have a clear verse to say, yes, this is God’s eternal plan. But the fact that it’s not in Scripture means that it’s not necessary for us to know one way or the other because it doesn’t affect how we live for Christ now, how we run our race. It’s not strictly relevant to those things. 

BOB: Okay. So let’s think about this. Let’s say Sam, you get married in the next few years and you have children and grandchildren, and then you’re raptured as an old man. Would you think that you would have some great loss if you’re not able to be married and have more children in eternity? 

SAM: I trust that God is going to do right by me if that’s how my life goes. 

BOB: Yeah, that’s the way I look at it is Sharon and I never had kids and I wish we had, but we didn’t. The truth is I’m fully confident that I’ll be fine with that in eternity. I’m okay with it now and I’ll be okay with it in eternity. And the fact that I can’t add children in eternity is not going to bug me. We’re going to be perfectly content and we’re going to be joyful forever. Whatever God has in store for us and we don’t know all of it. It’s going to be awesome. 

SAM: Yeah, which verse says different strokes for different folks? 

BOB: I don’t think we have a verse quite on that, but I agree with you. 

SAM: I think this is one of those areas where this is part of being a Christian is trusting God’s sovereignty and his plan that it’s better than what we could come up with because it is. I mean, we can speculate all day and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it. But at the end of the day, we have to trust in Him and we have to trust that whatever, the same people that say eternity is going to be boring because I can’t do all the things I’ll, you know, I do here and now we have to trust that whatever’s waiting for us is better than what we think is so great here and now. 

BOB: Absolutely. And by the way, if you want to be worthy to attain to the coming age and attain to the resurrection and worthy of eternal life, Acts 13:46, all you have to do is believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, Acts 16:31, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and shall be saved. 

Well, thank you Isaiah and thank you, Sam, and thank you all for listening and remember, let’s all keep grace in focus. 

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