20:37-38 What does Jesus mean that God is not a God of the dead but the living?
20:37-38 What does Jesus mean that God is not a God of the dead but the living?
What Jesus says here that God is not a God of the dead but the living, proves that man's soul and spirit is immortal.
All people - whether departed from their earthly bodies or not - are still living, and will live forever. When God spoke to Moses out of the burning bush identifying Himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, He used the present tense (cp Ex 3:1-6).
Death does not mean complete annihilation, as some teach. The soul and the spirit are immortal (cp Isa 66:22-24; Dan 12:2; Jn 5:28-29; Ro 14:7-9; 1Cor 15:51-58; 2Cor 5:8; Php 1:20-23; He 11:13-16). Only the body dies at physical death (cp Jas 2:26).
The righteous who have died are in a conscious state in Heaven (cp Eph 4:8-10; He 12:22-23; Rev 6:9-11).
The unrighteous who have died are in a conscious state in hell (cp Isa 14:9; 66:24; Mt 8:11-12; 10:28; 13:41-42, 49-50; 22:13-14; 24:50-51; 25:29-30, 41-46; Mk 9:42-48; Lk 16:19-31; Rev 20:11-15).
See also comments on Lk 16:19-21; 2Cor 5:6-9,