Dr. Bingham’s Lesson for March 25, 2012

Series in Mark

“Marriage and the Resurrection” – Mark 12:18-27

Mark 12:18-25
People who do not know the scriptures doubt the power of God, because the scriptures loudly proclaim His power. Many people in the church think that when they die they will continue in a state of existence without a body forever; they aren’t expecting to be resurrected physically. We will, however, always be human. This passage does not teach that we become angels, only that in the resurrection we are like angels in not marrying. When we die, our spirits do go immediately to be with the Lord in heaven, but there will come a day when our spirits are united with a new version of our old bodies that is incorruptible, immortal, and glorious.

Mark 12:26-27
Jesus could have gone to Daniel 12, which clearly talks about the resurrection or He could have gone to Psalm 16 or to other passages, but He chose to go to Exodus 3, in which the Lord appears to Moses from a bush that appears to burn.
Jesus presents the resurrection as an essential component of the Christian faith.

Exodus 3:1-7, 2:23-25
Twice in these passages, Moses reminds everyone that God has made a covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The covenant involved giving something not only to their descendants but to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, themselves.

Genesis 17:8
The land of Canaan is promised as an everlasting possession not only to Abraham’s descendants but to Abraham, personally, forever.
If God is going to give the land of Canaan to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and their descendants forever then God must raise them from the dead. Death ends the marriage covenant but death does not end the covenant God made with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and their descendants.