“But regarding the fact that the dead rise again, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the burning bush, how God spoke to him, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead, but of the living; you are greatly mistaken.”
At that time when Jesus Christ is evangelizing, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were dead for a long time. Also, when GOD introduced Himself to Moses, even Joseph, the son of Jacob whom GOD named Israel, already perished. It is sometimes peculiar to think that Jesus Christ pertains to those who died are the ones who are alive, and those who are alive are the ones who are dead.
We remember that in Matthew 8:22, Jesus said to a man who wanted to be His disciple, “Follow Me, and allow the dead to bury their own dead.” If we think that this is weird, then it is normal. Welcome to the holiness of the weirdoes in this world, as this is incomprehensible by the ‘normal’ beings. 1 Corinthians 1:18 says, “For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” Christianity really is insanity to those who have not known GOD. They know that there is God, but have not known who HE is. That is the problem of these sets of Sadducees who questioned Jesus about the resurrection. And His answer was quoted in Mark 12:26-27; our verse today. He cited the passage about the burning bush when GOD introduced Himself to Moses, saying God is the God of those three patriarchs who died but are living because of their faith. It can only be understood by those who think outside their minds, the box. 1 Peter 4:6 says, “For the gospel has for this purpose has been preached even to those who are dead, that though they are judged in the flesh as men, they may live in the spirit according to the will of God.”
The truth is if you are living in the Holy Spirit, there’s resurrection in you. Saints Peter, James, and John witnessed that Moses and Elijah were alive in the transfiguration of Jesus Christ (Matthew 17:3-4). If we still baffled, let’s elicit the story of Lazarus who resurrected four days after his body died. Jesus said to his sister Martha in John 11:25-26 “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?” .” Many ultimately at that time proved that this foolishness has the power of GOD in it. Nowadays, if we believe Jesus Christ, we are now alive not dead in Spirit.
There are two kinds of dead and two kinds of alive people. Those two kinds fall on the same categories; it depends on whose spirit is in them: the living Spirit which is the Spirit of Truth or the dead spirit which is the spirit of error. If you die but have the living Spirit in you, you are considered alive even your body died, but if you are alive but have the dead spirit in you, you are dead even your body is alive. What matter is, that now, while our body is alive, we have to be sure that we are living in the Holy Spirit, in a simple word; the Holy Spirit is IN us, because if we still living in sins, we are considered dead in spirit. Jesus encourages us to ask our Father GOD for the Holy Spirit to be given to us (Luke 11:13). As good as He is, He even ask for us for the Holy Spirit to give us true life while we are living. He said I John 14:16-17, “ I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be IN you.”
That is why GOD is the God of the living not the dead, the living like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, because they have the Spirit of GOD in them, same us who are alive because we receive the Spirit of GOD through Jesus Christ. He said in John 6:63, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.” If we do not receive and live according to His words, we deny Jesus as our LORD, therefore, we are dead and have no Spirit in us. It says in the Holy Scripture, “ Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus is accursed”; and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.” (1 Corinthians 12:3)
Jesus also will deny those who are dead in spirit because they first deny Him by rejecting His words. He said in Matthew 10:33, “ But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven.”
So my dear brothers and sisters, test whose spirit is living in you. St John guides us in 1 John 4:1-6, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world. You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is IN you than he who is in the world. They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God; the one who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.” Therefore be alive in the Truth! AMEN
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