Matthew 22:32-33

Matthew 22:32. I am the God of Abraham, etc. Exodus 3:6. Spoken to Moses from the burning bush. The name given by Jehovah to Himself, setting forth His self-existence and eternity (Exodus 3:14-15), supports the doctrine of our immortality, body and soul. God continues (‘I am,' not ‘I was') in covenant relation to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (‘the God of Abraham,' etc.). As these patriarchs had in their bodies the sign of this covenant, the body is included in whatever promise is involved.

God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. This saying added by our Lord may be thus expanded: This personal, living God is the God of living persons, He calls Himself the continuing covenant God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, therefore the statement of Moses involves the truth, that after their death Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are still living. This is Christ's authoritative exposition of the previous revelation. The Bible treats man as a unit, and while it implies the separation of body and soul after death until the resurrection, plainly intimates that the blessedness of the future state will be incomplete until body and soul are reunited (comp. especially Romans 8:11; Romans 8:23). Only then will we be like Christ, who has a glorified body (Philippians 3:21, etc.). Our Lord's answer (comp. Luke 20:32: ‘for all live to Him') may be used as an argument against the unconscious state of the soul between death and the resurrection.

Matthew 22:33. The multitudes. The question was put publicly. The Sadducees hoped for an evil effect on the multitudes, but they were astonished, as they might well be, at his teaching, which confounded them, maintaining the authority of the law, yet shedding new light upon it.