Ryle on Mark 12:18-27

Imported boundary: J. C. Ryle's Expository Thoughts on Mark from the Internet Archive DjVu OCR for the 1858 Robert Carter St. Mark volume. Title pages, preface, contents, running heads, page numbers, OCR boilerplate, and indexes are not mirrored. The source includes Ryle's printed Scripture text and exposition; this scan-derived text remains needs-verification.

Primary passage: Mark 12:18-27.

Source Text

18 Then come unto him the Sad- ducees, -which say there is no resur- rection ; and they asked him, saying, 19 Master, Moses wrote unto us, If a man's brother die, and leave his wife behind him, and leave no children, that his brother should take his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother. 20 Now there were seven brethren : and the first took a wife, and dying left no seed. 21 And the second took her, and died, neither left he any seed; and the third likewise. 22 And the seven had her, and left no seed : last of all the woman died also. 23 In the resurrection therefore, when they shall rise, whose wife shall she be of them f for the seven had her to wife. 24 And Jesus answering said unto them, Do ye not therefore err, because ye know not the Scriptures, neither the power of God ? 25 For when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage ; but are as the angels which are in heaven. 26 And as touching the dead, that they rise : have ye not read in the book of Moses, how in the bush God spake unto him, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob ? 27 He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living : ye there- fore do greatly err. is worth reading, as an illustration of the subject now before us. " Julian was an unbelieving emperor. He was an apostate, a wicked man, and an idolater. And yet Christian men served as soldiers un- der this unbelieving emperor. When the cause of Christ was con- cerned, they acknowledged no commander but Him that was in heaven. When the emperor wished them to worship idols or burn incense to them, they preferred honoring God before him. But when he said, ' draw out in order of battle, march against that nation,' they obeyed him. They drew a distinction between their eternal master, and their temporal master; and yet were submissive to their temporal master for their eternal master's sake." These verses relate a conversation between our Lord Jesus Christ and the Sadducees. The religion of these men, we know, was little better than infidelity. They said there was " no resurrection." They too, like the Pharisees, thought to entangle and perplex our Lord with hard questions. The Church of Christ must not expect to fare better than its Master. Formalism on one side and infidelity on another, are two enemies for whose attacks we must always be prepared.

We learn from this passage, how much unfairness may often be detected in the arguments of infidels. The question propounded by the Sadducees is a strik- ing illustration of this. They tell him of a woman who married seven brothers in succession, had no children, and outlived her seven husbands. They ask, " whose wife" of all the seven the woman would be "in the res- urrection " It may well be surmised that the case was a supposed and not a real one. On the face of it there is the strongest appearance of improbability. The chances against such a case occurring in reality, any ac- tuary would tell us, are almost infinite. But that was nothing to the Sadducees. All they cared for was to raise a difficulty, and if possible to put our Lord to silence. The doctrine of the resurrection they had not the face manfully to deny. The possible consequences of the doctrine were the ground which they chose to take up. There are three things which we shall do well to re- member, if unhappily we have at any time to argue with infidels. For one thing, let us remember that an infidel will always try to press us with the difficulties and ab- struse things of religion, and especially with those which 257 are connected with the world to come.

We must avoid this mode of argument as far as possible. It is leaving the open field to fight in a jungle.

We must endeavor, as far as we can, to make our discussion turn on the great plain facts and evidences of Christianity. 'For another thing, let us remember, we must be on our guard against unfairness and dishonesty in argument. It may seem hard and uncharitable to say this. But experience proves that it is needful. Thousands of professed infidels have con- fessed in their latter days that they had never studied the Bible which they pretended to deny, and though well read in the works of unbelievers and sceptics, had never calmly examined the foundations of Christianity. Above all, let us remember that every infidel has a con- science. To this we may always appeal confidently. The very men who talk most loudly and disdainfully against religion, are often feeling conscious, even while they talk, that they are wrong. The very arguments which they have sneered at and ridiculed, will often prove at last not to have been thrown away.

We learn, in the second place, from this passage, how much of religious error may be traced to ignorance of the Bible. Our Lord's first words in reply to the Sadducees declare this plainly. He says, " Do ye not err, because ye know not the Scriptures " The truth of the principle here laid down, is proved by facts in almost every age of church history. The re- formation in Josiah's day was closely connected with the discovery of the book of the law. The false doctrines of the Jews in our Lord's time were the result of neglecting the Scriptures. The dark ages of Christendom were times when the Bible was kept back from the people. The Protestant Reformation was mainly effected by translating and circulating the Bible. The churches whicli are most flourishing at this day, are churches which honor the Bible. The nations which enjoy most moral light, are nations in which the Bible is most known. The parishes in our land where there is most true religion, are those in which the Bible is most studied. The goclliest families are Bible-reading families. The holiest men and women are Bible-reading people. These are simple facts which cannot be denied. Let these things sink deeply into our hearts, and bear fruit in our lives. Let us not be ignorant of the Bible, lest we fall into some deadly error. Let us rather read it diligently, and make it our rule of faith and practice. Let us labor to spread the Bible over the world. The more the book is known, the better the world will be. Not least, let us teach our children to value the Bible. The very best portion we can give them, is a knowledge of the Scriptures.

We learn, in the last place, from this passage, how differ- ent will be the state of things after the resurrection, from the state in which we live now. Our Lord tells us, that " when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage ; but are as the angels which are in heaven." It would be foolish to deny that there are many dif- ficulties connected with the doctrine of the life to come. It must needs be so. The world beyond the grave is a world unseen by mortal eye, and therefore unknown. The conditions of existence there, are necessarily hidden from us, and if more were told, we should probably not under- stand it. Let it suffice us to know that the bodies of the 259 saints shall be raised, and, though glorified, shall be like their bodies on earth - so like, that those who knew them once shall know them again. But though raised with a real body, the risen saint will be completely freed from every thing which is now an evidence of weakness and infirmity. There shall be nothing like Mahomet's gross and sensual Paradise in the Christian's future existence. Hunger and thirst being no more - there shall be no need of food. Weariness and fatigue being no more - there shall be no need of sleep. Death being no more - -there shall be no need of births to supply the place of those who are removed. Enjoying the full presence of God and His Christ - men and women shall no more need the marriage union, in order to help one another. Able to serve God without weariness, and attend on Him without distraction - doing His will perfectly, and seeing His face continually - clothed in a glorious body - they shall be " as the angels which are in heaven." There is comfort in all this for the true Christian. In the body that he now has he often " groans, being burdened/' from a daily sense of weakness and imperfection. (2 Cor. v. 4.) He is now tried by many cares about this world- -what to eat, and what to drink, and what to put on - how to manage his affairs, where to live, and what company to choose. In the world to come, all shall be changed. Nothing shall be lacking to make his happiness complete. One thing only we must carefully bear in mind.

Let us take heed that we rise again in "the resurrection of life," and not in " the resurrection of condemnation." (John v. 29.) To the believer in the Lord Jesus, the resurrec- tion will be the greatest of blessings. To the worldly, the godless, and the profane, the resurrection will be a misery and a curse. Let us never rest till we are one with Christ and Christ in us? and then we may look for- ward with joy to a life to come.*

* The text by which our Lord silenced the Sadducees, and proved the resurrection to be a scriptural doctrine - has been a cause of sur- prise to many Bible readers. Some have wondered that our Lord should have chosen this text, when others far more plain might have been adduced. Some have been unable to see the force and cogency of the text as any proof at all of the resurrection of the body. As to the particular fitness of the text, as a proof, compared to others we are perhaps very poor judges. It may well be suspected that there is a fulness of meaning in some texts of Scripture, which in our hasty and superficial reading we have not yet fathomed. At any rate it is clear that to a Jewish hearer of the Lord the argument was so forcible as to be unanswerable. This quotation and the fa- mous one in John x. 34, go far to show that the Jewish mind saw a depth of meaning in scriptural expressions which many of us in modern times have not at all seen yet. It is a matter in which we have much to learn. As to the text, " I am the God of Abraham, &c," being a con- vincing proof of the resurrection of the body, there is a passage in Bishop Pearson, which is worth reading. He says of this text as quoted by our Lord, " With the force of this argument the multitude was astonished, and the Sadducees silenced. For under the name of God was understood a great benefactor, a God of promise, and to be ' their God' was to bless them and reward them ; as in them to be ' his servants,' and ' his people' was to believe in him and obey him. Now Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had not received the promise which they expected, and therefore God after their death desiring still to be called ' their God,' he thereby acknowledge th that he had a blessing and a reward for them still, and consequently that he will raise them to another life, in which they may receive it. So that the argument of our Saviour is the same which the Jews have drawn from another place of Moses. (Exod. vi. 3, 4.) • 'I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by my name Jehovah was I not made known to them. Nevertheless I have established my covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan.1 It is not said ' to give their sons,' but ' to give them the land,' and therefore because while they lived here they enjoyed it not, they must rise again that they may receive the promise." 261