“But in the account of the burning bush, even Moses showed that the dead rise, for he calls the Lord ‘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, for to him all are alive” (Luke 20:37-38).

Jesus was talking to Sadducees and they did not believe in the reality of a resurrection. They were the secularists of Jesus’ day, more concerned with political power in the present than eternity in the future. Jesus was correcting their false view of life after death. God is not the God of the dead, but of the living, “for to him all are alive.”

It is easy to think of life as our time on earth. Jesus taught that our lives extend far beyond our natural lifetimes. When we die physically we go on living. Paul said of believers that when we are absent from the body we are present with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:8). Moses at the burning bush called God the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They are still alive.

The woman who nursed the agnostic, Professor J. H. Huxley, through his last illness said that as he lay dying he suddenly looked up, stared and whispered his last words, “So it is true.” It is true! There is life after we die physically and for those who believe in Jesus it is life in the presence of God forever.