Answer
In Matthew 21:23—22:46, Jesus found Himself in challenging exchanges with the leaders of the Jewish temple in Jerusalem. These spiritual elders, far from seeking enlightenment, were actively confronting Jesus’ authority. Their aim was not to engage in a spiritual discourse but to find a way to trap Jesus, leading to His arrest and condemnation (see Matthew 19:3; 21:46; 22:15). It was in response to one of their trick questions that Jesus said, “For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels of God in heaven” (Matthew 22:30, NKJV).
The question that prompted Jesus’ response came from the Sadducees. They sought to apply the Law of Moses regarding levirate marriage in Deuteronomy 25:5–10 to a complex hypothetical scenario. In this scenario, a man died, leaving behind his childless widow. The man’s seven brothers, one after another, married the woman, and all died childless. Finally, the woman herself passed away (Matthew 22: 24–27). The Sadducees then asked, “So tell us, whose wife will she be in the resurrection? For all seven were married to her” (Matthew 22:28, NLT).
An important detail in this exchange is that the Sadducees did not believe in the future resurrection of the dead (see Matthew 22:23). They accepted only the Pentateuch, or the first five books of Moses, as holy and authoritative Scripture. The Sadducees rejected the spirit world, angels, and the doctrine of the resurrection (see Acts 23:8). Thus, they assumed Jesus would be unable to answer their question because, as they saw it, the resurrection was mere myth.
Jesus met their challenge head-on, telling the Sadducees that their assumptions about marriage and the resurrection were wrong. They were ignorant of much of the Old Testament and knew nothing about God’s resurrection power: “Your mistake is that you don’t know the Scriptures, and you don’t know the power of God. For when the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage. In this respect they will be like the angels in heaven” (Matthew 22:29–30, NLT).
In their ignorance, the Sadducees concocted ridiculous suppositions instead of listening to and learning from Jesus, who was Himself “the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Corinthians 1:24). Jesus indicated that angels don’t marry or reproduce, and those who are resurrected in the afterlife will share these characteristics. Thus, the woman in the Sadducees’ scenario would be the wife of no one in the resurrection.
While the Bible doesn’t say why we won’t marry in heaven, commentators suggest some sound reasons. First, people won’t need to get married and bear children—to “be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth,” as God told Noah in Genesis 9:1. There will no longer be a reason to replenish the earth with offspring because death will no longer exist.
Jesus’ statement that humans will be like the angels of God in heaven, coupled with Paul’s teaching about marriage in Ephesians 5:22–33, points to an additional conclusion—that God instituted marriage on earth to demonstrate a greater heavenly or spiritual reality. For believers on earth, marriage is a picture of the relationship between Jesus Christ, the Messiah, and His bride, the church. When the actual heavenly marriage between the Bridegroom and the Bride of Christ (the collective body of the redeemed) takes place in heaven, the purpose for marriage will be fulfilled (Revelation 19:7–9; 21:1–2). There will no longer be a need for humans to marry because marriage will be superseded by the ultimate reality to which it pointed.
People will not become angels or be like angels in every way in eternity. Humans and angels are distinctly different creatures. Jesus’ statement that we will be like the angels of God in heaven means simply that men and women will not marry or be given in marriage in the next life. When Jesus revealed this truth, He said nothing to suggest we will not recognize our spouses or remember our marriages in heaven. Most likely, however, the perfect joy and love of our eternal home in the Father’s presence will far overshadow even the most intimate of human ties we experienced while here on earth (see Isaiah 35:10; 51:11; Romans 8:18; 1 Corinthians 2:9; Revelation 7:17; 21:4; 22:3–5).
