THE ANGELIC LIFE

Matthew 22:30
“For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage,
but are like angels of God in heaven.”

We shall be like the angels in heavenliness. Here we come to the vital meaning of the text. They are not married or given in marriage; they have other things to think of, and they have other cares and other enjoyments; they mind not earthly things, but are of a heavenly spirit. So is it with the blessed spirits before the throne. To eat and drink, to be clothed—these are things which fret their minds no more. To keep the house, to maintain the children, to thrust the wolf from the door—such anxieties never trouble celestial spirits. Brethren, this is one of the things which makes the great change so desirable to us, that after death our thoughts, our cares, our position, our desires and our joys will all be in God. Here we want externals, here we seek after carnal things; for we must eat and drink, and be clothed and housed. Here we must be somewhat hampered by the grosser elements of this poor materialism, but up yonder they have no needs like our own; they consequently have no desires of an earthly kind; their desires are all concerning their God. No creature drags them downward. They are free to bow before the Creator and to think alone of him, to “Plunge into the Godhead’s deepest sea, And bathe in his immensity.”

What a deliverance that must be! If now for a minute or two we soar to sublimer things and climb as upon the top of Pisgah to look down upon the world, we are called to descend again into the valley amid the noise and dust of the battle; but there for ever and ever we shall abide in the loftiness of heavenly things, absorbed with the glory which shall then be revealed.

C. H. Spurgeon and Terence Peter Crosby, 365 Days with Spurgeon (Volume 1) (Day One Publications, 1998)
Scripture for opening text taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.