41. (7) Spiritual marriage is meant by the Lord's words, that after the resurrection they are not given in marriage. In the Gospels we read the following:
Some of the Sadducees, who deny that there is a resurrection..., asked Jesus, saying, "Teacher, Moses wrote...that if anyone's brother dies, having a wife, and he dies without children, his brother should take his wife and raise up offspring for his brother.... There were seven brothers, (and one after another they took her as wife, but they died childless).... Lastly...the woman died also. In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife of them does she become...?" But Jesus, answering, said to them, "The children of this age marry and are given in marriage. But those who shall be held worthy to attain the second age, and the resurrection from the dead, shall neither marry nor be given in marriage; nor can they die any more, for they are like the angels, and are children of God, being children of the resurrection. Moreover, that the dead rise again, even Moses showed in reference to the bush, when he calls the Lord 'the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.' So, then, He is not God of the dead but of the living, for all live to Him." (Luke 20:27-38; cf. Matthew 22:23-32, Mark 12:18-27)
The Lord taught two things by these words. First, that a person rises again after death. And secondly, that people are not given in marriage in heaven. He taught that a person rises again after death by saying that God is not God of the dead but of the living, and that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are still alive. So likewise in the parable about the rich man in hell and Lazarus in heaven (Luke 16:19-31). [2] Secondly, He taught that people are not given in marriage in heaven by saying that those who are held worthy to attain the second age neither marry nor are given in marriage. The only kind of marriage meant here is spiritual marriage, and this clearly appears from the words that immediately follow, that they cannot die any more because they are like the angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection. By spiritual marriage, conjunction with the Lord is meant, and this is achieved on earth. And when it has been achieved on earth, it has also been achieved in heaven. Therefore in heaven the marriage does not take place again, nor are people given in marriage. This, too, is meant by the words, "The children of this age marry and are given in marriage. But those who are held worthy to attain the second age neither marry nor are given in marriage." Such persons are also called by the Lord, "children of the wedding"* (Matthew 9:15, Mark 2:19), and here, "angels," "children of God," and "children of the resurrection." [3] To marry means to be conjoined with the Lord, and to go to a wedding means to be received into heaven by the Lord. This appears from the following references:
The kingdom of heaven is like a man, a king, who arranged a wedding for his son, and sent out his servants (with invitations to a wedding). (Matthew 22:2,3, to verse 14)
The kingdom of heaven is like ten virgins, who...went out to meet the bridegroom (five of whom were prepared to go to the wedding). (Matthew 25:1ff.)
The Lord meant Himself in this passage, which is apparent from the thirteenth verse there, where it says,
Stay awake..., because you know not the day and the hour in which the Son of Man will come. (Matthew 25:13)
Also from the book of Revelation:
The time for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.... Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb. (Revelation 19:7,9)
There is a spiritual meaning in each and every thing the Lord said, and this we fully showed in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Sacred Scripture (published in Amsterdam in 1763). * Actually, "children of the bridechamber."