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Luke 20:36
ESV for they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection.
NIV and they can no longer die; for they are like the angels. They are God's children, since they are children of the resurrection.
NASB for they cannot even die anymore, for they are like angels, and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection.
CSB For they can no longer die, because they are like angels and are children of God, since they are children of the resurrection.
NLT And they will never die again. In this respect they will be like angels. They are children of God and children of the resurrection.
KJV Neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels; and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection.

What does Luke 20:36 mean?

Jesus is explaining some of the foundational changes God-followers will experience when they are resurrected. God-followers will receive glorified bodies (1 Corinthians 15:20–23, 42–49). Death and Hades will be thrown into the lake of fire, the second death (Revelation 20:14). Because they cannot die, they are like angels, and because they are like angels, they cannot marry (Luke 20:35). The progression of thought seems strange to a modern western reader. Yet extra-biblical Jewish writing states that angels don't marry or eat.

The Bible frequently uses the father/son motif to describe someone who follows and emulates another. The Old Testament mentions the "sons of God": angels or demons who share God's nature of being spirit (Job 1:6). Jesus told the religious leaders they were not Abraham's children because they wished to kill Him for speaking the truth. Instead, they were sons of the Devil who murders and lies (John 8:39–44).

Here, Jesus is saying the resurrected will prove to be sons of God because they will live for eternity and have a different relationship with others—one not based on marriage and marriageability. Marriage is all about earthly concerns; it has no application when everyone is immortal, glorified, and in the presence of God.

Jesus is talking about this because the Sadducees have given Him a challenge. They wish to prove Jesus an uneducated teacher, particularly regarding resurrection of the dead (Luke 20:27–35). Jesus is explaining that part of their problem is they don't understand what it means to be resurrected. They think it's exactly like life on earth.

His next argument comes from Moses, whom the Sadducees revere as the giver of their beloved law. Moses wrote that God called Himself the "God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob" (Luke 20:37, cf. Exodus 3:6). How could God be the God of people who had died hundreds of years before? God did not say He "was" or "had been" the God of those men. He is the God of the living, so at the time of Moses' commissioning, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob must have been alive: the Torah demonstrates that people do not cease to exist after death, making the concept of future resurrection supportable (Luke 20:38).
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