²⁷ So he is the God of the living, not the dead. You have made a serious error.”

⁹ Christ died and rose again for this very purpose—to be Lord both of the living and of the dead.

¹⁷ That is what the Scriptures mean when God told him, “I have made you the father of many nations.”^[a] This happened because Abraham believed in the God who brings the dead back to life and who creates new things out of nothing.

¹³ All these people died still believing what God had promised them. They did not receive what was promised, but they saw it all from a distance and welcomed it. They agreed that they were foreigners and nomads here on earth. ¹⁴ Obviously people who say such things are looking forward to a country they can call their own. ¹⁵ If they had longed for the country they came from, they could have gone back. ¹⁶ But they were looking for a better place, a heavenly homeland. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

²⁴ Jesus replied, “Your mistake is that you don’t know the Scriptures, and you don’t know the power of God.