After he left, “Jesus looked round about, and saith unto his disciples…” “Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.” Mark says that at this comment, the disciples “were astonished out of measure.” They were astounded, amazed – they had the wind knocked out of them. They “were astonished out of measure. saying who then can be saved?” That is the question that I’d like to pursue here this morning – who then can be saved?” It is almost an after thought to the rest of the story about the Rich Young Ruler. But it is a good question – almost as good as the rich man’s original question – and the answer is invaluable.
What do you suppose that the disciples meant when they used the word “SAVED?”
Shortly after the Lord redeemed my soul, I was talking to my parents, telling them that I had been “saved.” They were religious people, and they had taken me to church fairly regularly throughout my short life. But the first thing that my mother said was “what do you mean, that you have been ‘saved.’” It wasn’t a term with which they were familiar.
This is the 9th time that the Greek word “sozo” (sode’-zo) has been used in God’s Word. It is going to be used another hundred times before the second to last chapter in the Bible. Appropriately, in speaking about the glory of Christ in the Heavenly city, we read in Revelation 21:24 – “And the nations of them which are SAVED shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it.” The verb “to save” is common in Word of God and everyone should be familiar with it.
It is interesting to note that there are four elastic bands binding all eleven of these verses together. The young rich man asked about what he must do to have or inherit “eternal life.” Christ replied saying something about “entering into life.” Then when He was alone with the disciples, He referred to “entering into the kingdom of God.” And then finally, the disciples asked, “Who then can be saved?” All four of these things speak of the same subject. To be “saved,” as the disciples thought of it, is to enjoy the gift of God’s eternal life in the kingdom of God. Although the word is sometimes used in other ways, in this case it is referring to the forgiveness of sin and the eternal blessings of citizenship in God’s heaven.
Permit me to string together a few verses on this subject – “For God so loved the world that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.” On the Day of Pentecost, Peter said, “whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” And then later he added, “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” Paul said, “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” To the Ephesians Paul wrote – “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:” And “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” In speaking about the nature of salvation, he said, God “hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began.” It was “not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost.”
I have no doubt that when the disciples asked their question, they were wondering about salvation from sin.
But there was some OBVIOUS CONFUSION behind the question.
You may think that this is silly, but last week at camp whenever I was driving through the park I raised my hand in greeting to on-coming cars. I just wanted to indicate that I was having a good time, and I was curious to see how many would respond. It was less than a third that acknowledge my greeting. Back in the 60’s when I was working in rural Wyoming, we always waved at on-coming traffic, and the response was at least 95%. Times and societies have changed. But here’s my point – just because someone waved back to me, that didn’t make the person a close friend. It didn’t indicate that we were both Christians, Baptists, or Idahoans, or anything other than people out enjoying the Lord’s creation. In fact, most of those who waved probably wouldn’t call Farragut State Park “God’s creation.” Just because two people or two things brush up against one another, we shouldn’t assume a really close relationship. And yet sometimes, totally mistaken, we do.
It was a misunderstanding among the Jews – based on a bit of truth – that wealth meant the blessing of God. Wealth is a blessing of God, just as rain on a farmer’s crop, or children in a marriage are God’s blessings. But to step beyond that blessing and to suggest that a wealthy man or a large family are indications of righteousness and Heavenly citizenship is a dangerous heresy. To say that the man who has gone through 60 years of good health, must be a saint of God, is a mistake. To say that the man with a big bank account must also have eternal treasure stored up in Heaven is a Satanic notion.
When the Lord exposed this man’s selfish covetousness, he went away grieved and sorrowful. As he walked away, Jesus said to his disciples that wealth makes the salvation of sinners difficult. And they exposed their misconception – “If a rich man can’t be saved, then who can be?” Jesus’ disciples “were exceedingly amazed, saying, Who then can be saved?”
Today, and in our modern secular society, we don’t struggle with that kind of confusion. Most of the really rich people we have read about are not what we’d consider righteous – or even good. Sure some of them are generous and charitable, but the charities they support are often based on philosophies of wickedness. We don’t automatically tie together wealth and spirituality and eternal life.
But it IS a part of the American psyche to think that religious people – church-going people – are also Heaven-going people. I am not thinking about you necessarily, because your eyes have been opened by the Holy Spirit of God. But our children and grand-children; our neighbors and co-workers may be caught up in this Satanic deception. How many church-going children believe that their souls are saved because they go to Sunday School? How many people think that church membership means Heavenly citizenship?
What if this man had come to Peter or Paul six, eight or ten years later with the same question. “Sirs, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life.” The apostle might have replied, “Well, haven’t you been to church and heard the gospel?” Just like Christ’s reference to the Commandments, these are good things. The man might have said, “Yes, I have heard your preaching, and I’ve read three of your books. I have been baptized, and I have joined the local Baptist church; I even tithe and support missions.” This sort of thing actually occurred in Acts 19 when Paul ran into some professing Christians in Corinth. Those men thought that their baptism and Christian religion made them citizens of Heaven, but Paul proved otherwise.
When Christ’s disciples heard Jesus’ comments, they replied with their own question. “They were exceedingly amazed, saying, Who then can be saved?” If those people whom the Lord has blessed in the things of this world rarely possess eternal life,“Who then can be saved?” If church-going people find it hard to be saved, then who can be saved?” Notice that Christ didn’t exactly answer their question. Instead of answering the “who” question, He replied with an “how.”
“Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.”
Wealth – prosperity, luxury and ease – are only the tip of the iceberg which sends the Titanic of humanity into Hell. For example, pride sends more people into the Lake of Fire than wealth does, because pride is more universal. And as suggested earlier, religion condemns millions of others, as can addictions, disasters, and evil associations. There is a plethora of outward sins and inward characteristics which condemn human souls. But these are not the real problem
The real problem with humanity lies deeper than such outward things. The Bible declares that the root of the matter is that every living being is dead spiritually. God told Adam that in the day that he disobeyed Him, he would die, and that is exactly what happened. “Dying, thou shalt die” and the moment Adam ate the fruit of the forbidden tree, he was dead. But the death was spiritual, not physical – it was a death before the eyes of God, not before Adam’s wife or the rest of creation.
Spiritual death is a black thread which runs through quilt of humanity from the very beginning until now. “The wages of sin is death.” God through His prophet that “the soul that sinneth, it shall die.” Ezekiel didn’t say that the “person” who sins shall die, even though that is the truth. He said, “The SOUL that sinneth, it shall die” – the reference is to the spiritual part of man. Solomon wrote, “The man that wandereth out of the way of understanding shall remain in the congregation of the dead.” Despite what some think, the solution to the problems of mankind is not to be found in education. However, that person who forsakes the place where the Word of God is taught and where the gospel of Christ is preached, rejecting the knowledge of God, “shall REMAIN in the congregation of the dead.” He will remain there, because he is already dead – he was born spiritually dead. When writing to God’s saints – Christian people – Paul sometimes referred to what they had been. “And you hath God quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins.” To “quicken” is to make alive or regenerate. “And you, being dead in your sins… hath (God) quickened together with (Christ,) having forgiven you all trespasses.”
The disciples asked “WHO then can be saved?’ And Jesus responded with “how” – “Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.” For centuries man has been trying to overcome death from two directions. First, he has been trying to extend life by every means possible – diet, exercise, cryogenics and so on. And then he has been trying to eliminate physical death itself – medically, religiously and otherwise. But both of these have always failed, and they always will. God has “appointed unto men once to die, and after this the judgment.” Man has been trying to eliminate death and to regenerate himself, but it cannot be done by man – the sinner.
On the other hand, there is the grace and omnipotence of the sovereign God. “Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.” In the Book of John, the Apostle was preparing to teach us some great things about Christ Jesus. In his introduction, he basically said that the whole nation of Israel was like the man in our text. Christ “came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, tho them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but God.” How can someone who is dead – spiritually or otherwise – live again? “With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.” Jesus told a man very much like the man in our scripture, “Ye must be born again” – but not “not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but God.”
“A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh…” Those words were spoken to Israel, but it could have been said to all the world. Jesus told Nicodemus, “Ye must be born again” – you need life which you do not currently possess. And Peter in writing to Christians, said, “Being born again, not of corruptible see, but of incorrupible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever.” Peter wasn’t speaking about the Bible – the written Word of God – but to the decree of God – the word and will of God. “Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men (salvation from sin) is impossible (because all men are dead in trespasses and sins); but with God all things are possible.”
Salvation requires the sovereign and omnipotent power and grace of God. It has nothing to do with your faith or my repentance, as important as those things might be. The Bible teaches that in eternity past, God chose to save some of today’s wretched sinners. Like all the rest of humanity, every one of them are spiritually dead and physically dying. But death is not a problem to Jehovah – who is the eternal I am. Christ is the resurrection and the life – physically and spiritually. For thousands of years, Christ has been reaching down into the gutter – or you might say into “the morgue of humanity” – and restoring dead spirits to life. “Ye must be born again.” “Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.”
The man in this scripture walked away from the Saviour, still dead in his sins. He was an idolater; he worshiped his wealth and refused to give it up. “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.” You are probably not as wealthy as this man, but you were born just as spiritually dead, and you may be just as idolatrous. Has the sovereign God yet saved your soul?
Would you like to know whether or not He has? Then give up your idols – repent before God. Acknowledge your dead condition – your sinful condition – to the Lord. And then put your trust for deliverance and eternal life in the Son of God – God’s sacrifice for sin. “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” Have you been born again?