But then cancer had reached in and grabbed her life, putting her into a hospice bed. And it also made her think about the more important things of her life. As she saw her family and friends fighting over who was going to take possession of her possessions. she confessed to me that she wished that she had never had those possessions. She told me that the expensive jewelry, knick-knacks, and furnishings were all useless. She wished then that she had spent more of her time and money on her friends and family. And she wished that she had spent more of her time in the things of the Lord.
That lady is a representative of hundreds of thousands of others around the world, in every age and every culture. And we find another person from that same group of people here in this scripture. This bit of history is recorded in all three Synoptic Gospels, and in the others this man is called “the Rich Young Ruler.” This story becomes something like a series of warning signs on the highway of life, telling us of some dangerous problems on the road ahead. If we don’t slow down and wake up, we are going to run head long into a river over which the bridge has been washed out. There’s a detour just up ahead, and if we don’t make that turn, it’ll be our turn to die.
This message has been preached by a hundred thousand pastors, and it should be preached by a hundred thousand more. Every last person on the face of earth needs to hear it again and again. Because this man is so “us.”
The man came to Christ with the RIGHT QUESTION.
“Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?” Despite being ordinary, In a number of ways this man was extraordinary. Luke 18 tells us that he was a ruler of some sort. This means that he was a leader in one of the synagogues or perhaps in some area of politics. But in either case, his position may have been inherited or perhaps purchased. He may or may not have known how to be a ruler – or at least a good ruler. What is interesting is that Matthew says that he was a young man.
Putting these two things together, some people think that he may have been an exceptional person. Often wealth and position make people arrogant. In this case, it is hard to know exactly what sort of person He was. But at the very least he showed some respect towards the Lord Jesus. Was he as morally, intellectually and socially head and shoulders above his peers, as he seems to suggest? After the Lord made reference to various aspects of the Mosaic Law, this man energetically replied, “Master, all these things have I observed from my youth.” If we assume that his personal assessment was accurate, and we don’t have proof otherwise, these things put him into the same camp as two other famous people of the Word of God. He may have been an associate of Nicodemus, a man who came to the Lord Jesus with a similar back ground and similar questions. But he was morally related to Saul of Tarsus, before that man’s conversion to Christ. Paul testified, “As touching the righteousness which is in the law, I am blameless.” We’ll come back to these things later, but remember this: The Lord Jesus told good Nicodemus still needed to be born again, and….. Paul confessed that he considered his blamelessness worth nothing, because as long as he rested in them he felt that he didn’t need Christ. As we see in the testimony of this young man, obedience to the law, even the Law of God, cannot give anyone peace in his soul about eternity.
Luke tells us that this young man came running up to Christ with his question. He was really concerned about it; Perhaps he had been sleeping poorly for a few nights, thinking about it. Perhaps he had been hearing the sermons of Christ, and the Holy Spirit had been convicting him about his spiritual needs. All those messages about self-righteousness were finally getting through to his heart. Jesus had been ministering in Perea for a while and was starting down road to find another audience. Did this young man came running up, because he felt that this was possibly the last time that he’d ever be able to speak to the Lord about his soul?
The question concerned the things of eternity: “Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?” He spoke to the Lord with genuine respect. There were others who came to Christ with questions similar to this who were trying to entrap Him. This was no trap, but a genuine burden on his heart. And when he called Jesus “Good Master” he was referring to a master teacher. This was not just some common address. Matthew Henry says that when he used the word “good” this was quite unusual and revealed not only respect but affection as well. How could anyone know Christ without having affection for him? This was even more respectful and affectionate than Nicodemus:“Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God; for no man can do these miracles, that thou doest, except God be with him.”
“Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?” This man believed in eternal life, unlike many of the more pseudo-intellectuals of his day. He didn’t think that it was merely an extension of his earthly life either. It was commonly believed that if a person possessed riches, obviously God was pleased with him. It was assumed that if anyone had a lock on eternal life, it was the rich man, because God was already smiling on him. Even the Lord’s disciples had been corrupted by this faulty theology. And Jesus went to great lengths to erase his idea. But this young man was not convinced that his near perfect obedience to the law, nor his possession of wealth, were sufficient to guarantee his eternal life. He knew that some more had to be done, but what? Who could know any better than the great teacher, Jesus of Nazareth?
The Lord Jesus stopped in the way and gave his man just the RIGHT ANSWER.
First, He addressed the comment about the Lord’s goodness. “Why calledst thou me good? None is good save one, even God.” At first glance that sounds like a rebuke, it I assure you that it is not. It was a statement given to assist this man in his faith. The Lord never doused the honest enthusiasm of a good man. He began by pointing out that this man’s opinion of Christ was just a bit low and outside. And He didn’t deny that He was good; he just pointed to the Father and said, “Now there is good.” As Gill says, God is good independently, essentially, originally, infinitely and immutably. Brother Carter’s message last week on the goodness of God was excellent. There are a lot of people who need to hear this again and again. Some people have the idea that God is mean, that he likes to see human’s suffer. They talk about the cruel jokes that the Lord likes to play. Some say that God is on some ego trip; that He’s a control freak. On the contrary, the Lord is Good. As I’ve said before, etymologically the root of both English words “God” and “good” are the same.
If ten different men stood in line with this same sincere question, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Lord answered everyone of them entirely differently. The reason is that the Lord knows the heart and the background of every question. If the woman at the well, and Mary Magdalene, and Cornelius all asked this question there would have been three different answers, But all three would have ended up in the same place, provided the people responded properly. Those three would have ended up at the cross of Christ. This good, moral, proud young man had been building his life on his obedience to Moses. The Samaritan woman with all the husbands had been basing her hopes for eternity on a different pair of crutches. Mary Magdalene, whom many say was a demon-possessed prostitute, had different problems. And Cornelius had been raised a heathen infidel. Each would have been answered according to own his specific needs. This rich young ruler had to see that his personal spiritual foundation was corrupt. So the Lord pushed him back to his gossamer tabernacle – his obedience to the law.
But it is essential to keep Jesus’ words here in the context of everything else that the Bible teaches. If we rip verse 19 out of the Bible and from the context of this man’s question, it can appear that Christ contradicts Paul, who says that obedience to law cannot give eternal life to anyone. The man basically testified, “I have not been guilty of the things that the law forbids.” His opinion of salvation was based on the fact that he hadn’t killed anyone; he hadn’t committed adultery or theft. But despite this man’s spotless record, he knew that he was falling short – “What lack I yet?” So far, it was primarily a collection of negatives: “I did not, I do not, I did not, I have never done.” It is good if we have never done these things, amen? “But now,” said the Saviour, “let’s open up that heart of yours and examine it for positive things. Let’s look for motives and pluses.” “Go, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor.”
I ask you to give me one single verse from anywhere in the Bible that tells me that obedience to the law is a part of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the only place where we find anything like this. For example, I Corinthians 13:3 reminds us that generosity can come up leaving us comply empty. “Though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor….and have not agape love, I am nothing.” Christ isn’t giving us a part of the gospel in this verse, He’s going somewhere else.
The Ten Commandments are the backbone of Law of Moses. I believe that we have all broken each – all of those commandments. There are the outward acts of disobedience and then there are the inward and spiritual aspects. We are guilty of covetousness and hatred, which in the sight of God is equivalent to theft and murder.
If a strict Jewish family believed that the eternal life of their son depended upon whether or not he ever shoplifted or lied, it might be possible for them to discipline their son into obedience in such things. And he might be able to say, “I have kept these things from my youth up.” But that doesn’t mean that the record will show that he has always “loved the Lord his God with all his heart, with all his soul, with all his strength and with all his mind.” It doesn’t mean that he will say, “I have always loved my neighbor as myself.” When the Lord ordered him to sell all that he had and to give it away, it was a test of the depth of his sincerity. There could not have been a more appropriate answer to THIS particular man’s question. But it wasn’t complete yet; that was only the first half of the answer. If he had responded properly, then the Lord would have gone on.
So this young man came to the right person with the right question, and he got the right answer.
But the rich young ruler went away with the WRONG RESPONSE in his heart:
“But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.” A few centuries earlier the Lord approached a Syrian gentleman and asked: “Would you forsake all and come to a land that I will tell thee of, in order to possess life eternal?” Abram replied that he would……. and he did. This second man came to the Lord, thinking that he was willing to do anything, but the Lord showed him that he wasn’t. “Verily, I say unto you, it is hard for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of Heaven. It is easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.” And why is that so hard? It’s became of the idolatry of covetousness.
A lot of people don’t have sufficient respect for the lethal power of electricity. They think that if he gets shocked, he’ll just not touch that spot again. But the problem is that even 120 volts can paralyze the muscles, so that you can’t let go. Prolonged contact with electricity can eventually affect the heart and stop it from beating. And prolonged contact is the potential problem with wealth as well.
This young man may very well be in Hell today, because of hidden idolatry. He couldn’t let go. He went away sorry, but not repentant.
When the Lord said, “Sell that thou hast, and give to the poor and thou shalt have treasure in heaven; and come follow me,” the reason that the man couldn’t “sell and give,” was because he refused to “come and follow.” He may have honestly thought that if the Lord asked him to climb the highest mountain in order to have eternal life, he would have done that. Perhaps if the Lord told him to go on a mission or pilgrimage for three years, he would have done that. But to surrender his life in its entirety to Christ, from that day and throughout eternity, that was not something that he was willing to do. “To take up one’s cross” is to be obedient to the will of God.
I will grant you that the two primary precepts of the gospel are to repent and trust Christ. But how do those two things actually translate into practical life? Aren’t they exactly what the Lord commanded this young man? It’s not that the Lord commands us to sell all. He commands us to repent and to be willing to sell all. Anything less is idolatry.
What would you be willing to do to possess eternal life? Perhaps you’re ready to do a hundred different things – things which the Lord never commands. But will you come to Christ in repentance and faith? Are you willing to give up your current life in order to follow the Saviour one step at a time?