Others Centered

The Rich Young Ruler

We went over Mark 10:17-27 today at Church.

17 Now as He was going out on the road, one came running, knelt before Him, and asked Him, “Good Teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?”
18 So Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God.
19 You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery,’ ‘Do not murder,’ ‘Do not steal,’ ‘Do not bear false witness,’ ‘Do not defraud,’ ‘Honor your father and your mother.’”
20 And he answered and said to Him, “Teacher, all these things I have kept from my youth.”
21 Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow Me.”
22 But he was sad at this word, and went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

23 Then Jesus looked around and said to His disciples, “How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God!”
24 And the disciples were astonished at His words. But Jesus answered again and said to them, “Children, how hard it is for those who trust in riches[d] to enter the kingdom of God!
25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
26 And they were greatly astonished, saying among themselves, “Who then can be saved?”
27 But Jesus looked at them and said, “With men it is impossible, but not with God; for with God all things are possible.”

We get a very interesting encounter here between Jesus and the rich young ruler.  The first thing we notice here is that the young ruler comes running to Jesus kneeling so he obviously believes there is something unique about Jesus.  Then he says something that would have been controversial to the Jews in those days. He calls Jesus “Good Teacher” which would only be used to refer to God.  Jesus questions the ruler asking why he calls Him good when there is only One that is good and that is God.  Jesus was not telling the man He was not God but giving the man an opportunity to affirm His deity as God.

Then Jesus does something interesting.  When asked by the man what he must do to inherit eternal life, Jesus starts listing the commandments of Moses.  Why would Jesus tell the ruler that he can make it to heaven by following the law?  The answer to that is we can earn our way into salvation and inherit eternal life by keeping the law.  There is a catch though, nobody is good enough to keep all the law every moment of our lives.  The ruler said that he had kept all the laws but Jesus knew of one that he did not perfectly follow and that was his love of money.  When Jesus told the ruler to sell all he had and follow after Him, he was not willing and walked away sorrowful.

The idea here is not that we can’t have money to get to heaven, but we must be willing to give up what has a stronghold on our lives to follow after Christ.  Is there anything that has a hold of your life that you will not give up for Christ?  If so, what will you gain by holding on to it if it cost you eternity like it did with this young ruler?

Jesus told the disciples that it is harder for those who trust in riches to enter into Heaven than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle (and this was meant literally, not as some suggest by claiming there was a gate called the eye of the needle that Jesus was referring to).  While this is impossible, just as it is impossible for us to perfectly keep the law and earn our way into Heaven, Jesus gives hope by telling us all things are possible with God.  There is one exception to the notion that nobody is good enough to perfectly keep the laws, and that is Jesus.  While it is impossible for us, Jesus did what we couldn’t do and lived that perfect life for us.  He took our place, followed the law perfectly, then died for us on the cross in the death we deserved.  All sin and deserve Hell but God’s love for us is so great that He did all the work for us that we were not capable of doing ourselves.  He made the impossible possible by living our perfect life, dying our deserved death, then rising again into eternal life as He promised He would.

It is by God’s grace that we are saved through our faith in Jesus Christ and not anything we can do on our own (Ephesians 2:8).  We are all sinners and fall short of God’s required perfection to be worthy to enter into His eternal presence and inherit His kingdom but though the redemptive work of Christ, we can be counted righteous and inherit that kingdom as adopted sons and daughters of God.