What Must I Do To Inherit ...

And a ruler asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not bear false witness, honor your father and mother.’” And he said, “All these I have kept from my youth.” When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “One thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” But when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich. Jesus, seeing that he had become sad, said, “How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” Those who heard it said, “Then who can be saved?” But he said, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.” And Peter said, “See, we have left our homes and followed you.” And he said to them, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not receive many times more in this time, and in the age to come eternal life.” (Luke 18:18-30)

First off, we have to take note of something really awesome…Jesus accepted the title of Good Teacher. We know from what Paul wrote to the Romans that no one is righteous nor does good, and Jesus clearly stated that, No one is good except God alone. Jesus didn’t rebuke Him though, just clarified the truth about who He is. While also fully human, Jesus is God.

The Commandments

Jesus listed 5 of the 10 commandments. But what do we notice about which commandments He listed? The ones He listed are commandments that people tend to feel justified in themselves based on outward observation of them – not murdering, committing adultery, stealing, bearing false witness, and honoring parents.

But as we know from Jesus’ teaching on the sermon on the mount in Matthew 5, simply lusting after someone in your heart is committing adultery and being angry with someone is likened to murder. This ruler claimed to have kept all those 5 commandments Jesus had listed from his youth which showed that he had already skipped right over the heart check.

The Lack

A couple short sentences later, Jesus made the heart issue glaringly obvious to the ruler: “One thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” The young man had come to the conclusion that he had somehow arrived and was like the male version of Mary Poppins – practically perfect in every way – but Jesus wasn’t concerned with how the man acted outwardly since youth, He was concerned with this man’s heart and what he was lacking.

Telling the man to sell everything and give it to the poor wasn’t Jesus being an activist or hating on rich people; it was pointing out commandments that the man hadn’t been following because he had made his riches and material things his god and they were idols to him. The whole law was summed up in two commandments to love God and love others. To obey Jesus’ command would have been a hurdle that once the man was over, he could have moved past worshipping material things and onto truly worshipping God as he went and followed Jesus, leaving everything else behind and counting it all as loss in pursuit of God.

Our Heart Check

We don’t know what ever happened to this man because the last thing we read about him is that he went away sad because he was very rich. All we know was that in that moment of time, he heard from Jesus directly and because his wealth had such a stronghold on him, he grieved over that being the path to inherit eternal life instead of being grieved with the godly sorrow that leads to repentance.

Let me ask you this: Does money or riches have a hold in your life? Does the thought of giving up anything in your life make you sad?

This is a good heart check moment, and these are really good questions to regularly check in on and take some time to self-reflect on where our hearts are currently. If we’re not willing to give up quite literally anything and everything in following God, then we have a heart issue to deal with.

I’ll leave you with the words of Jesus here because it’s encouraging to both one who is doing well on this heart issue as well as to the one who is struggling with it. If you’re doing well in this area – be encouraged by the Lord’s pleasure and promise. If you’re struggling in this area – be encouraged and stirred to a change of heart with the promise the Lord has given to those who are willing to give up everything for His sake:

And [Jesus] said to them “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not receive many times more in this time, and in the age to come eternal life.”