Good Morning Friends,
“A certain ruler asked him, ‘Good teacher, what
must I do to inherit eternal life?’ ‘Why do you call me good?’ Jesus answered.
‘No one is good — except God alone. You know the commandments: “Do not commit
adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your
father and mother.”’ ‘All these I have kept since I was a boy,’ he said. When
Jesus heard this, he said to him, ‘You still lack one thing. Sell everything
you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come,
follow me.’ When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was a man of
great wealth. Jesus looked at him and said, ‘How hard it is for the rich to
enter the kingdom of God.’” (Luke 18:18-24)
This young man had several problems –
He thought he could earn eternal life. That was
his question for Jesus. Jesus’ answer was that he couldn’t do anything to earn
eternal life. If he would just have acknowledged that he was lost and unable to
do anything about it, Jesus would have freely offered His grace.
He thought he was righteous. The young man
declared that he had kept all the commandments since he was a boy. That’s
self-delusion. No one has kept all those commandments – except Jesus. The young
man didn’t realize he was guilty. Jesus was looking for an honest admission of
guilt – but it never came. An honest admission of guilt is the first step
toward salvation. The realization of our need comes before the acceptance of
God’s solution.
He loved his money more than he loved God. It’s
not that money is bad – it is often a gift from God. But nothing can be more
important to us than God. God won’t take second place to anything.
Jesus was willing to save this young man! It’s
just that He wasn’t willing to save the young man on his own terms. He could
only come to God on God’s terms.
That’s true for us, too.
His, by Grace, Steve
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