17As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. "Good teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
What a scene! After, wrapping up a debate on the very important issue of divorce which preceded His rebuking, Jesus is encountered by this man. Know this, that just because someone comes to Jesus, and "falls on their knees before him," it does not mean they are truly believers. Notice the mans choice in words, "good teacher".
People come to Jesus for all sorts of different reasons on their own terms considering Him a great social reformist, or a rabbinical teacher who loved social justice, or a man who really really cared about the poor and helpless, all sort of true, but if that is the end and totality of their view of the nature of Jesus then we are greatly mistaken.
18"Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good—except God alone.
Jesus here is not eluding to any misconception that He Himself was not perfect, for as we know Jesus was tempted in every way as we are -- yet was without sin. This is more or less a clever way of asking, "Are you calling me God?" Jesus continues,
19You know the commandments: 'Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.' "
What a scene! After, wrapping up a debate on the very important issue of divorce which preceded His rebuking, Jesus is encountered by this man. Know this, that just because someone comes to Jesus, and "falls on their knees before him," it does not mean they are truly believers. Notice the mans choice in words, "good teacher".
People come to Jesus for all sorts of different reasons on their own terms considering Him a great social reformist, or a rabbinical teacher who loved social justice, or a man who really really cared about the poor and helpless, all sort of true, but if that is the end and totality of their view of the nature of Jesus then we are greatly mistaken.
18"Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good—except God alone.
Jesus here is not eluding to any misconception that He Himself was not perfect, for as we know Jesus was tempted in every way as we are -- yet was without sin. This is more or less a clever way of asking, "Are you calling me God?" Jesus continues,
19You know the commandments: 'Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.' "
Do not misunderstand the message here. This is not "Salvation by Works." We know enough of the Doctrine of Grace that our salvation~ being saved from the eternal consequences of our sins while simultaneously being reconciled unto God through Christ Jesus here on earth is completely 100% a gift from God by His nature as being one of unfailing love and perfect justice. Jesus is, instead, quoting Exodus 20 where God gave His people Israel the Decalogue or The Ten Commandments. This was stated not to show the man the way to salvation but to show him his need for a savior. Now if you observe and count the commandments above you notice that Jesus only mentions 5 of the 10. Note, "do not defraud," is not one of The Ten, but is an expounding upon, "do not steal", and "do not give false testimony". More on these later,
20"Teacher," he declared, "all these I have kept since I was a boy."
21Jesus looked at him and loved him.
God in all his mercy had compassion on this young man knowing the condition of his heart, then He spoke,
"One thing you lack," He said. "Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."
Two of the Ten Commandments Jesus left out were these,1) You shall have no other gods before me.
2) You shall not covet.
While leaving our country a man was asked what he thought, he responded, "I don't like it. Where i come from gods are made of gold or silver or stone but here i cannot see your gods." Like America today the god in this mans life was his wealth, Jesus recognized that and gave him the solution to his dilemma. The solution to the question "How do i inherit eternal life?" is not to live an acetic life style or become poor, money is not good or evil, moral or immoral, it is what we do with it that matters. The answer is this, "You have sin in your life, repent of your sin and follow me."
Listen to a man who lived most his life in sin and rebellion towards God, you are ruining your life. Stop sleeping with your girlfriend or boyfriend, stop cheating and lying, quick fooling around with your eternal destiny, you are not only destroying your life not here on earth, putting death to relationships, death to peace, death to communion with God, you are and will be putting yourself to death later for eternity. Note this! God does not send people to Hell, its a real place, but HE does not send people, we send our selves, He has given us the answer, "Follow me!" and either we chose to submit and obey or we waste our lives and never understand the fullness to why we were put here in the first place. Sadly some will be like the rich man,
22At this the man's face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.
Unwilling to meet God on His terms he walked away and continued his own life, end of story. Don't let this happen to you, His grace is there, He knock on the door of your heart desiring you to answer and put your trust in Him... will you walk away?
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