Salvation Is Jesus

Matthew 19

Let’s take a look at the meeting between the rich young man and Jesus, found in Matthew chapter 19.

Verses 16-26:

Now a man came up to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?”

“Why do you ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, obey the commandments.”

“Which ones?” the man inquired.

Jesus replied, ” ‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother,’ and ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’”

“All these I have kept,” the young man said. “What do I still lack?”

Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, 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.”

When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, “Who then can be saved?”

Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

This man came to Jesus wanting to know the bare minimum of what he had to do to earn his way to heaven. Notice that first he asks, “what good thing” he needed to do to enter heaven and have eternal life. Jesus answers that “there is only One who is good.” This One is God. Then Jesus explains why there is only One who is good by telling us that we must obey the commandments. No one on earth has obeyed all the commandments of God at all times except for Jesus, God in the flesh.

The young man is not grasping what he was just told. Once Jesus says to obey the commandments, he wants to know which ones. This question still assumes that there is just a minimum requirement of good works that will earn eternal life. So Jesus continues to answer his questions, forcing the young man to look to his heart and not his works.

When Jesus lists 6 of the 10 commandments (all ones that involve interacting with other people) the man states that he has kept them all. The young man seems pretty sure of his self-righteousness,  but Jesus already told us that there is only One who is good. The young man’s moral standards seem to be lower than God’s standards. Sure, there are several people who have never committed the physical act of murder or adultery. But Jesus tells us that if we even have hateful thoughts towards other people or lust in our heart, we have become murderers and adulterers.

The bottom line is that we must make die to ourselves and make Jesus Lord over our lives in order to enter eternal life. There are no set of rules that can be followed or a minimum guideline. Jesus knew that the man loved his possessions more than God. When he says to him to sell his possessions to help the poor, the young man turned away.

Jesus sums up what he said with how he started, that it is impossible for man to earn eternal life. But with God all things are possible, and eternal life is made possible by salvation through Jesus.