He was young, probably early twenties. In the normal course of events he still had most of his life to look forward to.
He also was wealthy. Extremely so. Unlike most who spend years accumulating wealth, he already had more than his share.
He was influential. Already he sat with the Sanhedrin, the governing body of his people.
He was moral. Not many could even begin to claim that they had kept the commandments all their lives. He made that claim.
But deep down this rich young leader knew he lacked the greatest treasure anyone could have—eternal life.
The story of his encounter with the Lord Jesus is recorded in Matthew 19:16–30, Mark 10:17–31, and Luke 18:18–30, and a sad story it is.
Recognizing in Jesus a supreme goodness he did not possess, this rich young man asked the Lord what he had to do to gain eternal life.
The question reflected the Jewish perspective of the time. One had to do something great in order to merit eternal life.
Before responding, the Lord probed the young man’s concept of Him. In what sense did he call the Lord “good”? Only in the sense that Jesus was a good teacher, but merely a human teacher. That is why the Lord emphasized that only God is good in the intrinsic sense of good. Christ was trying to deepen and widen the man’s concept of “good” so that he would acknowledge Jesus as God. Then he might realize that he could not perform anything, no matter how noble, that could grant him eternal life. But Jesus, as God, could, if he would recognize Him for who He is.
However, since the young man did not acknowledge Jesus as God, the Lord answered him from the man’s own point of view. If eternal life was to be gained by doing something, then there was no need to ask a new teacher what to do. The law could answer his question.
So Jesus told him to keep the commandments, and he replied that he had done so all his life. Had he really done so? Of course not. No person fails to covet, and no child always honors his or her father and mother. But the young man claimed he had always kept the commandments, and he likely had done so to some degree at least. But no one, including this man, could say he had kept them absolutely.
Let’s consider four questions raised by this passage.
WILL OBEYING THE COMMANDMENTS BRING ETERNAL LIFE?
Question #1 is: Can one gain eternal life by keeping the commandments, even by keeping them perfectly, if anyone could do that?
Paul answered that very question at the conclusion of his synagogue message in Antioch in Pisidia. He said that only through Jesus is everyone who believes justified and that no one could be justified by the Law of Moses (Acts 13:39). Later he wrote to the Romans that “by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin” (Romans 3:20). So even if the rich young man’s claim were true that he had kept the commandments the Lord mentioned, and even if he had kept them perfectly, he still could not have gained eternal life.
In citing the six commandments that He did, our Lord used the Law to try to make the young man face the fact that he was a sinner. This is exactly what Paul said the purpose of the Law was—by the Law comes the knowledge of sin. The man raised the question of gaining eternal life by some meritorious work. He should have raised the question of his own sin and how to have it forgiven, which was what the Lord was trying to get him to acknowledge.
DID JESUS CHANGE THE NATURE OF THE GOSPEL?
Question #2 is: Did Jesus introduce here a Gospel different from the one He had previously announced to the harlot at the well in Samaria? He did not tell her to keep the commandments.
Not at all. She knew full well that she was a sinner. She did not need to be faced with that issue as the rich young ruler did.
But Jesus knew that the man’s answer was not entirely true. Even if he had kept all of the commandments specifically mentioned in their dialogue, he had failed to keep some of the other commandments. Obviously he had broken the very first commandment of the Decalogue. He worshiped the god of money as well as the God of Israel (Exodus 20:3). He certainly did not love the Lord with all his heart, soul, and might (Deuteronomy 6:5). His love of possessions kept him from that kind of total love for the Lord. Because he apparently did not share his wealth, he also violated the command to love his neighbor as he loved himself (Leviticus 19:18). The proof that you love someone else as you love yourself is that you want to give that person whatever is important or precious to you. How many others of the 613 commands in the Mosaic Law he had failed to keep or violated secretly we do not know. But clearly he had broken at least these.
So the Lord, trying to show the young man his true spiritual and moral condition, told him to sell all that he had and give it to the poor. Then, said the Lord, he would have treasure in heaven.
WILL AVOW OF POVERTY WORK?
Question #3 is: Can one really gain eternal life by selling all of one’s possessions and giving the proceeds to the poor?
It’s easier to dodge this question than to face it squarely. Here is the answer of the lordship/discipleship/mastery salvation position:
Do we literally have to give away everything we own to become Christians? No, but we do have to be willing to forsake all (Luke 14:33), meaning we cling to nothing that takes precedence over Christ. We must be eager to do whatever he asks. Jesus’ request of this man was simply meant to establish whether he was willing to submit to the sovereignty of Jesus over his life.1
But unfortunately for the above answer, the verbs in Mark 10:21 are commands: go, sell, give. The Lord did not say: Be willing to go, sell, and give. And in the parallel accounts in Matthew and Luke, imperatives (commands) also are used.
Even though the Lord commanded the man to sell and give, suppose we were to change the question to ask whether we must at least be willing to do something hard, like giving up our possessions, in order to inherit eternal life. An affirmative answer does not match the plain meaning of the words.
If the correct answer to question #3 is yes—we must either give up all or be willing to—then who among your acquaintances has eternal life? Who do you know who is truly and without reservation willing to give up everything for Christ? Would you or I be willing, for example, to die for Christ? I’m personally not sure I could answer unequivocally in the affirmative. Self-preservation is a very strong instinct, and who is to say what any of us might do if faced, as many believers have been, with the prospect of a martyrdom. And yet the Lord said in this same passage that in order to be His disciple one must hate his own life (Luke 14:26).
Of course, no one can ever gain eternal life by giving away his money. So, some say, that is not the point of the encounter (though without question it is what the Lord said to the man). The point, we are told, is that one must be willing to repent of sin and/or commit to the mastery of Christ in order to be saved.
HOW DOES DISCIPLESHIP RELATE TO ETERNAL LIFE?
But suppose the man had been willing to give away all his fortune and even become one of the band who followed Christ. That raises question #4: Does being a disciple assure eternal life? Or put another way, Can one be a disciple and not possess eternal life?
Willing disciples sometimes resign their discipleship. Early in our Lord’s ministry many did (John 6:66). These were actual disciples of Christ, that is, pupils, which is what the word disciple means. But surely one cannot conclude they all had eternal life. Judas furnishes another example of a disciple who evidently did not have eternal life. So do the antichrists in John’s day; of these John wrote, “they were not really of us” (1 John 2:19).
Being a disciple—even of Christ—does not guarantee eternal life.
LOVE REACHED OUT BUT WAS REJECTED
The Lord loved this rich young man. Incidentally, the verb used for love in Mark 10:21 is agapao. As far as we know this man was never saved; therefore, he was one of the non-elect. Observe, then, the Lord loved a non-elect man. His agapao love extended beyond the world of the elect. How, then, can the “world” of John 3:16 be limited to the elect, as some say it is?
Our Lord was trying to get the man to admit his unrighteousness, his need of help from outside himself. All the time this leader only asserted his own righteousness by his claim to have kept the commands that the Lord cited to him from the Law. So, unwilling to acknowledge Jesus as God and unwilling to admit his own personal failures and self-centeredness, he went away.
The Lord then applied the lesson for the disciples: It is difficult for anyone who trusts in riches to enter the kingdom. It is not the amount of money that makes it difficult, but the trust in any amount of money. We all tend to trust our strong points or our achievements. It is that trust that often keeps us from seeing our real needs. So was the case with this young man. His strength was in his possessions, and trusting them blinded him from seeing his sin.
HOW DIFFICULT IT IS
How difficult is it for a rich man to enter the kingdom? As difficult as it would be for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, Jesus said (Matthew 19:24; Mark 10:25; Luke 18:25).
A camel was the largest animal in Palestine in those days. The needle was a sewing needle, not a small gate within a larger gate, as is sometimes suggested. No way could a camel with or without its humps squeeze through the eye of a needle. The disciples understood that the Lord was saying that it is impossible for anyone who trusts in riches to enter the kingdom—unless God intervenes and offers a way of salvation that is unrelated to human resources and abilities. The young man did not stay around long enough to hear that message. He would not acknowledge his need of outside help, so he did not receive it. But he could have, for the Lord said that with God all things are possible—even the salvation of this rich young man. But salvation was not on the basis of giving away his wealth.
Possessions make us comfortable. Money focuses our eyes on this world, not the one to come. Being able to have what we want deceives us into thinking we have no needs, especially spiritual ones. We assume that success “obviously” means that God is smiling on us with great favor. It meant that to the Jewish people of Jesus’ day; that’s what made it inconceivable to them to think that money could actually keep anyone from the kingdom. But it, or anything else that blinds us from acknowledging our sin and need of a Savior, can.
But suppose we do recognize that things cannot give us eternal life. Will giving up those things, or being willing to give them up, then give us salvation? To acknowledge our sins and even to turn from those sins will not gain forgiveness. Only receiving the gift of eternal life from the Savior who died for those sins will.
1. John MacArthur, The Gospel According to Jesus (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1988), 87.