Not Following in the Footsteps of The Rich Young Ruler
The story is told, in Luke 18, of a certain young ruler who questioned Jesus about obtaining eternal life. After assuring Jesus that he had kept all of the commandments from his youth, Jesus said to him, “One thing you still lack; sell all that you possess and distribute it to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me” (18:22). This statement caused the young ruler to walk away from Jesus sadly, “for he was extremely rich” (18:23). Jesus used this occasion to explain to his disciples how difficult it was for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. His disciples asked, "Then who can be saved?" Jesus replied "With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.” (18:27).
This passage illustrates several important points for us as Christians. First, the story clearly establishes that there are requirements and sacrifices involved if one is to be a true follower of Jesus. It is significant to note that Jesus allowed the man to walk away. He did not say, “Well, alright then, I will waive this requirement because it is more than you can do.” Second, the request Jesus made addressed the heart of the ruler more than his wealth. The one thing the man trusted in more than Jesus was his money and Jesus discerned this. As this story illustrates, anything that stands in the way of our total surrender to God will become the sacrifice He requires of us, because He is after our hearts. Although the love of money and possessions draws many hearts away from God, it can be any number of things that competes for priority in our daily living.
Jesus describes how hard it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom by comparing it to something as impossible as a camel going through the eye of a needle. Then he adds that, although this is not possible for people, it is possible for God; which demonstrates the power available to us. If we put our complete faith and trust in God, He promises to do the impossible things that we cannot do. But it is through becoming fully dependent on Him and trusting only in Him that we tap into His power. Think of it as riding a bicycle in a race and learning the value of leaning into the curves. The human tendency is to draw back from God when we face a tricky spot in the race. Curves in the road are scary and difficult to maneuver. But the secret to staying upright is leaning into God.
The tragic mistake of the young ruler was that his response to Jesus demonstrated he had greater faith in his wealth than he had in Jesus; even though he obviously recognized Jesus as the Son of God. He would not have asked Jesus what he had to do to inherit eternal life, unless he believed Jesus had the authority to grant him eternal life. So he believed in Jesus, but he did not trust in Jesus or he would have been able to submit to Jesus. That is the test for all believers. To say we believe is a statement. But to live in subjection to Christ is to put our words into action. It is the very essence of our belief.
This man ran to Jesus. He was sincere. He was a good man. Yet, as John MacArthur writes in Personal Evangelism 101, “All his religion and wealth had not given him confidence, peace, joy, or settled hope. There was a restlessness in his soul – an absence of assurance in his heart. He was coming on the basis of a deeply felt need.”
It is so interesting to read the way Jesus answered the man, in light of the reason for Jesus’ coming to earth in the first place. As we all know, if the law had produced ever-lasting life, there would have been no need for a sinless Savior to die in our place. And yet Jesus answers by telling the man to “keep the commandments,” knowing that all have transgressed the law. When the man answers that he has kept the commandments from his youth, Jesus knows he is either lying or he is simply unable to recognize his own sinfulness. However, it is through recognizing the magnitude of deficiency within ourselves that we come to realize our desperate need of the Savior. And it is only by realizing our desperate need that we are able to fully appreciate the enormity of what Jesus did for us. He did what we could not do for ourselves on our very most righteous day.
Jesus was trying to help this man take the first step toward salvation in confronting him with his inability to keep the law. If the man had responded honestly by saying that he had tried to keep the law, but failed, Jesus could have gone to step two. But the man failed to recognize his sinfulness. So Jesus went a step further to expose it to him. Jesus “gave an answer devised to confront him with his sin and his need of forgiveness. It was imperative that he perceive his sinfulness” (MacArthur). We cannot come to Christ for salvation solely on the basis of our “psychological needs, anxieties, lack of peace, a sense of hopelessness, an absence of joy, or a yearning for happiness. Salvation is for people who hate their sin and want to turn away from it. It is for individuals who understand that they have lived in rebellion against a holy God and who want to live for His glory” (MacArthur).
In Matthew 19:18, the rich young ruler asks Jesus which commandments he should keep. And Jesus responds by giving him several of the most basic commandments, plus one: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (19:19). If the young ruler truly loved his neighbor as much as he loved himself, he would have gladly sold what he had and given to the poor. But the Bible tells us that “when the young man heard this statement, he went away grieving; for he was one who owned much property”(19:22). With his response, he demonstrated not only his love for his possessions and his indifference to the poor, but his inability to concede his own sinfulness. And salvation only comes through repentance. “If you are not ashamed of your sin, you cannot receive salvation” (MacArthur).
In Rich Young Ruler, Tom Tanner describes this young man as “a guy who had everything that seemed right on the outside, did everything right on the outside, but pretty much missed it on the inside.” Tanner writes that, in our day, we might say I’ve “been in church all my life. Every time the doors are open, I'm there." Somehow, like the rich young ruler, we are expecting a pat on the back instead of a reality check. But idolatry comes in many forms. In Who is YOUR God? it is described as “ANYTHING that we allow to take priority, thus separating us from God and His will for our lives” (Sargent). In Understanding Today’s Youth Culture, there is an anonymous quote which speaks to the same issue: “You tell me who or what you spend your time daydreaming about, and I’ll tell you who or what your god is” (Mueller 251). Tanner writes that it’s not generic, it’s very specific.
“When you lay down your head at night, and you want to think about God, you want to worship, but you can't because your mind is drawn in another direction, what is it, even when you come together and you gather in a corporate setting for worship, and you want to worship and you want to focus on God, but your mind keeps going somewhere else, where does it go? What is it in your life that's vying for your attention? What is it that's stealing that first place?” The reason this is such an important aspect of salvation is that “The Kingdom of God cannot be ADDED to your life - It must REPLACE it…[it] is something that is so precious and so powerful that is has to be grasped, it has to be grabbed with both hands…in order to grab it with both hands, we have to let go of everything else” (Tanner).
Religion can bring about submission to rules, but only a relationship with the Lord can bring about trust. This young ruler “didn't trust, and believe in his heart, that what Jesus was calling him to was better than what he had. And, that was the bottom line” (Tanner).
If we believe God is working all things for our good, we’ll trust Him – even in the most difficult and challenging circumstances. In The Screwtape Letters, the demonic uncle, Screwtape, offers advice to his demonic nephew, Wormwood, regarding how to keep a human soul out of their enemy’s clutches; the enemy being God. Screwtape writes:
“He wants them to learn to walk and must therefore take away His hand; and if only the will to walk is really there He is pleased even with their stumbles. Do not be deceived, Wormwood. Our cause is never more in danger than when a human, no longer desiring, but still intending, to do our Enemy’s will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys” (Lewis 40).
The kind of obedience described by Uncle Screwtape is not the rule following kind that is produced by religion. It is the obedience that comes from complete trust in God’s will, brought about by a relationship of the heart. Trust enables us to know God is there even when He seems not to be. When what we desire for ourselves doesn’t seem to line up with what God desires for us, the only thing that will keep us from seeking our own will is our complete trust in Him and His promise to work all things for good to those that love Him. What Uncle Screwtape describes is not the strict obedience to the rule of law; it is the deeper obedience that Jesus called for – the obedience that only comes from our hearts, where trust and love are born. As Tanner writes, in Rich Young Ruler, “You can follow the rules, you can do all the right things, and it not mean anything in your heart…You can believe, and you can behave, you can even worship, but until it gets into your heart and changes what you trust in it doesn't make a difference in your life.”
This passage illustrates several important points for us as Christians. First, the story clearly establishes that there are requirements and sacrifices involved if one is to be a true follower of Jesus. It is significant to note that Jesus allowed the man to walk away. He did not say, “Well, alright then, I will waive this requirement because it is more than you can do.” Second, the request Jesus made addressed the heart of the ruler more than his wealth. The one thing the man trusted in more than Jesus was his money and Jesus discerned this. As this story illustrates, anything that stands in the way of our total surrender to God will become the sacrifice He requires of us, because He is after our hearts. Although the love of money and possessions draws many hearts away from God, it can be any number of things that competes for priority in our daily living.
Jesus describes how hard it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom by comparing it to something as impossible as a camel going through the eye of a needle. Then he adds that, although this is not possible for people, it is possible for God; which demonstrates the power available to us. If we put our complete faith and trust in God, He promises to do the impossible things that we cannot do. But it is through becoming fully dependent on Him and trusting only in Him that we tap into His power. Think of it as riding a bicycle in a race and learning the value of leaning into the curves. The human tendency is to draw back from God when we face a tricky spot in the race. Curves in the road are scary and difficult to maneuver. But the secret to staying upright is leaning into God.
The tragic mistake of the young ruler was that his response to Jesus demonstrated he had greater faith in his wealth than he had in Jesus; even though he obviously recognized Jesus as the Son of God. He would not have asked Jesus what he had to do to inherit eternal life, unless he believed Jesus had the authority to grant him eternal life. So he believed in Jesus, but he did not trust in Jesus or he would have been able to submit to Jesus. That is the test for all believers. To say we believe is a statement. But to live in subjection to Christ is to put our words into action. It is the very essence of our belief.
This man ran to Jesus. He was sincere. He was a good man. Yet, as John MacArthur writes in Personal Evangelism 101, “All his religion and wealth had not given him confidence, peace, joy, or settled hope. There was a restlessness in his soul – an absence of assurance in his heart. He was coming on the basis of a deeply felt need.”
It is so interesting to read the way Jesus answered the man, in light of the reason for Jesus’ coming to earth in the first place. As we all know, if the law had produced ever-lasting life, there would have been no need for a sinless Savior to die in our place. And yet Jesus answers by telling the man to “keep the commandments,” knowing that all have transgressed the law. When the man answers that he has kept the commandments from his youth, Jesus knows he is either lying or he is simply unable to recognize his own sinfulness. However, it is through recognizing the magnitude of deficiency within ourselves that we come to realize our desperate need of the Savior. And it is only by realizing our desperate need that we are able to fully appreciate the enormity of what Jesus did for us. He did what we could not do for ourselves on our very most righteous day.
Jesus was trying to help this man take the first step toward salvation in confronting him with his inability to keep the law. If the man had responded honestly by saying that he had tried to keep the law, but failed, Jesus could have gone to step two. But the man failed to recognize his sinfulness. So Jesus went a step further to expose it to him. Jesus “gave an answer devised to confront him with his sin and his need of forgiveness. It was imperative that he perceive his sinfulness” (MacArthur). We cannot come to Christ for salvation solely on the basis of our “psychological needs, anxieties, lack of peace, a sense of hopelessness, an absence of joy, or a yearning for happiness. Salvation is for people who hate their sin and want to turn away from it. It is for individuals who understand that they have lived in rebellion against a holy God and who want to live for His glory” (MacArthur).
In Matthew 19:18, the rich young ruler asks Jesus which commandments he should keep. And Jesus responds by giving him several of the most basic commandments, plus one: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (19:19). If the young ruler truly loved his neighbor as much as he loved himself, he would have gladly sold what he had and given to the poor. But the Bible tells us that “when the young man heard this statement, he went away grieving; for he was one who owned much property”(19:22). With his response, he demonstrated not only his love for his possessions and his indifference to the poor, but his inability to concede his own sinfulness. And salvation only comes through repentance. “If you are not ashamed of your sin, you cannot receive salvation” (MacArthur).
In Rich Young Ruler, Tom Tanner describes this young man as “a guy who had everything that seemed right on the outside, did everything right on the outside, but pretty much missed it on the inside.” Tanner writes that, in our day, we might say I’ve “been in church all my life. Every time the doors are open, I'm there." Somehow, like the rich young ruler, we are expecting a pat on the back instead of a reality check. But idolatry comes in many forms. In Who is YOUR God? it is described as “ANYTHING that we allow to take priority, thus separating us from God and His will for our lives” (Sargent). In Understanding Today’s Youth Culture, there is an anonymous quote which speaks to the same issue: “You tell me who or what you spend your time daydreaming about, and I’ll tell you who or what your god is” (Mueller 251). Tanner writes that it’s not generic, it’s very specific.
“When you lay down your head at night, and you want to think about God, you want to worship, but you can't because your mind is drawn in another direction, what is it, even when you come together and you gather in a corporate setting for worship, and you want to worship and you want to focus on God, but your mind keeps going somewhere else, where does it go? What is it in your life that's vying for your attention? What is it that's stealing that first place?” The reason this is such an important aspect of salvation is that “The Kingdom of God cannot be ADDED to your life - It must REPLACE it…[it] is something that is so precious and so powerful that is has to be grasped, it has to be grabbed with both hands…in order to grab it with both hands, we have to let go of everything else” (Tanner).
Religion can bring about submission to rules, but only a relationship with the Lord can bring about trust. This young ruler “didn't trust, and believe in his heart, that what Jesus was calling him to was better than what he had. And, that was the bottom line” (Tanner).
If we believe God is working all things for our good, we’ll trust Him – even in the most difficult and challenging circumstances. In The Screwtape Letters, the demonic uncle, Screwtape, offers advice to his demonic nephew, Wormwood, regarding how to keep a human soul out of their enemy’s clutches; the enemy being God. Screwtape writes:
“He wants them to learn to walk and must therefore take away His hand; and if only the will to walk is really there He is pleased even with their stumbles. Do not be deceived, Wormwood. Our cause is never more in danger than when a human, no longer desiring, but still intending, to do our Enemy’s will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys” (Lewis 40).
The kind of obedience described by Uncle Screwtape is not the rule following kind that is produced by religion. It is the obedience that comes from complete trust in God’s will, brought about by a relationship of the heart. Trust enables us to know God is there even when He seems not to be. When what we desire for ourselves doesn’t seem to line up with what God desires for us, the only thing that will keep us from seeking our own will is our complete trust in Him and His promise to work all things for good to those that love Him. What Uncle Screwtape describes is not the strict obedience to the rule of law; it is the deeper obedience that Jesus called for – the obedience that only comes from our hearts, where trust and love are born. As Tanner writes, in Rich Young Ruler, “You can follow the rules, you can do all the right things, and it not mean anything in your heart…You can believe, and you can behave, you can even worship, but until it gets into your heart and changes what you trust in it doesn't make a difference in your life.”
Comments
Thanks once again for sharing.
I wrote this as a paper for a Bible class at Lipscomb in April of 2003. I felt to share it this morning. Ironically (or not), this was the same month I wrote a letter to Steve and Becky, explaining to them why I had to find another church to worship in. I felt I owed them the respect of not just disappearing into thin air. My letter was written in love. And I wanted to make sure they knew I wasn't leaving because I was hurt or angry.
There was no response. My letter was completely ignored. And it was told that I left angry anyway.
This is just one of the ways God confirmed to me that I did not leave the Gospel. I began the process of finding it when I left there. And I am so thankful.
I want to remember enough of my past to always be thankful for what God has done for me. But I don't want to dwell on my hurts and disappointments -- spending the rest of my life licking my wounds (so to speak).
Our pastor often prays for us collectively at the close of a service. And when he does, he always makes a point of challenging us to not only forgive others, but to completely release those whom we feel have harmed us from any debt we feel is owed to us. Even an apology.
It doesn't matter who thinks I'm an angry person or a troubled person. All that matters is that I forgive and love as I have been forgiven and loved.
I could have just deleted my comments, but I thought it was better to own up to a mistake in judgment. Besides, it looks so mysterious when a post is deleted with no explanation. ; )
Awesome post and not just because you quote MacArthur.
I remember how much confusion this passage cleared up for me a few years ago. It not only destroys the false idea of literal perfection, it also blows up the error of easy believism or cheap grace.
Satan uses the seemingly extreme opposites of perfectionism and cheap grace to accomplish the same goal of promoting a different gospel. They are both forms of works. Perfection is working really hard and cheap grace or following a formula is still a work initiated by man through his own will.
As you pointed out in your post, obviously the young ruler believed in Jesus and asked him how to have eternal life. Unfortunately today, many well meaning people would have declared this man saved and sent him off with false assurance. However, as you pointed out Jesus used the Law to show how we could never keep it to save ourselves. The problem is our heart and that is what Christ is always exposing in the N.T. when he takes us beyond the law and shows us that our rebellion toward God is deeply rooted in our wicked hearts. Jer 17:9 The heart [is] deceitful above all [things], and desperately wicked: who can know it?
That is why we can't trust our emotions or experiences without holding them up to God's Word to see if they agree.
We can mentally assent to Christ all day and it does not mean anything. Even Satan believes in Jesus. A person must be born again or regenerated, not just "accept" Jesus or follow a formulaic approach.
Jhn 1:13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
Interesting thing about the camel and the eye of the needle explained by MacArthur is that from the Jewish mindset being rich meant being blessed by God. The O.T. is full of blessings/riches going to those who obey. So, when the disciples said "then who can be saved"? they were saying if a rich man who in their mind was being blessed because he was keeping all of the rules was difficult to save then how could those who were not rich/blessed be saved.
This story explains what a miracle it is for anyone to be saved. Because it is entirely of God. Just as Ephesians 2 points out. We were dead, no dead man ever raised himself from the dead. No one ever birthed themselves. We have been saved through faith and even that faith is a gift. No one who has a heart of stone can make it into flesh. We weren't just sick, we were dead according to Eph 2:5, if I'm sick maybe I can go take a pill, but if I'm dead, then I can't do anything. Well that is our spiritual situation before we are saved through faith which is a gift from God.
Eph 2:5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly {places} in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, {it is} the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.
Those who are born again and are true believers will have fruit and have good works, but they are the byproduct of salvation, not the cause of it.
All glory goes to Jesus Christ and Him alone.
God bless,
Todd
I was listening to this last nite and thought that I would recommend this sermon to anyone who is interested. It is MacArthur teaching on the narrow gate. There are only 2 real choices, Jesus or everything else. Everything else is the same thing, it is just destruction in a million forms of religion or paganism, the wide way.
Jesus is the narrow way, because it is simply Him alone and nothing else. Jesus is the Truth, The Light, They Way.
http://mp3.sa-media.com/filearea/7210518266/7210518266.mp3
If you can't link to above, you can get it off of this link below:
http://bororean.blogspot.com/2007/04/free-gospel-media.html
Soli Deo Gloria
Todd
My mom printed up this post to read to my dad on the way to church tonight and Ken preached on this very subject and said all the same things you said in this post. He used Abraham laying Isaac on the altar in complete obedience and trust in the Lord as his analogy. The timing was amazing so she felt to share your words with Ken because he'll probably expand on the subject in Sunday School next week.
This word is hitting me from all sides so I'm going to take the time to reflect and pray and ask God to fully reveal all of the idols in my life. I want to lay them down and place my complete trust in God's plan for my "stuff" and my life.
Thanks again for this post.
I had not thought about that paper in so long. But I was rereading a chapter in "Humility: True Greatness" and the author (C.J. Mahaney) referred to the story of the rich young ruler, which brought my paper to my mind. I have all my college papers saved on my computer. (How do you just delete stuff you worked so hard on?) And I felt like I should share it on my blog.
I was surprised at how God was showing me the real meaning of the encounter simultaneously with my leaving CGT. And the reason I was surprised is because I was not free of the perfection message causing fears and doubts for such a long time after I wrote this. But God was beginning to reveal the gospel to me during this time of transition in my life and before I knew what direction my life would go. I was very much in limbo when I wrote this.