Luke 18:18-30
18 A certain ruler asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”19 “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. 20 You know the commandments: ‘You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.’”21 “All these I have kept since I was a boy,” he said.22 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.”23 When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was very wealthy. 24 Jesus looked at him and said, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! 25 Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”26 Those who heard this asked, “Who then can be saved?”27 Jesus replied, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.”28 Peter said to him, “We have left all we had to follow you!”29 “Truly I tell you,” Jesus said to them, “no one who has left home or wife or brothers or sisters or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God 30 will fail to receive many times as much in this age, and in the age to come eternal life.”
As I read this passage, I think of Nabeel Qureshi. I'm reading his 2nd book, No God But One, and had read his first book Seeking Allah and Finding Jesus. Here is a young man who was steeped in Islam and when he went to college became friends with a young man who was a Christian and actually debated for Christianity. They would get in heated debates but eventually his friend won out and he forsook Islam and followed Christ. His family threatened to kill him and he was disowned. He lost all his friends he grew up with. It got so bad that 11 years ago he even asked God to take his life. At the time he chose to follow Christ, he was graduating from medical school and instead of being a doctor with a lucrative career ahead of him, he became a full time debater and joined Ravi Zaccharias' ministry. I'm not saying that is a vow of poverty but there is not a whole lot of money to be made in Christian ministry in general. (Family Christian Stores closed down yesterday) Lately he has just revealed that he has advanced stomach cancer with a grim prognosis and will be in heaven soon unless God chooses to heal him. Here is an example of someone who gave up everything to follow Christ and what glorious future he has! How much has it cost me, how much has it cost you to follow Christ?
The fact is that although the rich young ruler and most people today consider themslves to be good people, unfortunately we are bad people who occasionally do good. In fact the proof for this is that we are proud when we do something good. Why would we be proud of that unless we did something contrary to our nature. If I walk today I won't brag about it because it is in my nature to walk. If I dunk a basketball, however, I will post it on YouTube because I can't jump. It would be something that I would be very proud of. And the World recognizes this too as they exalt self sacrificial people like Angelina Jolie who adopts children and George clooney and his efforts in Darfur. I too laud these efforts but what I am saying is that if we are basically good people, these deeds should go unrecognized, unpraised because they would be nothing but second nature. Jesus, in his dialogue with the rich young ruler had to convince him of two things, number one that he wasn't good and number two that he wanted heaven more than Jesus.
Jesus told him to give away his wealth to show him that wealth was his idol. Anything god asks you to give up for him that you can't is something in your life that trumps God. He is basically saying"You say that you have obeyed all the commandments but you have failed at #1." You see, we are not good people but sinful people separated from a holy God who can't be in the presence of sin. All the many good things that this young man had done throughout his life could not erase the fact that he , like us, was sinful to the core.
The second thing Jesus pointed out was that he was coming wanting Heaven and Jesus offered him, Himself and the young man didn't want Him. In other words Jesus offered the rich young ruler an opportunity to be a disciple of His and the young nan turned Him down. All the other disciples had left everything to follow Jesus but this guy wanted Heaven and Earth but not Jesus. This is so much like people today. They pray the prayer to get into Heaven but don't want to follow Jesus. Oh they will follow Him for a little while until He starts demanding all or nothing. Then they will just do their own thing forsaking Jesus and hang on to their "get out of Hell free" card that they think they got when they prayed the prayer. Jesus was telling him that we must follow Jesus to get to Heaven. I hope you understand, too, that following Jesus means leaving everything behind that you once held dear and trusting Him with your future as you live a life obedient to Him as spelled out in the Bible and led by His Holy Spirit.
As I write this, I am receiving texts from a patient who I've grown close to over the years after delivering her babies, doing multiple surgeries on her, multiple office visits and her life is a mess. She prayed the prayer many years ago and probably several times since yet she just doesn't get this. She never incorporated Christ into her home and her kids are a mess. Her husband left her for some young girl so contrary to Jesus' teaching she has moved in with a guy who now has beat her and kicked her out. Now she is staying in a high school friend's room listening to these 300 pounders having sex in the room above her at 5AM. Sorry, I know that's graphic but this is wanting Heaven without Jesus and I just can't get through to her that she isn't saved and needs to give her life to Christ because she says she has.
Modern teaching says, "try out Jesus". "Just give Jesus a try and you will see how sweet He is". OK, I buy that but don't be misled, pretty soon He will ask you to give up everything just like the rich young ruler, just like Nabeel Qureshii , not to be mean but because He knows that what your soul needs is Him and nothing else.
Lord help me to follow you 100%. Thank you for giving me a wife that desires to follow you also. Show me what my idols are and help me to surrender them to you. Help me to know how to help my patient and please, through your Holy Spirit, open her eyes to the wonders of knowing You and following you. Amen
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