Guest speaker Jeff Walsh
This was one of Jesus’ real life encounters with a real person asking a real question. The parallel narrative in Mark 10 says the man ran up and knelt before Jesus to ask his question:
Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?
This young man was concerned about the things of God. His motivation was good, and he asked a question that many others have wanted to ask. However, in today’s culture it’s easy to get distracted by other concerns. We often are more concerned with what our Facebook friends think than what God thinks.
Jesus adds a somewhat obscure comment, “There is only one who is good.” He is trying to point out that He is that “good One,” because He is God Himself.
Like any good teacher, Jesus starts with what the man knows by listing some of the Ten Commandments, along with “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” And like a good Jew, the young man assures Him that he has kept these commandments. But he is aware of some emptiness, something still lacking. Jesus instructs him to sell all he has to come follow Him. Jesus exposes the idol in the man’s heart—his possessions. The man was unable to let go of what he had for the greater good of following Jesus, so he went away downhearted.
Jesus then goes on to elaborate on the lesson for His disciples.
Truly, I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven.
The disciples, like many of us, equated material riches with God’s favor. Someone who owned much must be blessed by God. So they were astonished that the rich would have a hard time entering the kingdom. As we in America are some of the richest people in the world, we need to hold our possessions with an open hand, allowing God to take and use them as He sees fit. Otherwise our possessions will own us, rather than God.
Who then can be saved?
Jesus says, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” There is nothing that anyone can do to gain eternal life. It’s all up to God. God doesn’t relate to us the way we think He should. We think that life is like a test and we’re all going to gain points for what we get right and lose points for what we get wrong. But it’s all grace from start to finish.
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. -Ephesians 2:8-9
Peter, being the self-appointed spokesman, asked the question a lot of us ask: “See, we’ve left everything to follow You, what’s in it for us?” He’s essentially asking, “Is it worth it?” To which Jesus says, “It is worth far more than you can imagine.” God knows what real sacrifices we’ve made and He keeps account of them. (See Hebrews 6:10.) But then He says,
But many who are first will be last, and the last first.
He goes on to illustrate His point with the parable in chapter 20 of the laborers in the vineyard. The workers who were hired for the last hour were paid a full day’s wages, so the workers who were hired early in the day thought they deserved more. Jesus says it is God’s right to be generous to whomever He wills. It’s all by grace.
Like the workers, we tend to fall back into the “point system” mentality. We think we deserve something more or better because of the work we’ve done for the church, our faithfulness in prayer, or the sacrifices we’ve made. We try to accrue bonus points on our “good deed credit cards.” But Jesus reiterates that our relationship with God is always on the basis of what He has done for us, not anything we have done for Him. We have no right to compare ourselves with anyone else, because all we have is from God.
It’s all by grace, from beginning to end.
Discussion Starters:
- What kinds of things do people try to rely on for salvation besides grace (both Christians and other religions)? Have you done that on occasion?
- Have you ever been asked to give up something significant in order to follow Jesus? How hard was it to obey and do you have any regrets?
- Read these Scriptures and see what they say about grace and works: Matthew 6:1-4; Matthew 7:21-23; Luke 18:10-14; Luke 23:39-43; and Ephesians 2:1-10.
- Have you fallen into the “point system” trap? How does that affect our relationship with God and with others?
- How can we become more grace oriented?
- Pray for one another.
