“A certain ruler asked him, ‘Good teacher, what must I do to
inherit eternal life?’ ‘Why do you call me good?’ Jesus answered. ‘No one is
good—except God alone.’” (Luke 18:18-19)
The first step to inherit the kingdom of heaven is to
know who God is and who Jesus is. He calls Jesus “Good teacher.” Jesus asks
back to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good—except God alone.” This
is not what our Lord Jesus is denying that he is God. Many reads that way. But
it is not true. What our Lord Jesus is saying is that when he calls him good
and no one is good except God alone he is now talking to God face to face. What
does it mean by “God is good?” It means God is unbending, unchanging,
uncompromising by any degree in any circumstance from the beginning to the end.
Apostle John says God is light which means he is straight, neither falling to
the left nor to the right. Our Lord Jesus aptly expresses how thoroughly and
completely are the words of God fulfilled and accomplished in the teachings on
the Sermon on the Mount.
“For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not
the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear
from the Law until everything is accomplished.” (Matthew 5:18)
Our God is the Maker and Designer of all. That’s who he is
and what he is. He is above all and over all and through all and in all
(Ephesians 4:6). Without him nothing was made that has been made in heaven and
on earth and under the earth (John 1:3). All thrones, powers, authorities,
rulers, and all things have been created through him and for him (Colossians
1:16). He is before all things and in him all things hold together (Colossians
1:17). He is wiser and higher than anyone and anything in heaven and on earth,
says Prophet Isiah.
“’For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your
ways my ways,’ declares the Lord. ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so
are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.’” (Isaiah
55:8-9)
No one understands God. No one can fathom his understanding.
No one can give any advice to him. He owes nothing to anyone because all
belongs to him (Job 41:11, Psalm 50:9-11).
“Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the
everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired
or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.” (Isaiah 40:28)
The next step to inherit the kingdom of heaven is to obey
his commandments. God delivered his people just as he promised to Abraham out
of the hands of King Pharaoh in Egypt and led to the holy mountain, Mount Horeb
and gave them the Ten Commandments through his servant Moses. Jehovah God
commanded them to keep all the decrees and the laws with all their heart and
with all their mind and with all their heart and with all the strength. Then
they shall live. Otherwise, they shall perish. So, Jesus asks this young man to
keep all the laws of God.
“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.’ ‘All these I have kept since I was a boy,’ he
said.” (Luke 18:20-21)
Amazingly, the young ruler says that he has kept the
commandments since he was a boy. I don’t think he is lying to Jesus. But his
understanding of keeping the commandments of God is not what our Lord means.
What the young man means of keeping the commandments is not literally
committing adultery, murder, theft, giving false testimony, and honoring his
father and mother. What he says is what he means. He has seriously been keeping
those commandments since his childhood. He didn’t break the commandments of God
and he couldn’t because that’s how he has been taught and disciplined. It may
be true as well to many young men and women who have been grown up in Christian
families. Like this young man, they might have been well protected and
preserved in the devout and believing family and church. All kids around them
might have behaved that they might not have been involved any wrongdoings. That’s
what Apostle Paul experienced that he didn’t know what sin was until the law
came home to him.
“What shall we say, then? Is the law sinful? Certainly not!
Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law.
For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said,
‘You shall not covet.’ But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the
commandment, produced in me every kind of coveting. For apart from the law, sin
was dead. Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came,
sin sprang to life and I died. I found that the very commandment that was
intended to bring life actually brought death. For sin, seizing the opportunity
afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to
death.” (Romans 7:8-11)
Paul was grown up in a Jewish family and community, being
taught the laws and decrees in the Torah. He was free and unconscious of
sinning until he was caught up by the law. He knew the law since the childhood
but never recognized that he was capable of sinning by breaking the law. But he
couldn’t help but breaking the law all the more when he was fully awakened by
the law which says he shall not covet. He was deceived and through the
commandment he was put to death by sin. What Paul is saying is that he didn’t
realize the fact that he was fully and completely capable of breaking the law.
That’s the true and ultimate purpose of giving the law that every mouth may be
silenced and the whole world held accountable to God (Romans 3:19). The law
reveals the truth what we are and why we are.
“Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight
by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our
sin.” (Romans 3:20)
The law is holy and righteous and no one can live without
keeping the law. The Scripture also says that no one can meet what the law
requires. That’s the serious problem of humanity. There is no way for humanity
to be saved from the bondage of sin and death by themselves. However, God has provided a way
for the fallen race to keep the law in perfection. It is through Jesus Christ
who became in the likeness of man and died on a cross where he shed his blood
to death and paid the ransom for the redemption of the world. Our Lord Jesus
Christ disarmed the authorities and powers of darkness on the cross and delivered
the captives and made his possessions through the faith in him. So now, anyone
who is in Christ can keep the law by means of the Spirit who indwells within
forever.
The third step to inherit the kingdom of heaven is to trust
in God with all the heart and with all the mind and all the strength. The
Gospel of Mark tells that when the young man answers that he has kept the law
since he was a boy, Jesus looks at him and loves him (Mark 10:21). I think
Jesus loved him because he came to him like a child, asking honestly and
bluntly and wanting to know the truth. But Jesus says that he has one thing
lacking.
“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.’ When he heard this, he became very
sad, because he was very wealthy.” (Luke 18:22-23)
Jesus says, “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.” When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was very
wealthy. To inherit the kingdom of heaven, he must trust in God only. One thing
he still lacks to inherit the kingdom of heaven is that he must trust in God
more than his great welath. That’s why the Scripture says he became very sad
because he was very wealthy. This expression is quite unusual in the sense that
great wealth is supposed to make him happy but it makes him very sad instead.
Why does Jesus say like this? Is great wealth wrong? Not at all. How could God
be against what he made? God saw what he made and said it was good.
Then, why does Jesus say to sell everything and give to the
poor? It’s because great wealth keeps blocking him not to see real treasure in
the kingdom of heaven. Ah, there is real treasure and not real one. What is not
real treasure? It is whatever including great wealth blocks man not to have
real treasure in heaven. Whatever from the earth is not real treasure,
especially what man highly exalts and admires like pompous career and
glittering things of the world. Whatever invokes man’s pride is not real
treasure. Treasure in heaven is eternal life, invisible and unchanging quality
of life which lasts forever. Jesus Christ is treasure in heaven because the
Father gives eternal life to anyone who believes in him (John 6:40).
On the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says, “Blessed are the
poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:3) Those who
are drawn by the Father and respond to the heavenly invitation with gratitude
and thanksgiving because they are unworthy and undeserved are given the kingdom
of heaven by the generous Father. They respond to the divine call because they
know that they have nowhere to go and nothing to depend on except God alone. There
was a moment for Peter who couldn’t help but say, “Go away from, Lord, I am a
sinful man!” (Luke 5:8) There was a moment for Job who couldn’t help but say, “Therefore
I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.” (Job 42:6) That’s the moment
heaven opens and let the poor in spirit see and even take the kingdom of heaven.
That’s how God invites people into the kingdom of heaven from the beginning and
now till the door is closed (Romans 11:25).
“Jesus looked at him and said, ‘How hard it is for the rich
to enter the kingdom of God! 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.’
Those who heard this asked, ‘Who then can be saved?’ Jesus replied, ‘What is
impossible with man is possible with God.’ Peter said to him, ‘We have left all
we had to follow you!’ ‘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 will fail to receive many times as much in this age, and in
the age to come eternal life.’” (Luke 18:24-30)
Jesus looks at him and says, “How hard it is for the rich to
enter the kingdom of God! 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.” What
Jesus is saying is what he means literally. Then some who hear this cry out, “Who
then can be saved?” The Gospel of Matthew and Mark tell that the young man went
away sad and Jesus spoke to his disciples. The disciples also have desires to
be rich someday although they don’t know how, probably through the Master
Jesus. That’s why they are greatly disturbed when Jesus says the impossibility
of entering the kingdom of heaven for the rich.
Jesus says, “What is impossible with man is possible with
God.” Somehow and someway, God is breaking through the impossibility of man,
not by force but by long-suffering love through the Son Jesus Christ who
sacrificed his life for the sin of the world. Indeed, there are some rich
people who genuinely believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and follow him. Then,
Peter said to Jesus, “We have left all we had to follow you!” Then, Jesus said
to his disciples including Peter, “Truly I tell you, no one who has left home
or wife or brothers or sisters or parents or children for the sake of the
kingdom of God will fail to receive many times as much in this age, and in the age
to come eternal life.” This may sound very hard to understand. In fact, it is
one of the most controversial questions in Christendom. Does Jesus mean it
literally? Yes, he does. How can it be possible? Those lists are pretty difficult
and tough ones for anyone to leave. Families are tightly knitted in blood and
related so much with great bond.
It is impossible for man but possible with God. Who is the originator
and giver of families? Is it not God? He is over all and above all and through
all and in all, says the Scripture. Nothing was made that has been made without
God. Families and their tight-knit relationships are originated by God. He
designed that kind of tight and unbreakable relationship in the families. He knows
how difficult and hard to leave. However, what our Lord Jesus is saying that
there is nothing which can be placed on top of God, even the family
relationships. Anything put on top of God or instead of him is called idolatry.
For example, Abraham was tested to offer his beloved son, only son Isaac as a
burnt offering to God. Humanly speaking, it is impossible for anyone to do such
an unspeakable thing against his own son. Nevertheless, he obeyed and offered
his son in the mount where Jehovah God instructed because he feared God more
than withholding his son. So, the Lord God said to him:
“I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that because you have
done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless
you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the
sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of
their enemies, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed,
because you have obeyed me.” (Genesis 22:16-18)
Our Lord Jesus did not withhold his life but offered his
body to the Father, shedding blood to death. He received all power and
authority in heaven and on earth and yet did not use them to judge the world
but gave his life unto death in obedience to the Father. Without death, there
is no forgiveness. Without blood, there is no righteousness. The Son Jesus
Christ must die and that’s why he came to the earth in the likeness of man. He
came to die in order to save the world. He was arrested, condemned to death by
the Sanhedrin, handed over to the Gentiles and tried and sentenced to be
crucified by Pontius Pilate. He was scourged by the cruel Roman soldiers and
crucified on a cross in Calvary, shedding blood. He was smitten and bruised and
wounded in our place for our transgressions and sins so that we might be healed
and restored. Jesus says to his disciples these words of eternal truth which is
aptly expounding what he is saying here. The cross is not the end of story but
the resurrection of Jesus from the dead follows immediately. As Jesus promises,
Abraham received back his son from the dead when he did not withhold his own
son (Hebrews 11:19).
“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and
take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will
lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.”
(Mark 8:34-35)
Prayer: Thank you Father for teaching us a way to the kingdom
of heaven. Thank you for your graceful invitation to the kingdom of heaven
through the Son Jesus Christ who is the way and door. May God help us to obey
our Lord Jesus Christ, putting God on top of everything, even the family
relationships. Thank you Father for giving us a way to obey all the commandments
by means of the Spirit who lives within forever. In Christ’s name. Amen.
August 29, 2016
© 2015-2016 David
Lee Ministries – All Rights Reserved.
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