“The Church of Christ” and The Rich Young Ruler

The Gospel of Grace Versus Trusting in Works

As the apologetic dog, my heart is to evangelize the Church of Christ. And so one of their favorite words is do. And so as I'm talking with the Church of Christ, they're like, Jeremiah, you must obey.

You must do something. Must we do the will of God? Yeah, but that means by putting your faith in Christ, be justified by faith apart from trusting in yourself. In Luke 18, we read about the rich young ruler.

And so one of my notes is what is the kingdom of God? It's the sphere, the realm of salvation, okay? And so I wanna read this account because there's so many important principles that we immediately learn about the kingdom of God.

There was a ruler that asked Jesus, good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life, okay? And so I just wanna go ahead and pause here because as the apologetic dog, my heart is to evangelize the Church of Christ.

And so one of their favorite words is do. And if you think about Acts 2 .38, Peter is answering the question of the Jews that were pricked to the heart and said, what must we do? And so as I'm talking with the Church of Christ, they're like, Jeremiah, you must obey.

You must do something. And so it's verses like this that they will actually point at and say, well, yeah, the rich young ruler was asking a good question. What must he do in terms of his works? And I already say, timeout, this is not good.

Must we do the will of God? Yeah, but that means by putting your faith in Christ, be justified by faith apart from trusting in yourself. And then scripture is very clear about not only the doctrine of justification, which is by faith apart from works, but the scriptures give us a doctrine of sanctification, that the justified by faith now live out their faith in good works to the glory of God.

We don't do works to earn God's favor, and we don't do good works to keep God's favor and our salvation. So this is a fantastic scripture talking about the kingdom of God because it's ultimately talking about salvation, eternal life.

The Rich Young Ruler and the Standard of Goodness

But if we have any Church of Christ in the side chat, watching in the future, I wanna submit to you that the rich young ruler, he is the best that any earthly person can be. This is the ideal person. He's rich, he's wealthy, right?

He's young, so he attained this wealth at a young age, and he's a ruler. He's been given a lot of authority. He is the ideal person in this world, okay? So what is the only thing left that he has to do and accomplish?

Well, he goes to Jesus and says, good teacher, okay? Now, Jesus is gonna question him on his understanding of the word good because he has a very low standard of goodness and holiness and what is right ultimately.

And so he says, good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? And so what I wanna submit to the Church of Christ and any group that has to say your obedience to a list of commands to what you do is what makes you right before God.

I want you to understand, the rich young ruler did not understand that he could not do anything. And he did not understand Jesus' point when he exposed his heart. And as we're gonna see, he left very sad, okay?

So I just want us to kind of lay this context. We are talking about what is the kingdom of God? It is salvation. So the rich young ruler, he says, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus said to him, why do you call me good?

No one is good except God alone. Something we need to recognize is God is holy, holy, holy. And so guess who is not? Man, right? Ever since the fall of Adam, we have all inherited a sin nature. We do not seek out after God.

We're not born in this neutral state. We're not born perfect. We are born God haters. And so yeah, there are things that exist in this world that we would kind of in a civil, virtuous way call something good, helping out somebody.

But we have to understand God alone is good because he is righteous, he is holy. He is light and there is no dark in him. That's the standard of good. And so the rich young ruler was right in calling Jesus good because he is God, but he didn't understand that.

The rich young ruler thinks that he is good and that he can do something to inherit eternal life. And what I wanna submit to you is that this individual was not only wrong, but he was delusional, okay?

The Law, Human Inability, and the Need for Grace

So Jesus said to him, why did you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments. Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not bear false witness, honor your father and mother.

And he said, now this is the delusional statement that the rich young ruler said, all of these I have kept from my youth. So real similar with the church of Christ and the rich young ruler and the Pharisees is they look at the commandments as something that you just try your best.

Try your best to do what's required of you and when you mess up, just repent and it'll be okay. And Galatians tells us that no, the law was given to crush. Galatians tells us that if you try to keep any of the law, then you better keep all of it.

And then you start thinking, oh, but I can't do that. Well, of course you can. If you've stumbled at one point of the law, then you've shattered the entire thing. I was listening to a preacher, he was talking about if you have a beautiful glass pane window and if you throw a rock and you just hit the tiny corner of it, it's gonna destroy the whole thing.

It's gonna shoot up streaks and the whole thing is ruined. That's our sin. One sin is enough to eternally condemn us to God because it's not the sin itself, it's the one whom we've sinned against and God is holy, God is eternal.

And so with that being said, the Church of Christ believe that you are born without a sin nature and that you become a sinner the moment you sin and we back up and say, no, no one seeks God from birth.

We've all died in Adam, past tense. That's why the Apostle Paul can say, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. He can say it as a guarantee. Even those who haven't lived yet, for all have sinned, right?

That is inevitably going to be, it's not what you do in terms of your works. And the rich young ruler is saying, oh, I've kept all the commandments since my youth. Okay, let's see how Jesus responds to that.

Jesus heard this and said to him, one thing you still lack. Okay, well, how could he still, how could he lack anything if he has kept all the laws since his youth? Jesus says, one thing you still lack, sell all that you have and distribute to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven and come follow me.

Treasure in Heaven, the Kingdom of God, and the New Birth

Now, I want to submit to you, Jesus is the best teacher to ever walk the earth. And so he's exposing a heart problem. This is fundamentally what separates man from God is a heart of stone, a heart that loves sin and suppresses the truth in unrighteousness.

And so rather than Jesus pointing out the fact that this person was delusional and cannot perfectly keep the entirety of the law and live, because that was what the law said, do this and you shall live.

Oh, we can't do that, right? We fall short of God's standard. Jesus puts his finger on the heart problem and says, go and sell all that you have and then you will have treasure in heaven, right? That is the kingdom of God and come and follow me.

But when the rich young ruler heard these things, he became very sad because why? He was very, he was extremely rich, okay? Jesus, seeing that he was very sad, said how difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God.

The rich young ruler is asking about eternal life. Jesus talks about having treasure in heaven and then here he equates all of those things to the kingdom of God. So what is the kingdom of God? It's salvation, it's righteousness, joy, peace in the Holy Spirit, okay?

And so I want you to see that. Jesus goes on to say, for it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person, and he mentions it for a second time, to enter the kingdom of God, okay?

And so the kingdom of God, what is it? Salvation. Those that heard this, the disciples no doubt, said then who can be saved? Because they understand what the kingdom of God is, it's salvation and they realize that the rich young ruler, the most ideal person in this world, as far as someone who is young, who is wealthy and has power and influence, who is a ruler, if he's not getting in, then what hope does everyone else have?

This was the same reality with the Pharisees. When Jesus said, unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, then you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven, which is also the kingdom of God.

And so the point is, you must have a heart righteousness. You must put your faith alone in Christ alone. The Pharisees didn't do that, they were trusting in themselves. And so that kind of reminds me, I had a debate a couple months ago with Mike Hysall, absolutely loved that man, loved our interaction, but I talked about the parable of the tax collector, the Pharisee and the tax collector, because that shows that those that believe your justification rest on what you do in your works, your obedience to a set of commands.

Well, you have to trust in your ability to carry those out. And Jesus says, you're not trusting in me, you're not trusting in the promises of God, you're trusting in your own righteousness. And so go check that out.

The rich young ruler, no doubt from a human perspective, he probably, other people probably said, oh man, we have observed his life and he has kept the entirety of the law. That man did it. Remember, the rich young ruler is the ideal person here on earth.

And yet his heart is far from God. And how do we know that? He just throws the word good, kind of another name for holy, he just kind of comes up to any rabbi and says,.

Hey, good teacher.

And Jesus basically points out, you don't realize that that belongs to God and him alone. And ironically, he was right to call Jesus good, because he is actually God. So let's continue. Once again, in verse 26, those who heard it said, who then can be saved?

I love this next part, because Jesus says, what is impossible with man is possible with God. Okay, so this reminds me of John chapter three. In fact, let's go rogue a little bit. I had all these scriptures already mapped out, but I can't help myself to go to John's gospel.

Because John mentions the kingdom of God, we see the account between Nicodemus and Jesus, where Nicodemus says, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.

Jesus answered, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. And what I'm wanting to submit to you is that by man, worldly standards, it is impossible to enter the kingdom of God.

It is impossible to see it. It is impossible to be saved on man's own terms. And notice, we're talking about the rich, young ruler. The one that has achieved what he can do, he is top dog. And yet, the apostles here are not quite grasping it.

God love them, right? They're being sanctified over time. But they're saying, if he can't get in, then what hope is it for everyone else? And then Jesus is saying, oh, but with God, it is possible. And so that's why we talk so much about the new birth, being born again, being born from above, promised within the new covenant, that God says, I will take out that heart of stone and I will give you a heart of flesh, a living heart that is convicted of sin and puts faith alone in Christ alone.

And that's a work of God. That's what John 6 goes on to say because that audience that was seeking Jesus was to fill their own tummy with food. They weren't really looking to know the truth about Jesus.

They had their own interest in mind. And they said, what can we be doing to be doing the works of God? So they're thinking very earthly and the things that they can do like the rich young ruler. And Jesus says, you must believe.

That believing, that is a work of God. So we don't have to continue to hash that out into the fullest, but the kingdom of God is salvation. And so with man, it is impossible, but with God and the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit, salvation is possible.

It is possible by the work of God for someone by faith to become a citizen of the kingdom of heaven.