Rich Young Ruler

The Rich Young Ruler and the Question of Eternal Life

I would ask you to turn in your Bibles to the Gospel of Mark, Chapter 10. We'll be reading verses 17 to 31, and we'll be focusing on everything. Here now, the inspired Word of God. As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up to him and knelt before him and asked him, Good teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?

And Jesus said to him, Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments. Do not murder. Do not commit adultery. Do not steal. Do not bear false witness. Do not defraud.

Honor your father and mother. And he said to him, Teacher, I have kept all these things from my youth up. Looking at him, Jesus felt a love for him and said to him, One thing you lack. Go and sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.

And come, follow me. But at these words he was saddened, and he went away grieving, for he was one who owned much property. And Jesus, looking around, said to his disciples, How hard it will be for those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom of God.

The disciples were amazed at his words, but Jesus answered again and said to them, Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.

They were even more astonished and said to him, Then who can be saved? Looking at them, Jesus said, With people it is impossible, but not with God, for all things are possible with God. Peter began to say to him, Behold, we have left everything and followed you.

Jesus said, Truly I say to you, There is no one who has left house, or brothers, or sisters, or mother, or father, or children, or farms, for my sake and the gospel's sake, but that he will receive a hundred times as much as now in the present age.

Houses, and brothers, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and farm, along with persecutions. And in the age to come, eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, Lord, we would just ask that now you'd be pleased to bless the preaching of the word. Lord, that your truth would ring out to your people. Father, that the words of truth would accomplish what it's meant to.

Lord, that they would afflict the comfortable, but comfort the afflicted. For your glory, it's in Christ's name we pray. Amen. You may be seated. We live in a day and age of modern miracles in terms of medical advancements.

We have so many diagnostic tools to help zero in on a problem that the human body is facing, is dealing with. There's CAT scans, there's MRIs, there's blood tests. All manner of tools to try to zero in and figure out what's going on, to reveal what deadly issue is affecting the human body.

And yet we know that even with all the medical advancements, they still fall short. There are still times where they just can't quite pinpoint exactly what's going on that's causing poor health, that's taking away from the quality of life, that's leading to a person's death.

They don't always know. By contrast, our God, the great physician, and his word is the perfect diagnostic tool, and it never misses. Hebrews 4 .12 says, The word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

God never misses. He always knows exactly what's going on, exactly what needs to be addressed. And we're going to see that today in our story. The sermon this morning comes from the pericope of the rich young ruler, the story, the extract from this gospel.

And in your Bible, if you read along, you might even have a little subheading there, a little uninspired help that says the rich young ruler, the rich young man. But if you notice as we read through this passage, it didn't mention anything about his youth.

It didn't mention he was a ruler. The only thing that's mentioned is his wealth and how much he had. But of course, this encounter is recorded for us in three of the gospels, the synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

And in Matthew, we learn about his youth, that he was a young man. In Luke, it refers to him as a ruler among the people. Now each of these recordings are substantially the same. But the reason I chose this passage in Mark is because Mark shares a few details that I think are especially pertinent that I wanted to highlight.

But I'll be touching on some of the things the other two mention. The rich young ruler tends to get a bad rap. Right? No one thinks of him as a hero by any stretch. And it's not that it's undeserved. People write him off as self-righteous.

They write him off as self-sufficient. He did walk away from Christ. But I want us to take a minute to consider this account and take a look at this young man, and of course at Christ, and get a picture, the whole picture.

The Call to Believe Rather Than Earn Salvation

As Jesus is about to set out on a journey, there comes one who runs up to him, who kneels before him, and asks the most pressing question of all, the essential question, Good teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?

This is the rich young ruler. Think about that three-word description for a minute. Rich. Young. Ruler. By most people's standards today, he's already arrived. He's got everything they're actually aiming for.

What has our society idealized? What do they put on a pedestal? What do they pursue but wealth, but youth, and of course authority and status? Look at all the social influences. If we have social media, we have a chance to be in authority, to have status, to gain wealth, and to pretend we're youthful forever with filters.

And yet this young man, having all of these things, realizes it's not enough. There's something else. There's something more important. So much so that he could give up the dignity of being a ruler to run to Christ and get on his knees and say, What shall I do?

He knows there's something more, namely eternal life. He knows that death is not the end. He recognizes the reality of a coming judgment, and he wants to know what it takes for the beyond. And this is commendable.

It really is. In light of the statistics that Pastor Jensen shared just a couple weeks ago, where it said 80 of Americans believe, 80 believe they will have to give an account for their sins, and yet the vast majority of them don't bother to read the Word of God.

They aren't asking the question. They aren't trying to figure out the answer. They don't want to know. They don't want to change. They want to avoid thinking about their obligations. But judgment is coming.

There's an eternal destiny for each one of us, and the rich young ruler comes running up to Christ, believing in eternal life and believing that Jesus can tell him how to obtain it. So he kneels. He addresses him as good teacher, and he asks, What shall I do?

What is he saying? What behavior is required? What action must I take? How do I earn this? And that's the question, right? That's how we think. No free lunches. You've got to earn it. Every counterfeit religion would affirm that idea.

You must work for your salvation. You must earn it. There are people today, people in the church, that if you were to come up to them and say, How do you become a Christian? What would they say? Oh, well, you've got to go to church.

You've got to pray. You've got to read your Bible. That's what they would tell you, how to become a Christian. Now, the confusion is understandable, but needs to be corrected. Those are some of the things you need to do as a Christian.

A few, certainly not all. If you think that's all, let's talk after the service. But that's not how you become a Christian. In John 6, Jesus was asked, What must we do to be doing the works of God? And what does he say?

This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent. Believe in Him. That's the message of the Gospels. For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that all those believing would not perish, but have eternal life.

What are we to believe? What are you to believe? Believe that you can't earn your salvation. Believe that your sin, that our sin, condemns each and every one of us to hell. No exceptions. Believe that Christ came to redeem us, because we could not redeem ourselves.

Believe that He came to pay for our sins, to impute His righteousness to us, that we might be justified before God. He came. Believe this. He came to give us everlasting life, in perfect community with Him and our Heavenly Father.

And believe that He is Lord. And not only are we obligated to live our lives in cheerful submission to Him, but we should desire to. Not just a begrudging obligation, oh, we have to. We should desire to, because He's worthy.

But that's not how Jesus answers this young man. He's a master teacher. He always knows His audience, and He always knows how to address them. So He responds to the young man with a question. Why do you call me good?

Now this is not... He says, no one is good except God alone. Now this is not Jesus denying that He's God, or that He's good. But He's putting the young man to the test, saying, what do you understand about what is good?

Is good something attainable? Now, good can be used in a relative way. We use that term, and it's understood. But it's relative, it's subjective when we use it for the most part. But when it comes to the things of God, when it comes to the things about eternal life and how do we inherit it, good is no longer a relative term.

Good now has an objective standard. And Jesus reminds us, no one meets that standard. No one is good, objectively good, but God. What does that mean? Mankind is not good. Jesus says, you know the commandments.

Do not murder. Do not commit adultery. Do not steal. Do not bear false witness. Do not defraud. Honor your father and mother. Now there's a couple of interesting things here. One, He mentions those commandments that are part of the second table of the law.

Those commandments that govern how do we relate to one another. And this is noteworthy because it's easier for us to see and evaluate our obedience on the second table. Why? Because God doesn't confront us on the first table the way other people do on the second table.

People will tell you if you have violated the second table. You'll get arrested for the stealing and for the murder. You'll be breaking up and destroying relationships with adultery and lying and all that.

And so it's easy to sometimes imagine that we're honoring God. But if you want to know the real test, if you love God, how do you love your neighbor? Because the reality is that our obedience to the second table of the law is every bit a demonstration of our love or lack of love for God as that first table is.

And God tells us in his word, you can't hate your brother. You can't hate your neighbor and say you love your God. Scripture calls you a liar. Another curious thing is the command to not to defraud. Now if you've been reading the Bible for any time, wait a second, that's not one of the ten.

But obviously while it's not one of the ten, it's an application from several of them. Jesus doesn't mention coveting perhaps because that's one of those hidden sins. People on the outside don't see it.

And maybe you'll try to convince yourself it's not there. Oh, I don't covet, I'm just... make up some excuse. Defrauding comes from a coveting heart that seeks to obtain what others have by taking actions that if they aren't lying and stealing directly, they're lying and stealing adjacent, if you know what I mean.

It can be accomplished by entering into an agreement or a contract where you have insider information that gives you an unfair advantage. Or where you try to use fine print or you try to minimize certain terms and conditions that are unfavorable.

And if you told them outright, hey, this is what it's gonna be, no one in their right mind would agree to it. But they just give you a laundry list of terms and conditions and just say, you gotta sign the bottom if you want this thing.

You could say that people are defrauding of knowing the human nature of mankind, right? You can also defraud someone by holding back what is rightfully due. Now this defrauding along with all the others can be done by anyone.

It's a sin that anyone can do, but the rich might have more opportunities to do it than most. But the rich young ruler is not, not even slowed down. He insists, teacher, I have kept all of these from my youth.

If you've read this account in Matthew, there's a question that's added. He says, I have kept all these from my youth up. What do I still lack? Now the temptation for us might be to say, the nerve of this guy.

Who does he think he is? Does he realize how self-righteous he sounds, how arrogant he sounds? Hasn't he heard of the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus explains that unrighteous anger is tantamount to murder or to lust in your heart is to commit adultery in your heart?

Maybe he hasn't. Maybe he has. I wonder if that's something that we don't normally think of. Perhaps he's actually sincere and he genuinely thinks he has kept these commandments. It could be that he has been pursuing righteousness as a boy.

He lives in a society that is often focused on conformity to the law of God. At the very least, outward conformity. There are those, the righteous among the people, who would say with the rabbis, they've kept the Torah from A to Z.

They actually thought it was possible to do that. And so perhaps this was a young man who was raised well, taught to be obedient. His parents had his heart. He desired to be obedient. He desired to be pleasing to his parents.

And he had a heart that in many ways seemed inclined and favorable to the things of God. It could be that this rich young ruler is something of a standout. That humanly speaking, relatively speaking, he's a very good person and that he's incredibly sincere.

Remember, he came up running to Christ. Forgetting his authority. Forgetting his status. Doesn't ask for an invitation. Doesn't ask for an introduction. Hey, could you tell him who I am? No, he comes running.

No gravitas there. Just kneeling before Christ. What shall I do to inherit eternal life? For contrast, that's why I chose a scripture reading in Luke this morning. If you read that account, it says a lawyer asked him the same question.

Doesn't say good. He says, teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? But when we read it, it says he stood up to test Jesus. To put him to the test. And when Jesus answers the lawyer, what does the lawyer do?

Seeking to justify himself, he asks another question. Right? And so there's the contrast. The lawyer stands up to put Jesus to the test. And when he gets the answer, he asks another to justify himself.

When Jesus answers the young man, he says, what am I still lacking? The young man doesn't get the response from Jesus that the smug, self-righteous people get. That the Pharisees get. In the ESV, it says that Jesus, looking at him, loved him.

Here in the New American Standard, it says he felt a love for this young man. And so now the call. We just talked about the question. Now the call. He felt a love for this young man. So he says, you are lacking one thing.

Go. Sell all you possess. Give it to the poor. And you will have treasure in heaven. And come. Follow me. Now as we said, this rich young ruler is, relatively speaking, a good person. But when it comes to the things of God, and eternal life, good is no longer about relativism.

It's objective. There's an objective standard. And the commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And to love your neighbor as yourself. In his response, Jesus calls this man to an opportunity to obey both those commands to the fullest.

Show love for neighbor. Give all the way that you have. Show love for God. Follow him wherever he leads. And he promises not just a chance. Not just, and then maybe, maybe you're on your way. He says, you will have treasure in heaven.

You will have eternal life. If you obey Christ here. But in that moment, what has Jesus done? He puts his finger right on the one thing that young man didn't want to give up. How many diagnostic tools to try to figure out is there anything wrong with this guy?

He looks pretty healthy. And Jesus goes, what about that? Like a surgeon with a scalpel, Jesus with a word cut through all the externals and he revealed the heart and the idol within it. He cuts through all the I wills and all the I haves and he gets to the one I won't.

But the I won't, that one I won't, is the deal breaker. Partial obedience is not obedience. At these words, he was saddened and went away grieving. For he was one who owned much property. That response is interesting.

In Luke 16, when Jesus is preaching, you can't serve both God and money. The Pharisees, the righteous ruling class, heard him and ridiculed, ridiculed the Messiah, scoffed at the Messiah. Why? Because they were lovers of money.

And so here's Jesus, the good teacher, the good rabbi, preaching with authority the very word of God, putting his finger on the heartbeat of our idols in society and they laugh it off. This young man is walking away, but he's walking away grieving.

He's not mocking. He's not angry. He's sad. He's so close to the kingdom and yet he's torn because he understands the call. There's no ambiguity here, right? I got that word out. It only took two tries.

There's no ambiguity here. This is not us reading something and saying, he's not talking about me. Jesus says, you sell it all. Give to the poor. He's counting the cost. As Jesus is constantly warning, people are flocking to him and he ends up turning them away.

He preaches the hard things. He says, count the cost before you sign up. And this young man is counting the cost and he's realizing it is everything. But Jesus doesn't call him back. He doesn't attempt to soften the requirement.

He doesn't try to make it so it's a little bit more palatable. Well, are you willing to? No. He turns to his disciples and says, how hard it will be for those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom. And the disciples seem to be dumbfounded.

Mark writes that they were amazed at his words. And so Jesus says again, children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God. It's easier for a camel, the largest animal in Israel, to go through the eye of a needle, the smallest object they're dealing with on a regular basis.

This ridiculous comparison. He goes, it's easier for that camel to get through the needle than a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. Now they're more astonished. Jaws on the floor. And they say, then who can be saved?

I don't know if we'd ask that question nowadays. This impact has so, the gospel has had such an impact on going around the world and changing our views on stuff, even sometimes when we don't appreciate it.

But in that time, in that context, the prevailing, though simplistic, the prevailing understanding at the time was that wealth was a clear sign of God's blessing. That if you had wealth, you had God's favor.

So unless you were obviously wicked, the assumption was that because you already had this advantage, you were most assuredly heading for a final reward. So when Christ says it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, the thought process is, if those who are blessed can't get in, what hope is there for anyone?

So they ask, then who can be saved? And notice what Jesus doesn't say. Well, the poor, obviously. The kingdom is just for the poor, not the rich. No, he says with people, it's impossible, but not with God.

All things are possible with God. No one can, apart from the grace of God. The reality is that on our own, in our own wisdom, in our own strength, in our own spirituality, rich or poor, we would never choose God on our own volition.

The stumbling blocks may look different. Our reasons for not coming to him will be articulated differently, but ultimately, it comes down to unbelief. The invitation from Jesus is to come, follow me. Prior to this encounter, just a little while earlier in Mark 8, Jesus was preaching that if anyone desires to come after him, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow him.

Most of you know, but to you, this is a call to die, to take up your cross. That's what the condemned did on their way to be hung on that cross. And he says, you want to follow me? It's to the death. It's a call to die and find your life in him.

To follow Jesus is to be his disciple. Rabbi, they would follow. They would become disciples. They would follow wherever he went. They would sit at his feet and listen to his teaching. They would put themselves under the authority of the teacher and live their lives the way he taught them to, the way he showed them to.

When Jesus gives that command, sell everything, that obligation to sell all we possess is not universal. It's not given to everyone who would be a disciple. But the obligation to be willing to is. Before you wipe your brow, whew, glad that was for then.

One commentator says that Jesus, that Jesus did not command all his followers to sell all their possessions. Gives comfort only to the kind of people to whom he would issue that command. What does this commentator know anyway?

To follow Christ, the reality, to follow Christ means to be ready and willing to give up everything for his sake. How many people declare their love for God and their willingness to follow him, but when the command comes, when the opportunity comes to demonstrate that love for God through obedience, in that especially hard thing, they balk.

They hesitate. They flat out refuse. Why? Because of unbelief. Because in the final analysis, as some of our favorite theologians would say, in the final analysis, they don't take God at his word. In Numbers 18, the word of God to the people of the tribe of Levi, of Levi, the Levites, Aaron and his tribe.

He says, you'll have no inheritance in the land. Neither shall you have any portion among them. They're divvying up this promised land. And he goes, you're not going to have a piece of it. He goes, I'm your inheritance.

I'm your portion. How many of us would realize that's the greatest blessing of all? To have God, and for him to say, I'm yours, and you're mine. That's your reward. And to realize that's the best anyone could ask for.

Unbelief says, is there another choice? Can I have a piece of land too? In the moment of testing, people will reveal that they don't really believe that what God says is true. That his way is best. That his revelation is our wisdom, wisdom for us.

That our obedience, no matter how difficult, no matter how counterintuitive, is for our ultimate good. They don't believe it. Because if they believed it, they would just say, deal. Great! Where do I sign?

This young man is so close to the kingdom. He comes before Christ with humility, with zeal. But he falls short. His heart has revealed to be deceitful indeed. He's not as willing to follow Christ as he thinks he is.

He's not as anxious for eternal life as he thinks he is. He doesn't fully believe in that moment that following Christ and inheriting eternal life is better than what his current status is. He sees his wealth and he does not want to let it go.

And Jesus, even in his love, or I should say, especially in his love, he doesn't say, you're close enough. Your obedience, your attitude, it's alright. He tells him, this is what you lack. Sell everything.

Give it to the poor and follow me. He puts his finger right on that idol and he lets him walk away. He lets him go. My friends, here's the reality. And it's as true for us as it was for him. Listen, Christ will have all of you or none of you.

That's the cost. Will you fully surrender yourself fully to Christ or not? When Jesus puts his finger on the one thing you don't want to give up, on the one thing you don't want to do, will you obey what he commands of you?

The danger, as I alluded to before, is that in our day, the danger is that we are tempted to deny that he commands us to do anything we don't like. Because we aren't seeing Jesus face to face. We aren't having him tell us this is exactly what you have to do.

No, we have to open his word. We have to open the book. We have to read the book. And then we have to apply it to ourselves. And the problem is, many don't read it. Perhaps they're afraid of just that, that Jesus is going to point out what they don't want to hear.

The problem is that some people do read it, but then they find a way to explain away everything that's uncomfortable. Anything that they don't like. How it doesn't really apply to them. They'll do all sorts of gymnastics to avoid the plain reading of the text.

They'll never mind the sections that require a bit of wisdom to apply. How many will profess with their lips, Jesus is Lord! But their lives proclaim cheap grace, forgiveness without repentance. Inheritance without price.

They only offer the obedience that they are comfortable with, and not a bit more. It may never be said of us. May we embrace the word of God, the calling of God with a heart cry that says command what you will, Lord and grant what you command.

Help us to obey the reward. In the aftermath of this encounter with the rich young ruler, the disciples are trying to process it. When they ask who can be saved and Jesus says this is impossible for people but not God, only all things are possible with God.

The meaning is clear. Entrance into the kingdom is not possible by means of the flesh. By human achievement. We can't just do it. This man was offered a guarantee. There was a reality that he already acknowledged was possible and attainable.

He believed that there's eternal life, and he believed that Jesus could tell him how to do it. And Jesus does. He offers him face to face, do this and you will have treasure in heaven. You will have eternal life.

And he walks away. This was someone who had been keeping the law of God as far as he knew his whole life. And he walks away. But here are the disciples. And Peter says, behold, we have left everything and followed you.

And in Matthew, the implied question is included. What will there be for us? The disciples perhaps didn't have the wealth and status of this ruler. But they had shown a willingness to walk away from everything.

They left their business. They left the fishing boats and the nets. They left the tax collectors table. And they followed Christ. So what's What's for them? And Jesus says, truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or farms for my sake and for the gospel's sake but that he will receive a hundred times as much now in the present age.

Houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms along with persecutions. And in the age to come eternal life. The call of Jesus is to surrender yourself fully. To surrender everything.

But here Jesus doesn't leave us guessing. He encourages us. He comforts us. The sacrifice will end up not feeling like a sacrifice. The sacrifice will be rewarded a hundredfold because his grace is more than sufficient.

His provision is more than sufficient. He's not shying away from what the sacrifice is. What it costs. What we may have to face. He talks about houses and all these close family relationships and farms.

The idea you could lose the place where you live. You could lose your close family relationships. You could lose your source of income. All for the sake of Christ and the gospel. But not only is Christ worthy he is superior and his blessings and benefits are more than able to recompense you the cost of discipleship.

A hundred times as much you will receive in the present age. We're not to take this as a health, wealth and prosperity gospel where you sow a seed offering and then you expect to get material gains back as the charlatans would tell you.

Give your money and you'll get a thousandfold. Right? What Jesus is promising is that you will have what you need. He will provide for you. Yes, laying hold of Christ, living for him, proclaiming him.

In this age we will see both blessings and persecution. We will have difficulties but we will be sustained by the provision of our Savior. Those who have been rejected by their families for Christ's sake will find they are surrounded by the family of God.

You are not alone. He puts the lonely in families it says. Those whose provision is removed, they lose their jobs for the cause of Christ will have the help and support of the body of Christ. God will provide all we need and whatever we leave, whatever we leave behind to follow him, whatever we give up for Christ, he says you'll receive a hundredfold.

And in the age to come, eternal life. That was the question, remember? That's how we started. What shall I do to inherit eternal life? This life is fleeting. If you live to be over a hundred, it's a vapor, a mist.

It's here and then it's gone and no one remembers. The world is passing away. Judgment is coming. Eternity is coming and where will you spend it? For those who believe in Christ, those who believe in him whom the Father has sent, believe that Christ is good and we are not.

Believe that he's come to redeem us with his own blood and give us new life in him. That belief will be proven in your submission to your Lord and Savior. And that belief will be rewarded with eternal life.

But he says many who are first will be last and the last first. The teaching of Christ is so foreign to the world's way of thinking. It demands of us a total change of perspective and priorities. As we come to the conclusion not done yet.

There are some who think that the rich young ruler is actually John Mark the author of this gospel. And they offer a few different reasons why and I'm not going to get into them. I think they might be right but I don't think we have sufficient evidence to be dogmatic about it.

But as we read this story I do think that even if the rich young ruler isn't Mark I believe there is still hope for him. That we might see him again on the other side. His approach to Christ was humble and seemed sincere.

He in many ways recognized the goodness of God. He recognized the goodness of Christ. He recognized the reality of eternal life and the need to obtain it. The challenge to sell everything didn't cause anger or mocking.

It caused grief. He was obviously wrestling with the cost. With the reality that he was confronted with. And then there is a response of Jesus. The love that he had for him. The love that he felt for him that was recorded for us.

These factors make me inclined to think that eventually the rich young ruler came around. He wrestled with it. He counted the cost. And I pray to God he laid it all down for the good teacher. But the more pressing question this morning is what will you do?

The great physician has given you his word. Living and active. Sharper. Able to discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart. He's given you your diagnosis. He's given, he's put his finger right on the issue.

He's telling you what you need to inherit eternal life. He's telling you what you need to prove yourself a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. So don't wait. If you've been holding back. If you've been hanging on to whatever it is.

Let go. Believe in Christ. Bow the knee and be saved. Surrender all. It's all headed for the flames anyway. Surrender all and enter in to the kingdom. And for those who are professing Christ for those who are disciples of Christ may you constantly immerse yourself in the word.

Sit at the feet of your good teacher. Of your savior. Of your Lord. Be in the word. And ask, Lord, what would you have me to do? Let's pray.