Good Morning Friends,
Let’s get a few things straight from the beginning. First, Jesus’ ethics are about having a spiritual life and have little to do with a bookkeeping of our good acts. And second, yes, there is accounting, but the balance of the scale is weighted solely on your relationship with Jesus. Today we have a question asked by a wealthy young man that is the wrong question to be asking. There is nothing we can do to receive eternal life. The concept that there is anything we can do for our own salvation represents one of the greatest and most persistent fallacies in religion. Jesus sought to release us from the crippling effects of this false mindset. The blessing is that Jesus sees people with a double eye…seeing what they are and also what they might become. So, if you are dissatisfied with life as it is with unrealized potentials, ask Jesus the right question that shows God that you understand that he lightens our darkness and that even discontent can provide an insight. So, Are We Asking The Right Questions?
Scripture: As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; You shall not defraud; Honor your father and mother.’” He said to him, “Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.” Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, “You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions. Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” And the disciples were perplexed at these words. But Jesus said to them again, “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 someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” They were greatly astounded and said to one another, “Then who can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.” Peter began to say to him, “Look, we have left everything and followed you.” Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age—houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life.
Mark 10:17-30 (NRSV)
Indeed, the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And before him no creature is hidden, but all are naked and laid bare to the eyes of the one to whom we must render an account.
Hebrews 4:12-13 (NRSV)
Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Matthew 5:48 (NRSV)
Then he brought them outside and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” They answered, “Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”
Acts 16: 30-31 (NRSV)
Message: Jesus is the Word made Flesh. And this Word is living, active, and powerful because its nature is to discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart. It is somber, for we are all sinners and all hypocrites save those that admit their hypocrisy. Sure, there are bills to be paid and obligations to meet but in it all God cannot be an afterthought or an occasional acquaintance. There is no fooling God with empty claims to believe when the heart is not right. His Word is one which will always achieve what God intends. That is why we can come confidently, expecting to receive God’s grace in times of weakness and temptation. God is Sovereign and loves us. Jesus has traveled the road of being human and is under no illusion as to our situations for Jesus has perfect knowledge of our hearts and keeps us aware of His scrutiny of our lives so we might be disciples that glorify God. Jesus knows what we lack. Jesus knows the difference between posing and perfection. The classical definition of perfection by Aristotle is when a thing lacks nothing with respect for goodness or excellence. I am not exactly sure why Jesus commands us to be perfect knowing that we will fail, but he does. Today we look at the story of a rich young man who wanted eternal life. He had kept all the commandments but still was not perfect. And the thing is that we can learn something from him related to our quest for life. For the thing is that we are engineered as humans missing something. Everyone lacks something. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. So, part of the task here is to face up to the reality of what we are lacking and what we are willing to do and the reality that we cannot do it alone. We cannot buy it. We cannot afford the price of eternal life. Only Jesus can save us. Good work, no matter how good, cannot save us. Money did not save the young rich man in the story. The only way to be saved is to cry out to Jesus who is perfect. Perhaps you get the impression the Lord wants something from His followers we are constitutionally unable to give. If so, you are right.
And So, all goodness has its source in God. Flattery is clearly the wrong focus. So, Jesus rejected this too, keeping the focus on the way into the Kingdom and the fulfilling of life that goes beyond the fulfillment of the law. Jesus points the way to love and the path of being a disciple. On this journey there is a danger of putting money before God. If we would be disciples of Jesus, we need to have our priorities in proper order. It is a very different thing to ask what one must do to be saved and describe what a person does when they have been saved. It is about the joy of glorifying God and the transformation that happens when we risk loving. What we typically lack is love, the love of God. Oh God loves us, but the love we receive is too often a love we desire to keep for ourselves. Eventually scripture helps us to see, it is humanly impossible to win entrance into the Kingdom of God through our own efforts. But what we cannot do God can do by divine power and grace. All things necessary for salvation are possible with God. So have supreme confidence in God that our sins have been forgiven. Accounting is of the heart. Ask the Philippian jailer of Paul and Silas.
Pray we believe in Jesus. Pray we realize that the real issue of life is not how many blessings we have but what we do with our blessings on our journey out of love glorifying God. Pray we trust in Jesus to forgive our sins. Pray in response we glorify God through the way we live. Pray we realize that God is sovereign and has always been and will always be in control. Pray God gets our attention so we might respond in a way that glorifies God. Pray we are willing to admit our mistakes and ask God for help. Pray that when called to give a witness to God’s salvation we have a story of how God saved us and then used us to forward the Kingdom of God. Pray that we realize that obeying the Lord is not always comfortable, but it is always the right thing to do. Pray we ask Jesus for help. Pray we be a sign of great faith to others. Pray we endure. Pray we realize that we are never going to be perfect on our own but only when we understand that we can take nothing with us into the next life aside from our love relationship with God. Pray we always live in God’s mercy and depend on God’s strength. Pray that we make good choices. Pray we recognize what really matters. Pray we submit to God’s ways. Pray that we recognize our idolatry. Pray we, with Jesus’ help, break free of sin. Pray we learn to love people more than we love things. Pray we seek and find a relationship with Jesus that in eternity will perfect our trust in God and stop the cycle of sin. Pray that we love others and do the best work we can do not because it gets us to heaven but because we love God and want to honor God through the life we have been given.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 