Idols of the soul -- Tuesday's Lesson
Read Matthew 19:16-30.
19:16 And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?
19:17 And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? [there is] none good but one, [that is], God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.
19:18 He saith unto him, Which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness,
19:19 Honour thy father and [thy] mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
19:20 The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet?
19:21 Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go [and] sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come [and] follow me.
19:22 But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions.
19:23 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven.
As New Testament Christians, how are we to relate to this story today? What lessons can we take from it for ourselves?
Though not much is told us specifically about this man, we can pick up a few salient points. He was rich, a ruler (see Luke 18:18), and apparently a very scrupulous follower of God’s law.
We can see, too, that he sensed something was missing from his life. It reminds one a bit of the story of Martin Luther; though outwardly a pious monk, inside he was dissatisfied with his spiritual life and he struggled with assurance of salvation. In both cases, the men sensed that the great gap between themselves and God was not going to be filled by their outward works.
“This ruler had a high estimate of his own righteousness. He did not really suppose that he was defective in anything, yet he was not altogether satisfied. He felt the want of something that he did not possess. Could not Jesus bless him as He blessed the little children, and satisfy his soul want?”—Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 518.Some people might argue that, in this story, Jesus is teaching that we receive eternal life based on our good works. After all, in Matthew 19:17 Jesus says, “If you want to enter life, keep the commandments” (NIV).
If this were the only text on that subject, one could make an argument here. But too many other texts, especially in Paul’s writings, teach that the law does not save but rather points to our need of salvation (see Rom. 3:28; Gal. 3:21-22; Rom. 7:7).
Instead, Jesus must have been guiding this man to see his own great need of more than what he was doing. After all, if keeping the law alone could do it, then the man would already have salvation, since (according to the letter of the law at least) he was scrupulous in keeping it. The gospel needs to penetrate the heart, to go right to the idols of the soul, and whatever we are holding onto that’s an impediment to our relationship to God needs to be gone. In this case, it was his money. Jesus notes how hard it is for a rich man to be saved; and yet, shortly after this dialog, Luke records a beautiful story of exactly that happening (see Luke 19:1-10) in the story of Zacchaeus.
If you were in the position of the rich man, and you asked Jesus the same question, what do you think He would say to you? Dwell on the implications of your answer.