An Essential Lesson

 “And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.”

‭Mark 10:20 ESV‬

When we think of the Christian faith, we tend to think of it as a system of rules. We think of it as a list of things we’re to do and as another list of things we’re not to do. And being faithful, we believe, means doing our best to obey God.

We then, from time to time, evaluate ourselves. And, as we do so, we conclude that we’ve done a pretty good job of keeping the rules. We conclude that we’ve, generally speaking, been faithful.

We know that we’re not perfect. And we know that we make a lot of mistakes. But, overall, we believe that we’re doing pretty well.

This is natural. It flows out of our sinful nature. But if we’re to receive the salvation that Christ came to provide, we have to understand how wrong we are.

This is what Jesus was explaining to the rich young ruler. He came to Jesus asking what he must do to inherit eternal life. And Jesus told him to keep the Commandments.

We almost gasp as we read this, knowing it contradicts the gospel. The gospel, after all, tells us that we’re saved not by what we do, but through faith. We, however, have to look at Jesus’ words in context. 

As we do so, it’s clear that Jesus wasn’t suggesting it’s possible for man to keep the Commandments. Nor was he saying that it’s possible for us to save ourselves. He was, in fact, demonstrating the opposite. 

Hearing Jesus’ words, the ruler responded much as you or I would. He responded, saying that he’d done so from his youth. He sincerely believed, in other words, that he’d kept the Commandments. 

Jesus, then, sought to show him otherwise. And he did so by telling the ruler there was yet one thing that he lacked. He was to go and sell all that he had and give to the poor.

This is something the ruler was unwilling to do. Jesus, you see, addressed the very sin with which he struggled. And we know this because he went away sad. 

The point of Jesus’ words is not that, as believers, we must give away all that we have. Again, he sought to show the ruler that he was not as good as he believed himself to be. And this is the lesson that we too must learn.

Although we tend to believe we’ve done a pretty good job of keeping God’s commands, this is far from the case. Although we don’t all struggle with the same sin, we are all sinners nonetheless. And for this reason, like the ruler, we are in desperate need of the grace of God.