Did Jesus tell the rich young ruler that he had to earn his way to heaven?

Greetings! 

On Sunday October 11th we addressed the famous story about Jesus and the Rich young ruler in Mark 10. You can listen to this portion of the sermon at https://rocklanechristian.org/live and start at about 23:00  or read it for yourself at https://classic.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+10%3A17-31%3B+Matthew+19%3A16-30&version=NIV if you need a quick refresher.

I received a very good question from one of Rocklane's members that I thought I would share along with my response:

The Question: I'm currently reading Matthew and last week happened to read chapter 19 which includes the rich man.  I was a little confused on the rich young man and every time I read it I'm confused...

It seems like giving away your money would be earning your way to heaven versus heaven being a free gift.  The young man walks away probably not ever going to heaven but doesn't seem like he was told about the rest of the gospel.  I just really don't understand why he wasn't told about faith versus give your money away.

My response: This is an excellent question, one I too have considered before. I would say a few of things here, but I would also like to do a bit more research and see what others say about this.

 

  1. The Gospel as we know it hadn’t happened yet. Jesus couldn’t tell the rich young ruler that the price for his sins had been paid and that death had been defeated because it hadn’t happened yet. Indeed, the only way to salvation at that moment was to obey the commandments. 
  2. However, Jesus wanted this man to know the Gospel so Jesus ultimate word to him was to follow Jesus. If he had taken Jesus’ advice he would have eventually bore witness to the Gospel himself (who knows maybe he eventually did). 
  3. Jesus gives this young man a gift in telling him the one thing that is an idol for him that he must cast aside and allow Jesus to replace in his life. All of us have this. In his excellent little book “Is God Anti-gay?” Sam Allberry talks about how every Christian is called to deny themselves in some way and it is equally heavy for all of us. He says, “…the Gospel demands everything of all of us.” His book is about homosexuality. So he is making the point that a person denying their same-sex attraction (as he does) doesn’t make Christianity any more difficult for them than any other Christian because we are all called to deny ourselves. For example, this rich young ruler needed to let go of his material – not because it was bad, but because he loved it more he loved God – it was the lord of his life – he could never accept Christ as Lord while he was living for and finding fulfillment in his stuff. 

 

You can pick up Allberry’s book pretty cheap if you want it (https://www.amazon.com/God-anti-gay-Questions-Christians-Ask/dp/1908762314/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1K4OOFWP5L69W&dchild=1&keywords=is+god+anti-gay+by+sam+allberry&qid=1602683270&sprefix=is+God+ant%2Caps%2C238&sr=8-1), I also have 5 or 6 copies in my office just to give away! It is really good. I know that this question is not about homosexuality – however the book talks a lot of about denying self which I think speaks to this question.


There you have it. If you, the reader, have any additional thoughts please share them as I am very interested! 

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