A certain ruler asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
“Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.’”
“All these I have kept since I was a boy,” he said.
When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was very wealthy. Jesus looked at him and said, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! Indeed, 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.”
Those who heard this asked, “Who then can be saved?”
Jesus replied, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.”
Peter said to him, “We have left all we had to follow you!”
“Truly I tell you,” Jesus said to them, “no one who has left home or wife or brothers or sisters or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God will fail to receive many times as much in this age, and in the age to come eternal life.” (Luke 18:18-30 NIV)
Camels are big. I saw that first-hand on a trip to Israel about 15 years ago. Our tour group took a pit stop in the middle of the desert. There were some men there with camels. They asked if anyone wanted to pay to ride a real camel. The one guy willing to do it was the biggest person in our group. A football player. Well over 300 pounds. The camel kneeled down. The man climbed on. The camel stood up. And the guy started screaming! Like really screaming. “Let me down! Let me down!” He said later it was because he was up so high. Of course, the camel guys loved it! They pretended not to hear and didn’t let him down for a long time. I learned: Camels are big.
So what do you think the chances are that a camel can fit through the eye of a needle? That tiny hole. The truth is, it’s hard to get thread to go through the eye of a needle. Have you ever tried to thread a needle? That’s hard enough! How about a camel? Like a 10% chance? 1% chance? One in a million? No way. It’s completely impossible. But there’s something even more impossible. There’s something even more impossible than a big camel fitting through the little eye of a needle. Jesus wants us to know what it is: Saving yourself. This is such a key story in the Bible.
A man asked Jesus, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” There was something really good and something really bad about his question. Let’s start with the good. “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Here’s the good: What was the man thinking about? Heaven. That’s good! He didn’t ask how to win the Super Bowl or about the best vacation destination. He was thinking about heaven! Eternal life. But here’s the bad: How did he expect to get there? He was going to earn it. Do you see that? “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” He was going to do it!
So to this man who thought he was good enough to earn eternal life, Jesus said, “No one is good—except God alone.” We could have a whole sermon just on that phrase, because there’s a voice inside every one of us that doesn’t believe Jesus. “No one is good? Come on. I’m pretty good. You’re pretty good. We’re better than those people, right? We’re not as bad as them!” We all think that we’re good. We say, “There’s a little bit of good in everybody. People are basically good.” Right? Jesus says, “No one is good—except God alone.” Do you believe that?
Jesus wants to prove it. He said, “You know the commandments: ‘You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.” Those are five of the 10 Commandments. Notice what their purpose is. We often talk about the 10 Commandments like they are a nice guide. The 10 Commandments help us be good! Except, what did Jesus just say? “No one is good—except God alone.” So notice what the commandments are meant to do: Show us our sins. They show us what we really look like.
What do you call something that shows you what you really look like? A mirror. God’s commands are like a mirror. Do you like looking in the mirror? In the days of Shakespeare, Queen Elizabeth of England didn’t. Actually, Queen Elizabeth I banned all mirrors from her presence over the last years of her life. Why? She didn’t want to see what she looked like. She specifically didn’t want to see her beauty fade. Historians say her teeth turned black and her hair fell out. So no mirrors. “I don’t want to see what I really look like!” We can relate.
But Jesus says, “You need to! You need a mirror.” When we think we’re pretty good, God’s commands show us what we really look like. “You shall not commit adultery.” And lust is the same as adultery. “You shall not murder.” And hatred toward others is the same as murder. “You shall not steal.” And coveting what others have is just as sinful. “You shall not give false testimony.” No lies. Not even little ones. “Honor your father and mother.” All the time. When you’re young. When they’re old. When you look in the mirror, what do you see? Sin. And that’s just five of the commandments! Jesus is right, isn’t he? “No one is good—except God alone.”
And that man, at least in his opinion. He replied, “All these I have kept since I was a boy.” Is that not the most arrogant statement in the history of the world? “I have kept every single one of God’s commands my whole life.” What? You want to call a time-out. “Hold on. Let’s ask your mom. Where’s this guy’s mom? Or his brothers and sisters. We gotta call in his brothers and sisters. Is it true that this guy has kept every single one of God’s commandments since youth?” I know what mom would say: “No.” This man knew the commandments, but he didn’t know himself. Can you see that? He saw what God said, but he didn’t see himself. We need a mirror!
So Jesus gave him one more mirror: “You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” What was lacking? This man clearly loved money. He loved money a lot. Without knowing it, what commandment was he breaking? Which one tells us to love God above all things? The 1st Commandment—“You shall have no other gods.” That man hadn’t kept all the commandments. He hadn’t even kept the 1st commandment. His problem wasn’t having possessions. His possessions had him. They had his heart. That makes us wonder, “What’s keeping my heart from loving Jesus first?”
“When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was very wealthy.” When your heart is set on something other than Jesus, what is always the result? You leave Jesus sad. I once counseled a young couple that was living together before marriage. We talked about God’s plans for sex and marriage. And they said, “We understand what the Bible says, but we’re not going to follow it.” They turned their back on Jesus and went away sad. I once talked with a middle-aged man about pornography. He claimed to be Christian, but he refused to admit that pornography was a sin. He wasn’t going to stop. And he walked away sad. You can see Jesus and walk away sad.
And you can tell that Jesus was sad too. He said, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! Indeed, 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.” What a statement! Remember how likely that is? Impossible. So Jesus’ disciples exclaimed: “Who then can be saved?” If the bar is set that high, if to earn heaven means keeping all the commandments, “who then can be saved?” And Jesus said, “With man it is impossible.” To earn your way to heaven is a mission impossible.
Why? Because “no one is good—except God alone.” A pastor once preached a sermon in which he pointed out the truth about sin. After church, a lady said to the pastor: “As you preached today, you made me feel this big.” And she put her finger and thumb as close together as she could without them touching. “You made me feel this big.” And the pastor said, “That’s too big!” He’s right! There isn’t this much of a chance for us to earn salvation. There’s none. The mirror of God’s Law shows me that I’m not good, and it’s a mission impossible to save myself.
So what hope is there? This: “What is impossible with man is possible with God.” Christianity isn’t a step-by-step guide for how to save yourself. Christianity tells you about the One who saved you: Jesus. When you feel like you’re this big, when God’s commands show you what you’re really like, don’t turn away sad. Did you hear Jesus’ invitation? “Come, follow me.” When you realize your sins, don’t turn away. Trust Jesus’ words: “Come, follow me.” “What is impossible with man is possible with God.” Jesus had a mission impossible, and he completed it.
There’s another place in the Bible where we’re told that nothing is impossible with God. Can you remember when? The angel Gabriel said that to the virgin Mary when he told her that she was going to give birth to God’s Son. Mary asked, “How can this be?” What did Gabriel say? “Nothing is impossible with God” (Luke 1:37). The two most impossible things are the story of how God saved us. First, God became a human being. Then, Jesus died and rose so that people can live with God in heaven. It should be impossible for God to become one of us. It should be impossible for sinners to be with God in heaven. But that’s what Jesus did. The impossible!
Jesus kept every single one of the commandments. Perfectly. In thought and word and deed. Even his mother Mary testified to it! Jesus was perfect. Mary wasn’t. Even his brothers testified to it! Jesus’ own brothers James and Jude wrote books of the Bible. Jesus was good! But he decided to make a trade. Jesus traded his goodness for our sins. He took our sins to the cross and gave us the righteousness of God. How can we have eternal life? Not by doing. By believing in Jesus. “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Whoever believes has eternal life.
Isn’t it better that way? Isn’t God’s way better? Jesus doesn’t give us “6 steps to a great life.” We’d never complete them. That’s a mission impossible! Jesus doesn’t tell us to “do this” or “do that” to get eternal life. We would never get it done. Instead, the Bible says, “It’s done! It’s finished.” Getting eternal life isn’t about your striving. It isn’t about your fighting. Jesus won the victory for you. He gives the victory to you. He gives you this invitation: “Come, follow me.”
Maybe that’s why Jesus sometimes lets us be sad. Do you ever think that way? Jesus let that man walk away sad, because that’s what he needed. He needed to hear the truth. That he hadn’t. That he couldn’t. Making him sad was Jesus’ gift to him. To help him see what he really needed. We hope he came back to Jesus again a different day and said, “Save me!” What are my disappointments telling me about my heart? How is your discouragement Jesus’ call to look to him? How is our pain teaching us to turn to Jesus? Do you see how God does that? Making him sad was a gift. Telling him the hard truth was a gift. So that people would ask, “Who then can be saved?” So that Jesus could say, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.”
When the day comes that you realize you’re not good. When the day comes that you realize you’re not strong. When the day comes that you realize your body is weak. Follow Jesus. “What is impossible with man is possible with God.” When the people you’ve counted on disappoint you. When the things you’ve set your heart on break. When the plans you’ve made fall to pieces. Follow Jesus. “What is impossible with man is possible with God.” When you face death. When your heart aches to have eternal life. When you want something so much more than this world. Follow Jesus. “What is impossible with man is possible with God.”
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