How are good people
saved?
How
would you respond if someone walked up to you, and asked you, “What must I do to inherit
eternal life?” How would Jesus evangelize such a person? Would Jesus use today’s
evangelical techniques?
In
Luke 18, the rich ruler appeared very sincere and ready to accept Christ as Lord and
Savior. He ran instead of walking up to Jesus. He even knelt down before Jesus in front of
others and asked, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” This seems like an awesome
opportunity. He was from a good background and did not appear to have any serious problems
to overcome such as alcohol, drugs or fornication. From a young age, this young ruler did
his best to keep the Ten Commandments.
Leading
such a young man to Christ should not take much with today’s evangelical techniques. All
you have to do is tell him, ‘Sir, you don’t have to do anything. You are saved by
grace through faith in Jesus Christ. All you have to do is believe in Christ and receive
God’s free gift of salvation’. After that, lead the rich ruler into the sinner’s
prayer and give him assurance of salvation and rejoice as another name has been added to
the Book of Life.
Jesus
however seemed to take a different approach. He told the rich man to keep the
commandments. After that, Jesus let the rich ruler walk away unconverted. Why did Jesus
tell the rich young ruler to keep the Ten Commandments as the way to gaining eternal life
knowing that obeying the commandments won’t get anyone into heaven? After the young
ruler replied that he has kept the commandments, Jesus brought up the subject of money and
told him to give away all his riches in order to have eternal life. If it had been anyone
other than Jesus who had taken this approach, we all would say that he blew it. Jesus
however is teaching us how to share His gospel properly. The rich ruler thought too highly
of himself. Even though he was a good person, he was not good enough to be saved. The
Bible says, “There is none righteous, not even one” (Rom 3:10).
The
rich ruler needed to abandon trust in his own goodness. He thought wealth was a sign of
God’s blessings. As the young ruler walked away, Jesus shocked His disciples saying, “How
hard it is for those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom of God! For it is easier for a
camel to go through the eye of a needle, than a rich man to enter the kingdom of God”.
Stunned by this the disciples asked Jesus, “Then who can be saved?” Jesus answered,
“It is impossible with men”. In other words, No one is good enough to be saved. The
rich ruler though he could be saved by his human goodness. However human goodness can
never compare with God’s goodness. We all fall so short. The young ruler was self
righteous as he claimed he has obeyed the commandments from his youth. Jesus could have
easily challenged him but instead used the law as a tutor to convict the man of his sin.
Jesus told him, “One thing you still lack; sell all that you posses, and distribute it
to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me”. Jesus was
saying in effect, “you don’t keep the commandments, you don’t even keep the first
half of the commandments, to love God with all your heart, because your money is your god…you
are an idolater. You don’t keep the second half either, to love your neighbor as
yourself. Because you are unwilling to give to the poor’.
One
reason we see so many false conversions in our day is that we do not use the Law as Jesus
did to convict people of how short they fall from God’s perfect standard. The rich man’s
idol was money. People cannot cling to their idols and genuinely trust in Christ for
salvation at the same time. People need to repent, which means turning from their sins.
Jesus said, “Repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15). We must cast ourselves
totally on Him, not trusting at all in ourselves. Good people are saved by abandoning
trust in their own goodness, by repenting and trusting in God alone to save them.
LifeGate Global Outreach
Sammy Sabbagh
Radio Transcript
2718/110611