Why We cannot buy our way into Heaven | Mark 10:17-31
Timestamp
00:00 - Livestream starts & Introduction
13:41 - CatchUp
20:07 - Teaching from Mark's Gospel with Abi Sharples
43:18 - Worship Intro
45:00 - Worthy of it all worship song
55:00 - Challenge and Close
What must I do to inherit eternal life?
In Mark 10:17-31, we see the story of a rich, young ruler who comes to Jesus and asks ‘Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ This was a young, successful man of influence humbling himself, kneeling on the ground before Jesus, acknowledging that on his own he wasn’t enough. He saw that all the commandments he was keeping and all the wealth and success he had achieved just wasn’t enough before God.
This man’s question revealed a misunderstanding of what it means to follow Jesus, a misconception that is common today, too. He asked Jesus, ‘what must I DO to inherit eternal life?’ The beauty of the Gospel, is that it’s not about anything we ourselves could ever DO. If we were to try and receive eternal life in our own strength, we would have to ‘love the Lord with ALL our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love our neighbour as ourself’ (Mark 20:30-31). This is what Jesus refers to as the greatest commandment, the one that encompasses and sums up all the others. We would have to do this absolutely perfectly every single day, never putting a foot out of line, if we wanted to try and be completely perfect and blameless. Jesus puts it plainly later in verse 27 - ‘humanly speaking that is impossible’.
The Bible says that ‘all have sinned and fallen short of God’s glorious standard’ (Romans 3:23-24), and this rich young man saw that. In the eyes of the world he had it all, but on the inside he knew something was missing. He knew that on his own he wasn’t enough. While we have all fallen so short of God’s standard, the second part of this verse in Romans says that ‘God, in His grace, makes us right in His sight through Jesus’. Neither us, nor this rich man, can do anything to receive eternal life and be made right in God’s sight. We are only made right before Him if we believe and accept what Jesus did for us on the cross and choose to follow Him.
Further on in the passage, Jesus begins listing the Old Testament commandments to this man. Verse 19 says, ‘you know the commandments: ‘You must not murder. You must not commit adultery. You must not steal. You must not testify falsely. You must not cheat anyone. Honor your father and mother.’ These commands are taken from the Ten Commandments, which God gave to Moses and the Israelites in Exodus chapter 20 in the Old Testament. It’s interesting to notice that here, Jesus only references the ones that are about the way we treat other people. But let’s read some of the other commandments that Jesus doesn’t list to the rich man:
“You must not have any other god but me. You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea. You must not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods.”
Is being good, good enough?
This rich young man may have been a lovely man, someone who knew how to love others well and who our society would probably describe as a ‘good’ person. And when questioned by Jesus he said ‘I have kept all these (commands) since I was a boy’. But Jesus knows the man’s heart. It is the other commandments that are the issue for him. When you read this passage, it makes it clear that the rich man has made his money his god. Despite keeping the commands to love and treat others well, he missed this key command from God to have no other god but Him.
Whether we like it or not, we have all been there. Whether it’s our money or something else, we have all prized something more highly than God in our lives. This is what God’s commandments refer to as an idol. So I get to this point, and very much like the disciple in verse 26, I am asking ‘then who in the world can be saved?!’ If salvation and eternal life is based on my works alone and following God’s law to the letter every single time, there is no way I or anyone else could be saved. I really understand the disciple’s hopelessness in this situation - if that is how we receive eternal life, then who on earth can be saved?
Jesus’ response to this question leaves me with eternal hope and peace. ‘Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But not with God. Everything is possible with God.’ And that is where the good news of the Gospel breaks in. Humanly speaking, relying on myself, it is impossible for me to get to God. But God sent his only Son, Jesus, to live a perfect and sinless life - the life that we should have lived. He died the death we should have died, on the cross, as the perfect sacrifice to cover all our mistakes. In fact, Jesus became sin for us, so that we could be righteous before God.
“God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
In this way, it is possible for anyone, rich, poor or somewhere in between, to be saved through Jesus. We must surrender our whole lives to Him, setting aside all other gods and choosing to live for the audience of One, the only true, Living God. We are then adopted into God’s family and trust Him as our perfect father. Those who have money or success or other worldly things as their god will try to trust in them, but with God as our Father, we can live in full trust and reliance on Him. This isn’t always easy but God gives us the supernatural strength to lay down all other gods that may be present in our lives.
This word from Jesus presents us with a big challenge. So today, let’s come before God and be real with Him. Whether you are already following Jesus, or whether you want to make that decision today to invite him into your life, may we all put God in first place in our lives.
Humanly speaking it is impossible, but anything is possible with God.