READ: Luke 18:18-30
The rich young ruler’s attitude toward inheriting eternal life was, “I’ve got this”. He was confident that the goodness of His life made him deserving of entrance into eternal life. He was sadly mistaken since according to Jesus, “no one is good except God alone!” In the Old Testament God’s moral goodness is described using the word “holy” (Isaiah 1:4, 5:16, 40:25; Revelation 4:8). God says about Himself in Leviticus 19:2 that, “I the Lord your God am holy”. God’s holiness is his moral PURITY and PERFECTION. God alone has inherent goodness or holiness. Goodness or holiness is not something that we, or the rich young ruler, possess. Therefore, entering the Kingdom requires possessing GOD who is GOOD! Why do we need to possess the God who is good?
We need to possess the God who is good because NONE of US are PERFECTLY GOOD (Mt. 18:18-23) – Perfection is impossible. No matter how hard we try, we will ultimately end up coming up short in any pursuit of perfection. The rich young ruler mistakenly thought that he had achieved moral perfection. He was confident that this Good Teacher would find NO impurity or imperfection in his moral character, “adultery” (nope), “murder” (nuh-uh), “stealing” (no way), “lying” (off course not), “honor your father and mother” (absolutely). And yet, Jesus knew one area where his goodness was lacking . . . his wealth. James 2:10 says, “whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it.” Although perfection is the goal, we will never achieve it. As hard as we might try, if we fail at even one small point, we are considered guilty of breaking the whole law. The “I’ve got this” attitude of the rich young ruler contradicts with the truth of Romans 3:12 which says, “no one does good, not even one.” Even if the rich young ruler lived an impeccable life Ephesians 2:8 says, “by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” Plain and simple, no amount of good works will earn us entrance into the Kingdom of God. What prevents us from possessing the God who is good?
We cannot possess the God who is good if we are unwilling to leave behind EVERYTHING to follow Jesus (Lk. 18:22-30) – Instead of pursuing perfect goodness, we are to pursue the God who is perfectly good. Jesus said, “what is impossible (perfection) with man is possible with God.” Although we are not able to be perfectly good, God is able to make us perfectly good! It’s as easy as stop, drop, and roll. STOP trying to earn our way into the Kingdom, DROP anything and everything in life that is preventing us from possessing Jesus, and ROLL through life with Christ as our Savior and following Him in obedience. Elisabeth Elliott said it well, “he is no fool who lets go of what he cannot keep to possess what he cannot lose.” Jesus said it perfectly with a question in Mark 8:36, “what good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet lose his soul?” No matter how important, we must be willing to leave behind anything and everything in order to possess Jesus Christ.
CONCLUSION
In Philippians 1:6 we are told about the One who can say “I’ve got this”, Paul says, “I am SURE of this, that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion (perfection) at the day of Jesus Christ.” When we leave everything to possess Jesus Christ He begins a process of perfecting us which only He can do. Have you allowed God to begin the good work of perfecting you?
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