Based on Luke 18:18-30 (New King James Version)
“Now a certain ruler asked Him, saying, ‘Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?’ So Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery,’ ‘Do not murder,’ ‘Do not steal,’ ‘Do not bear false witness,’ ‘Honor your father and your mother.’ ’ And he said, ‘All these things I have kept from my youth.’ So when Jesus heard these things, He said to him, ‘You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.’ But when he heard this, he became very sorrowful, for he was very rich. And when Jesus saw that he became very sorrowful, He said, ‘How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God! For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.’ And those who heard it said, ‘Who then can be saved?’ But He said, ‘The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.’ Then Peter said, ‘See, we have left all and followed You.’ So He said to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or parents or brothers or wife or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who shall not receive many times more in this present time, and in the age to come eternal life.’”
I heard Billy Graham say this in one of his messages: “Christ did not suffer and die to offer cheap grace. Jesus did not willingly go to the cross so we could have an easy life or offer a faith built on easy-believism. As someone said, ‘Salvation is free, but not cheap.’ It cost Jesus His life.” There are many things that people do not take seriously, the weight they bear, and being able to inherit eternal life is one of them. Too many people misunderstand the way to eternal life. There are many people that prefer to believe easy things, pleasurable things, things that don’t involve any kind of sacrifice or responsibility than to accept the reality of what it really takes to obtain eternal life. Sadly, many believe that their opinions govern reality, that in some way the universe and everything established by God must submit to something so fallible and insignificant like the opinion of a finite, weak, and poor being. It sounds bad, but what are we compared to the magnificence of the universe and everything that God and His kingdom are? Vanity and foolishness reign in many people. Nonetheless, how can a person inherit eternal life in all reality?
What we see clearly in the passage we just read is that the Lord Himself makes the clarification that many things should be part of a person’s life so that they can come to inherit eternal life. Notice that He starts enumerating the commandments. The Lord does not take out of the explanation the fulfillment of the commandments, for example. He gives even more clarification on how to obtain eternal life in its fulness. And it is necessary to see what He ends with. The Lord said: “‘You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.’” Notice that the Lord did not say to stop doing or to ignore what He previously said. He added loving his neighbor as oneself when He told him to sell all of his possessions and give them to the poor. And of course, He gives him the most important point at the end, what really completes the issue, to come and follow Him, just like the other disciples had done. And we see that the first issue this ruler has conflict with is that he didn’t want to let go of anything in his life, neither for his neighbor, nor for the Lord that was talking to him. He was a person that wanted to live life just as it was, without any kind of sacrifice, and on top of that, he wanted to have access to eternal life. Sound familiar? Almost no one wants to encounter any kind of inconvenience, but rather quite the contrary. That is the cheap grace that Billy Graham spoke of that we cited at the beginning. Everyone wants to go to heaven and obtain the eternal rewards that belong to the Almighty, but almost no one wants to live for, or far less, die to obtain them. What would have happened with us if the Lord would have thought that way? His life here in this world was difficult. He was poor, despised, persecuted, betrayed, mocked, scorned, and even crucified for us. Nothing of His life in this world was easy. That is why that any teaching or doctrine that does not coincide with the Lord’s teaching and lifestyle is anathema (accursed).
Following the Lord has a price. There is a cost to be paid. That is the reality. And it’s only fair, because if He did such things for us, how can we not do the same if it were necessary? That is what justice is about. Justice is not about things going in your favor. That is selfishness. Justice is about being fair with God, to try to return His unmerited love. It’s about appreciating and valuing the grace He showed us, and to give Him everything He deserves, and nothing less. It’s not about morality or religious practices. It’s about following the Holy Being that created and made us, and that despite our sins and rebellions, He loved us and to the point that He gave His own life for us. Believe it or not, God created us. We are not the product of a cosmic accident. And God created us for Him, so that we can learn to love Him and do as He does. We are His creation, and the creation will never be at peace until it acknowledges and follows its Creator, until it accepts the reality that He is the King of kings and Lord of lords, and to treat Him that way. This is what is written: “Then He said to them all, ‘If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father’s, and of the holy angels. Luke 9:23-26.
That is why that it’s convenient to decide today. It’s urgent to accept the Lord because a person never knows when their time may come. There is no time to dedicate to enjoying pleasures, or to gather wealth, or far less, to follow doctrines and teachings that only feed the appetite and the desires of the flesh that will take a person to eternal perdition. As it is written: “So he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods. And I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.’ ’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?’ ‘So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.’” Luke 12:18-21. And the Lord also warned: “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’” Matthew 7:21-23. So, that thing that many believe that they will have eternal life just by believing in the Lord and not doing as He commands nor look to do His will is not of the Lord, therefore, it will not take them anywhere good. The one that does the will of the Father will enter the kingdom of heaven. And His will is to love Him with everything we are, and to love our neighbor as ourselves, just as the Lord taught and lived. So then, are you loving and following the Lord, by paying the price that it costs to follow Him so that you can inherit eternal life? Lord bless! John