Matthew 19:16–22:
“Now someone came up to Him and said, ‘Teacher, what good thing must I do to gain eternal life?’ He said to him, ‘Why do you ask Me about what is good? There is only One who is good. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.’ ‘Which ones?’ he asked. Jesus replied, ‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother, and love your neighbor as yourself.’
The young man said to Him, ‘I have wholeheartedly obeyed all these laws. What do I still lack?’ Jesus said to him, ‘If you wish to be perfect, go sell your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me.’ But when the young man heard this, he went away sorrowful, for he was very rich.”
This is my second day exploring this passage, and I am now in verse 17, which says: “He said to him, ‘Why do you ask Me about what is good? There is only One who is good. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.’”
You need to understand that this man was probably looking for a silver bullet. Remember, he will later say, “I’ve done this, I’ve done that. I’ve wholeheartedly obeyed all these laws.” Jesus listed some of the commandments; he said, “I’ve done all of them. I’ve wholeheartedly obeyed them.”
Remember my concern exploring this passage is to warn those who want to come to something like this and say, “Jesus does not really mean it. This one does not really mean it,” and then create reasoning in their minds why we should not take the words of Jesus here seriously—as if this is just not a serious thing, as if Jesus cannot talk like this.
Why? Because in their minds, the “gospel to the poor” is about a lot of money in their bank account. That is the deception they are spreading, have spread, and are still spreading. May God help us all.
So this verse starts from the question: “What good thing must I do?” This man is coming from a wrong framing of things. He just wants a silver bullet. He wants that one thing that he can do so that it’s like, “This is it. I am done. This is the one good thing.”
And as you will see later, he wasn’t ready. We should see this man as a picture of us. We are looking for a shortcut. This man was looking for a shortcut. “I’ve done all these things—but tomorrow, what if I don’t do them? Then I am going to lose eternal life, right? So I’m looking for a shortcut. I’m looking for that one thing I will just do. Is it to clap? Is it to jump? I want to do that one thing that will give me a pass mark so that I don’t have to do anything else. I want one thing. I want a shortcut.”
Jesus does not agree that there is one thing. He says, “Keep the commandments”—plural. “This is what you have; this is what we are going with. God came down from heaven and gave the law to Moses. So keep the commandments.”
The point I am trying to make is that this man is coming for a silver bullet, that one shortcut. And people come to you with “shortcuts” because they know you are impatient. They know you cannot endure sound doctrine (2 Timothy 4:3–4). So they give you a shortcut.
This is the issue: “I want that shortcut now.” What did Jesus tell him eventually? There is no shortcut: “Follow Me. Abandon whatever has to do with your identity right now and follow Me,” as we will see later.
There is no shortcut. “I’m going to church on Sunday and I want that method, that trick, that one thing. I will gain that thing with one move. You want me to come out? I will come out. You want me to jump? I will jump. You want me to stand? I will stand. You want me to do vigil? I will do vigil. You want me to climb a mountain? I will climb a mountain.” Everything external. But, as we will see, God is interested in something deeper than that: a changed life.
He said, “Why do you ask Me about what is good? There is only One who is good.” And that can distract us: “Okay, Jesus is saying only One who is good is God—does that mean He is not God?” Jesus is not directly addressing the man’s question; He is using the opportunity, just as when Nicodemus came to Him and said, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher who has come from God” (John 3:2), and He immediately launched into, “You must be born again to see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3).
So He is using the opportunity to bring out a point about the distinction between man and God: “You cannot do anything good.” That’s what He is saying. “You cannot do anything good.” The best you can do is as filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6). You will need the grace of God. You will need God to confer on you His righteousness. That is what we have in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:9; 2 Corinthians 5:21).
God bless you. See you later.