Matthew 19:16–22:
“Now someone came 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.”
I am in the last verse now, having been exploring this passage for the last few days. I am trying to give a warning here to people who want to say Jesus did not really mean what He said to this young ruler—that He was “just testing him.” That if he had said, “Okay, I’m going to go and sell,” then Jesus would have treated it the way God treated Abraham when He told him to sacrifice his son.
Abraham wanted to sacrifice his son, and God said, “No, don’t sacrifice your son. There is this ram. Do this instead” (Genesis 22). So they say, “That’s exactly what would have happened here. Jesus didn’t really mean it.”
They impose on Scripture their own ideas, their own thoughts, their own conclusions, rather than allowing Scripture to speak to the love of money in their own hearts. Rather than coming to this passage and shuddering and asking themselves, “Am I willing to do this?”
That should be your question. “If this is a divine demand over me, am I willing to do this? Am I willing to follow Jesus?”
And remember: at this time Jesus was there physically. So following Jesus for this man is not “spiritual only”; it is physical, because Jesus was in the flesh and he was supposed to go with Him.
Some others wanted to follow Jesus and He told them, “The Son of Man has no place to lay His head” (Matthew 8:19–20; Luke 9:57–58). And some will come to that passage and say, “Jesus does not really mean what He said there.”
It is unfortunate that we come to the words of Jesus and attack the words of Jesus. We attack them from the standpoint of our fleshly weaknesses. We attack His words about Himself—“The Son of Man has no place to lay His head.” We attack His words to this young man—“Go sell all you have and follow Me.” We treat it like drama.
But look at the words of the disciples afterwards:
“He said to His disciples, ‘I tell you the truth, it will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven… it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.’ When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, ‘Then who can be saved?’” (Matthew 19:23–25).
We are fighting the words of Jesus in this place. A whole system of belief has been built to crush whatever Jesus is saying here about the rich, about it being difficult for the rich to enter the kingdom of God. We blunt it because we have made being rich the whole aim of Christianity—and that is unfortunate.
So people are blind. People have lost the plot. People are chasing shadows, because the substance is Christ.
People go to the cattle of Abraham and say, “Abraham had cattle, cattle, cattle,” and then they say, “God did not let Abraham sacrifice his son but a ram; that’s exactly what would have happened with the rich young ruler.” This is sad. This is wrong. This is not good.
This is a warning to you: everyone should desist from this approach. Do not come to Scripture and say, “It does not mean what it says.”
Because these people want to hold on to their jets. They want to justify themselves, why whatever they are preaching is “the correct thing”—even to the point of effectively calling Jesus a liar. They will do that. They will elevate themselves.
The Bible talks about such people. Peter says there will be false teachers who “deny the Master who bought them” (2 Peter 2:1). Jude says they have “rushed headlong into the error of Balaam for profit” (Jude 1:11).
In some circles you cannot even engage properly with this passage. You cannot share the sorrow and self‑reflection this young man felt when he heard these words.
They tell you, “They wanted to divide His clothes, that means they were very expensive.” Is that the point? Is that what we are supposed to focus on?
May God forgive us and have mercy on us.
Remember, in this series I am trying to say: let us not say Jesus did not mean what He said. Let us not say that. Let us not say, “He doesn’t really mean it.” He means what He says. He has the ultimate claim.
And the gospel to the poor is not money in their bank account (Luke 4:18). It is Christ Himself.
God bless you. See you later.