Exposition of Matthew (Matthew 19:16-22)

October 29, 2021 

(Jesus’ last days of earthly ministry)

Questions to be answered in this study

1. Why is it so important to share the gospel with children?
2. What is the best approach to sharing the gospel?
3. Jesus is often referred to as rabbi in the New Testament; what does rabbi mean?
4. Why did the Jews believe they were already part of the Kingdom of Heaven?
5. What is God’s standard for goodness, and why can’t we reach it?
6. What is the deity of Christ?
7. If Jesus was perfect without sin, why did He ask the rich young ruler, “why callest me good?”
8. Why is it important to recognize Jesus as more than a mere man or to acknowledge His deity?
9. When God looks upon a believer, what does He see; is it the person’s goodness?
10. What did Jesus promise the rich young ruler if he gave up his riches?
11. What was the biggest mistake the rich young ruler made?
12. What is credited to your account when your place your faith in Jesus?

Introduction

We continue to part two of our study on what Jesus says about entry into the kingdom of heaven. Our previous study was about women bringing their children to Jesus and the disciples considering it an intrusion on the time of Jesus as if there were more important issues than dealing with a bunch of children. Jesus corrected the disciples, telling them not to forbid the children to come to Him.

As I said last week, children ages four through fourteen make up 85% of the kingdom of heaven; that is why it is so important to share the gospel with them. Both of my children were saved around 6 years of age. I was saved at age 13. Churches today need to keep the fact in mind, as they plan their budget and the church’s mission, that it is children who are likely to be saved and not older people. The weak and needy are also the best prospects for the kingdom of heaven, and the rich and prominent are the unlikely prospects for the kingdom of heaven. Jesus said it is harder for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. That doesn’t mean the rich cannot be saved, for anything is possible with God, nor does it mean we should avoid sharing the gospel with them. It does mean they are far less likely to accept Jesus as their savior because of their riches.

The best approach to sharing the gospel is first to feel the person out to see if there are signs that they will be responsive. Then when signals are present, proceed with your gospel presentation. Don’t be discouraged if they don’t respond. Our responsibility is to sow the seeds of the gospel and then leave the rest up to God. I’ve had people tell me outright they were not interested, and when that happens, I walk away and waste no time with them. Little do they know that they have probably sealed their destiny.

That was our first part of this study, and now today we turn to the second part: 

Matthew 19:16-20 “And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life? 17And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enters into life, keep the commandments. 18He saith unto him, Which? Jesus said Thou shalt do no murder; Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, 19Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. 20The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet?

This man asks Jesus how he may obtain eternal life, and Jesus asks him some questions. According to Luke, this man was a ruler, possibly a member of the Sanhedrin, the religious rulers of that day. He was not the first of the council to come to Jesus: According to John’s Gospel, Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea were also council members of the Sanhedrin.

According to Mark, the man knelt before Jesus. Could that indicate that he recognized Jesus as the Messiah? He refers to Jesus as a rabbi, which means teacher in Hebrew. That could suggest that he had not yet come to the point of acknowledging Jesus as the Messiah. His request of Jesus was, “what good thing should I do to receive eternal life?” This question goes against what the Jews ordinarily believed; they believed they were automatically part of the kingdom since they were the children of Abraham. They thought their only responsibility was to keep the law. The question in the minds of the Jews was whether they had kept the law well enough to go to heaven. I’ve known some believers today who struggle with that same issue.

It seems this man only wanted some reassurance from Jesus that he was okay. Jesus proceeds to offer an answer in verses 17-19: “And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.” Then the man questions Jesus: “18He saith unto him, Which? Jesus then proceeds: ” Jesus said, “Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, 19Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”

To answer the man’s question of which laws were to be kept to go to heaven, Jesus, knowing the man’s idea of salvation was keeping the law, lays out some of the necessary rules for those who think that the way to heaven was by keeping the law. In other words, if you depend on the law, you must keep it perfectly to go to heaven. That was God’s minimum standards concerning law-keeping. Now we know that no one other than Jesus ever kept the law to perfection. So, that idea of the way to heaven is invalid.

Today many have the false perception that if they are good, they will go to heaven. They miss the point of God’s standard of goodness, which goes much higher than that of man. God’s standard is perfection, which no man can reach. That is the reason Jesus came to do that which no one could do in man’s stead and then died on the cross to pay for man’s sin. Only Jesus was able to keep God’s law with perfection. No one else can be good enough to go to heaven on their own. No person, in all honesty, could say they are perfect. The flaw in this man’s thinking, concerning heaven and how to go there, is how good must a person be to go to heaven. People admit that God does have a standard, but many have not figured it out yet. Each day across the world, billions of people wonder if they have been good enough to go to heaven and face God. Will God accept them into His heaven? That is a miserable way to live, wondering if you have been good enough to finish when the end comes; this was the life the ruler was experiencing.

There were two things this man had wrong, and Jesus corrects him in both of them. Jesus In v.17 begins by asking, “Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God.” Luke 18:19 (KJV) says it a little different; the man asks Jesus, “Good teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” It is evident in both instances that this man does not recognize the deity of Jesus, that Jesus was indeed God.

If Jesus was excellent, why did He ask the rich young ruler, “why callest me good?” He knows this man is not referring to Him as the perfect God, but only that He was better than the other rabbis. The man did not know the true identity of Jesus. This man thought he was paying Jesus a compliment by using the Greek word for good, which meant intrinsically good in a relative sense but falling short of perfectly good. In other words, the ruler was not suggesting that Jesus was good as God or perfect without sin. If the man had indeed known the identity of Jesus, he would have spoken in the literal sense, and Jesus would not have asked this question, “Why callest me good?” That means he would have addressed Jesus as Christ, the Son of God. The point is, we must recognize Jesus as more than a mere man if we expect Him to be our savior.

This man’s first mistake was believing that there was some good in the ordinary man. According to Psalm 14:3 (KJV), there is none good: “They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.” While some may be a little higher on the scale of goodness, none come close to equaling God’s perfect standard of excellence; this is the same mistake people all over the world are making, somehow thinking that their goodness will get them into heaven. God’s standard for going to heaven is 100% good or perfect, and only Jesus obtained that status. When God looks upon a believer, He sees only the righteousness of Jesus that has been imputed to them, not their righteousness. 

All it takes is one sin to bar a person from God’s heaven. The Apostle Paul said in Romans 3:23 (KJV), “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” God’s standard for entering heaven is His glory, which is perfect, and all have fallen short of it. Once again, no one can ever be good enough by their own merits to go to heaven, nor is it a combination of God’s grace and man’s good works. It is all through faith by grace.

This man’s first mistake was his idea of what it took to go to heaven, but even after Jesus corrects the man’s wrong concept, he still does not understand. So, Jesus addresses the second mistake by going along with the ruler’s way of thinking by addressing how to receive eternal life. Jesus says, “Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, 19Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” Jesus is only talking about a concept, not an actual way to go to heaven because man is incapable of perfectly keeping the law.

So, Jesus says if you want eternal life, keep the commandments, referring to a selective group of the ten commandments that relate with association with others. Jesus does this to expose the man’s false assumption concerning the keeping of the law. The particular laws Jesus mentions were those that honest Jews stood by. So, this man readily says, “These have I kept from my youth.” Then he asks Jesus, “what am I still lacking?” This man knew in his heart that his efforts were missing the mark, but he was still not ready to face up to the truth. He still felt that something more was required for him to do. Jesus had already told the man that only God’s standard of perfection was acceptable for going to heaven, but the man was not listening. 

Jesus had effectively set the trap, and now He is ready to expose the man’s wrong way of thinking on God’s standard for going to heaven:

Matthew 19:21-22, “Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me. 22But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions.”

It is easy to recognize that this man thinks quite a bit of himself; he believes he is doing a good job keeping the law. So, Jesus says, if you want to be perfect, here is how to do it: “Sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.” You might wonder why Jesus tells him to give away all he has. The reason was, Jesus recognized that this man’s possessions were his love, and they kept him from a fellowship with God. They were the center of his attention, not God or the law. So, Jesus says this is what you need to do first, and then you shall have treasure in heaven, but the man loved his treasure on earth more, and he went away sorrowful. He probably left sorrowful because he could not find, or at least recognize, the answer to his problem. Perhaps, like many others in that day and today, he was blind to the truth. It was the love of his riches that blinded him.

Salvation is being willing to put God first and trust Him in everything. Jesus asked this rich man to do something Jesus knew he was unwilling to do, therefore, exposing his steadfast commitment to the world. Jesus gave this man the perfect answer to his question concerning eternal life. In verse 21, the word perfect is from the Greek word “teleios,” meaning complete. So, Jesus is saying, now that you have said you have kept the law, there is just one more thing you need to do to be complete and have eternal life; quit trusting in the world and its wealth trust me and come follow me. The world’s treasure vanishes away, but the treasure in heaven that Jesus promised this man, if he would follow him, is eternal. What Jesus asked this man to give up on earth would be returned to him in a perfect form in heaven.

Once more, Jesus reveals the only way of entering the kingdom is perfection only found by following Him and receiving His perfection into our lives at the point of faith. It is impossible to reach God’s standard of perfection ourselves; it is only realized when Jesus assigns His perfection to Us, therefore, making us acceptable before God.

The above is what the Apostle Paul is saying in 2 Corinthians 5:21 (KJV): “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God.” Jesus paid the penalty for our sins by dying on the cross, so when we trust in Him, we receive the credit for His sinless life. Ephesians 2:8-9 (KJV) bears this out: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God- 9not by works, so that no one can boast.”

After reading the verse above, it is hard to understand how anyone could believe that salvation includes our works. We have nothing to do with our salvation other than receiving it through faith in Jesus. If our works did have a place in our salvation, we would have something to boast about, but we have nothing to boast about because salvation is all by God’s grace.

This rich young ruler made a big mistake by believing in his righteousness to get him to heaven. The reason Jesus said to this man that he must turn away from his riches and follow Him is that Jesus knew the man’s heart and his dependence on worldly things and his unwillingness to turn from them to God; this was evidenced when the man turned away from Jesus with sorrow in his heart because he had much riches.

God’s way to heaven is not something we have to struggle to find or work for, wondering if we have done enough. In the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy, God gives us the way: “For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off. 12It is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? 13Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? 14But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it,” Deuteronomy 30:11-14 (KJV).

The Bible is our road map to heaven, and it is available to us if we will only accept its truth. Jesus made it clear that earning your way to heaven by searching all over the world for it, keeping the law, or by good works is impossible. We read in John 14:6 (KJV): “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” Heaven is not searched for or worked for; it is as simple as trusting in Jesus to forgive sins; that is the only way. 

By your faith and the confession of your sins, Jesus’ will credit you with His perfection, and by that, you will receive eternal life; this is the second lesson Jesus taught on how to enter the kingdom of heaven, which is through faith in Him by God’s grace alone and not by our righteousness, good works or anything else. If you have not done it yet and are ready to reserve your place in heaven, I would like to share the simple steps from the Bible; CLICK HERE.