A little later in his
journey to Jerusalem, he met "a certain ruler" who asked him,
"Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" (Luke 18:18).
We know this man as the "rich young ruler." Jesus reminded him of
several commandments, to which he replied, "All of these I have kept since
I was a boy" (v. 21). If a person of such means, influence and spiritual
zeal were to approach most ministers, we would be delighted to welcome them
into our church or organization. In Jesus' day, wealth was equated with God's
favor. Surprisingly, Jesus told him to "sell everything you have and give
to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me"
(v. 22). When the man heard this, "he became very sad, because he was a
man of great wealth" (v. 23).
Soon our Lord would
enter Jerusalem on Palm Sunday (Luke 19:28-38), where refusal to be politically
correct would lead to his crucifixion. Our risen Lord is just as honest and
omniscient today as he was then. As David said to God, "You perceive my thoughts
from afar" (Psalm 139:2). Yet our all-honest God is also our all-loving
Father. He knows all about our past failures and even sees the future sins we
don't yet know we'll commit. And yet he loves us unconditionally and likes us
as we are.
When last did you thank
him for such grace?
2 comments:
He sets the bar so high in order for us to see we can never attain perfection but so many read this and feel this is the standard to gain Gods favor, then work to achieve access.
We are lost and cannot save ourselves through our works but we are hell bent to try and if this was not bad enough we encourage others to follow us. His command to us today is the same as to his disciples and to the rich young ruler and we stand condemned. Faced with this we have only two choices 1. Reject these standards and go our own way or 2. Believe Jesus is who He said He is and accept by grace forgiveness of our short comings and attain what we could not by works.
The hardest thing for us is to teach others it is this simple, everyone wants to do something to put God on our side.
Even today after all these years in the word I find myself worried about what God will think of me when I step off line. When he knew I was going to make the mistake, forgave me before I had a chance to ask.
Wonderful love!
He sets the bar so high in order for us to see we can never attain perfection but so many read this and feel this is the standard to gain Gods favor, then work to achieve access.
We are lost and cannot save ourselves through our works but we are hell bent to try and if this was not bad enough we encourage others to follow us. His command to us today is the same as to his disciples and to the rich young ruler and we stand condemned. Faced with this we have only two choices 1. Reject these standards and go our own way or 2. Believe Jesus is who He said He is and accept by grace forgiveness of our short comings and attain what we could not by works.
The hardest thing for us is to teach others it is this simple, everyone wants to do something to put God on our side.
Even today after all these years in the word I find myself worried about what God will think of me when I step off line. When he knew I was going to make the mistake, forgave me before I had a chance to ask.
Wonderful love!
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