The Rich man and Jesus in
About a year ago I wrote an article on this however there is also more to add as the years go by.
The story goes along as a Rich man comes to Jesus and asks what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus goes through the 10 commandments and simply asks him to give up all of his wealth, sell it to the poor and follow him in his ministry. The man leaves because he has too much wealth to give up and Jesus explains its hard for a rich man to enter heaven like a camel through the eye of the needle.
At one stage we have been or are like the rich man. Maybe not in finances but in our thoughts and motives.
The more carefully we look at this passage and story the more we see ourselves in it. Here we see Jesus going through the 10 commandments.
Shall not murder
Not commit adultery
Not steel
Or give false testimony
Honour your parents
Love your neighbour as yourself.
Whether he went through all of them or just gave those as an example for all of them can’t be known however he did say keep the commandments to enter life.
What would be equivalent to that kind of person today?
I believe it would be the modern person living in the west quite comfortably.
Maybe they give some of their wages to an important charity, pay their taxes, live in normal functioning homes and in normal marriages…. probably just a reasonably good person who stays out of trouble and keeps their nose clean. The only difference in this story is the cash difference. The man was probably wealthy with a lot of property.
Because many people don’t know Jesus they may think that if there was a God he wouldn’t send them to hell because they are good standing people in the community. The wide gulf problem with that is Jesus clearly points out to the rich man that even if he follows the commandments it doesn’t mean a thing if he doesn’t follow Jesus and make him his number 1 priority.
The reason is simply Jesus is God and if we follow the commandments in general and try to be a good person but not follow Jesus then are we making our own God.
Simply we might think we are following God and his ways until the creator himself steps into his creation and asks us to follow him and drop everything else. That’s when we really know we have made our own God and called it God.
So, the good person in society that has rejected God is like the rich man who thought he knew God until Jesus himself came into his world and asked him to follow him. So, all the so-called good people in society who reject Jesus are like the rich man trying to go through the eye of a needle.
I’m not talking about people who clearly have never heard of Jesus but people who turn their backs on him. How many good people in society do you know? They are probably better at being good people then yourself however that won’t get them into heaven. Its only by faith in Christ and receiving his grace and following him do we enter into eternal life.
The plot to this story ends with a blunt response from God. Saved and repentant people go to heaven who accept Jesus and obey him and good people who don't go to hell.
About a year ago I wrote an article on this however there is also more to add as the years go by.
The story goes along as a Rich man comes to Jesus and asks what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus goes through the 10 commandments and simply asks him to give up all of his wealth, sell it to the poor and follow him in his ministry. The man leaves because he has too much wealth to give up and Jesus explains its hard for a rich man to enter heaven like a camel through the eye of the needle.
At one stage we have been or are like the rich man. Maybe not in finances but in our thoughts and motives.
The more carefully we look at this passage and story the more we see ourselves in it. Here we see Jesus going through the 10 commandments.
Shall not murder
Not commit adultery
Not steel
Or give false testimony
Honour your parents
Love your neighbour as yourself.
Whether he went through all of them or just gave those as an example for all of them can’t be known however he did say keep the commandments to enter life.
What would be equivalent to that kind of person today?
I believe it would be the modern person living in the west quite comfortably.
Maybe they give some of their wages to an important charity, pay their taxes, live in normal functioning homes and in normal marriages…. probably just a reasonably good person who stays out of trouble and keeps their nose clean. The only difference in this story is the cash difference. The man was probably wealthy with a lot of property.
Because many people don’t know Jesus they may think that if there was a God he wouldn’t send them to hell because they are good standing people in the community. The wide gulf problem with that is Jesus clearly points out to the rich man that even if he follows the commandments it doesn’t mean a thing if he doesn’t follow Jesus and make him his number 1 priority.
The reason is simply Jesus is God and if we follow the commandments in general and try to be a good person but not follow Jesus then are we making our own God.
Simply we might think we are following God and his ways until the creator himself steps into his creation and asks us to follow him and drop everything else. That’s when we really know we have made our own God and called it God.
So, the good person in society that has rejected God is like the rich man who thought he knew God until Jesus himself came into his world and asked him to follow him. So, all the so-called good people in society who reject Jesus are like the rich man trying to go through the eye of a needle.
I’m not talking about people who clearly have never heard of Jesus but people who turn their backs on him. How many good people in society do you know? They are probably better at being good people then yourself however that won’t get them into heaven. Its only by faith in Christ and receiving his grace and following him do we enter into eternal life.
The plot to this story ends with a blunt response from God. Saved and repentant people go to heaven who accept Jesus and obey him and good people who don't go to hell.
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