Sell It All

Barrier to Eternal Life

Outward righteousness

He considered himself an heir by works and did not know about being an heir by promise Gal 3:29. He thought he had found the way, but the way he had chosen would end in eternal death (Pr 14:12). He loved Jesus as a good teacher to help him on that way (Jn 3:2), but did not know Jesus was the way.

Jesus tells this man that he really needs the one essential and vital thing. He has thus far attained only an outward obedience to the law and has not even discovered that this is utterly useless for salvation; he still thinks that all he needs is to add something to this outward obedience. The thing he lacks begins with this discovery, with the realization that all his work-righteousness is in vain, that what he needs is a complete inward change.

By telling this man to go sell his possessions and to give them to poor people (πτωχοῖς, no article) Jesus is laying his finger on the chief sin in this man’s heart, the love of his earthly possessions. Jesus is demanding no mere outward act, but an inner change; a change of heart.

Outward righteousness will get him nowhere. Jesus is after a change of heart — an inner change. Jesus’ remark to the man reveals the man’s problem: idolatry. He had possession — so he didn’t have God. Jesus finds this man’s Achilles heel — the First commandment. This commandment he had not kept. He loved his possession more than God.

What is your Achilles heel? Is there anything you love more than God? It doesn’t have to be possessions, like the man it our text, though it could be. To put it another way, is there anything you would never give up if our Lord asked you to do so?

Outward righteousness got the man in our text nowhere, and it will get you nowhere too.

I attend worship almost every Sunday

I tithe — give one tenth—of my income each year.

I prayed a sinners prayer May 27, 1973.

I completed the rite of Confirmation.

All of these outward things — along with so many other examples — are fine and good, but none of these will amount to a hill-of-beans by themselves unless there is a change of heart.

Pride, the worship of possessions, and outward righteousness often hold us in unbelief. Prides closes our ears to God and fixes attention on self;

Possessions keep us from true worship of God

Outward righteousness often blinds us from eternal reward.

At your funeral what will people say of you? He/she lived and did all the right things?

Every single week we sing a prayer immediate following the sermon, drawn from Psalm 51: “Create in me a clean heart, Oh God.” It is a prayer asking God to change our heart; to make us into the men and women He desire us to be. Another example is the old hymn, “Take my life and let it be!” Listen to the first lines from four stanzas:

Take my life and let it be consecrated Lord to Thee.

Take my voice and let me sing Always, only for My King.

Take my silver and my gold, not a mite would I withhold.

Take my will and make it Thine, it shall be no longer mine.

You see, Jesus doesn’t want only your outward righteousness, He demands all of you, including your heart, your will, everything! This is what He was saying to the man in today’s text, and what Jesus is saying to you right now.

The Mission of Christ — Eternal Life

No one can do enough to inherit eternal life. Whenever we base our hope on our deeds, we must be as troubled as the rich young ruler.

God provides the solution to our problem. Christ has done everything necessary to grant us eternal life.

The gift of eternal life is so real, so much ours already, that it’s not a gift for the asking—it’s only a gift for the refusing. We don’t have to get the gift—it’s already ours.