Two Ways to Be Saved Luke 18:15-30

Scripture Introduction:

We will be in Luke 18:15-30 this morning. As you are turning there, allow me to introduce you to a couple of people. We’ll call them Stan and Ollie.

Stan is a wealthy entrepreneur. But he’s not one of those wealthy guys that gets his money by extorting people and taking advantage of the poor. This is a guy who doesn’t defraud the poor. He’s gotten his wealth through hard work and grit. He’s only in his thirties but he’s such a hard worker and dedicated family man that it has paid off for him. He’s the type of guy that everybody likes—and that is why he’s a leader in the community.

Now I have to say he’s not yet a follower of Jesus, but if you look at this guy’s life it is spotless. He’s a good dude. He follows the 10 Commandments about as well as anyone in our community. And here’s the kicker—he’s asking questions about eternal life. He wants to know what he needs to do in order to go to heaven. He wants to know what he’s missing; what hurdle does he need to jump over in order to gain eternal life.

Let’s be honest this guy would be a great asset to our church. He’d be a faithful giver and that 10% of his income would look awful nice for our budget. He’s a leader in the community—one of those influential people. He’s what you’d call an alpha male, a great leader that people follow.

Ollie on the other hand is dirt poor. He has no assets to speak of. He’s the guy in our community that everybody kind of turns their back to. Let’s be honest—he’s a leech. He’s dependent on everyone else for his needs to be met. He whines and cries when he doesn’t get his way. He’s often very self-centered.

He doesn’t have a job. He mooches of his parents. He’s doesn’t have really any social status. You hate to say it—but everybody in the community thinks the same way of Ollies. He’s small, insignificant, and needy. He’s just weak, pathetic, and powerless.

Now I want to ask you a question. If you’ve got limited time and limited resources which one of these two would you focus your energies towards reaching? Or to put that another way—which one do you think is closest to the kingdom of God? Who’s closer to getting saved and inheriting eternal life? Let’s say you are one of the disciples—who do you focus on reaching?

As we read our text this morning we see how the disciples would answer that question—and we also see how this might be different than how Jesus would answer the question.

Luke 18:15–30 ESV

Now they were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them. And when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. But Jesus called them to him, saying, “Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” And a ruler asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, Do not murder, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother.’ ” And he said, “All these I have kept from my youth.” When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “One thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” But when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich. Jesus, seeing that he had become sad, said, “How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! For 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.” Those who heard it said, “Then who can be saved?” But he said, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.” And Peter said, “See, we have left our homes and followed you.” And he said to them, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not receive many times more in this time, and in the age to come eternal life.”

In case you didn’t pick it up in our little parable Stan is the Rich Young Ruler and Ollie is the child from verses 15-17. And you are perhaps a bit baffled at this point—why in the world would I compare Ollie to the children? That’s because we read texts about children from our Western perspective. We view children as innocent, gentle, and pure. That’s not really the way children were viewed in the first century.

Don’t get me wrong children were loved and cared for. But they didn’t hold nearly the place in society that they do now. They were viewed much the way that I described Ollie. No social status. Weak. Powerless. Insignificant.

This is why in verses 15-17 the disciples were upset that parents kept bringing their children to Jesus for him to bless them. It was a distraction to Jesus—he needed to get on to reaching the important people in society. What would it really gain the kingdom if we got a bunch of helpless children following Jesus? It wouldn’t advance the kingdom—the disciples thought.

Now the rich young ruler, that’s the type of guy that the disciples would have been excited to reach. This is the type of guy that you want on your team. When he walks away the disciples are just as astonished as the rich young ruler. The one they thought was close to the kingdom wasn’t. And the ones they thought were powerless and insignificant are really models for the disciples to follow as it relates to embracing the kingdom.

So why is this? What about the nature of the gospel makes it to where this rich young ruler—who lived a good moral life and was actually interested in having eternal life—why is he on the outside looking in? And what is it about the kingdom that makes Jesus say the kingdom of heaven belongs to ones just like these little children?

I’m going to answer that question at the very beginning and then explain what I mean through the rest of the sermon. Here’s the answer:

The Bible teaches that salvation is impossible with man but possible with God, therefore we must approach the kingdom of God as dependent children. Now I’ll explain that in three parts, first that salvation is impossible with man.

I. The biblical gospel teaches that salvation is impossible with man

Let’s go back to Stan here for a second. Remember he’s the guy that has everything. So why is he here asking Jesus this question? You get the idea that this is one of those dudes who likes to have his ducks in a row. He wants to have all his t’s crossed and all his I’s dotted. But there’s something nagging in him and you can see this even more clearly in the gospel of Matthew when the young man responds to Jesus by saying, “I’ve done all these things—what am I missing”?

And so he comes to Jesus and calls him a “good teacher” and asks what he must do to inherit eternal life. His question has a way of unknowingly exposing his heart and his views about the gospel; which, by the way, is true of many of us if we’ll but pause and listen to our questions.

Notice Jesus’ response to this young man calling him “Good Teacher”. Many have tripped up over this as if Jesus is saying, “Why do you call me good? Only God is good. Stop calling me good. I’m just like the rest of you chaps.” But that’s not what Jesus is doing. What he’s doing is two-fold. One he is challenging this guy to change his view of goodness. Remember from this young man’s perspective Jesus is just what he called him—a teacher. A good solid rabbi who has things figured out. But Jesus is challenging him and saying, “why would you walk up to a mere mortal rabbi and call him good?” It’s showing that this young man has a faulty view of what it means to be truly good. And it’s also a subtle invitation to see Jesus as more than just a rabbi. He’s asking the young man if he is willing to put Jesus in the category of the only One who is truly good—God Himself.

He also exposes his heart by asking, “What must I do”. You see his view of salvation and eternal life is something that he must accomplish. Just as he has succeeded in life by his grit, he assumes eternal life is something similar. He wants to know what are things he has to check off his list so he can mark off the “I’m going to heaven” box.

Now notice how Jesus addresses him. He plays the young man’s game. “Alright you want to know what you’ve got to do—how about these things?” It’s the second table of the 10 Commandments. These are the outward things. You can measure these outwardly. Of course, we know from the Sermon on the Mount, that Jesus is concerned with the heart and so it’d be possible for this guy to have broken it by having lust in his heart. But in this spot Jesus isn’t playing in that ballpark. He’s not the home team—He’s the visitor and so he’s playing by the rules of the rich young ruler—he’s meeting him on his level.

As he goes down this list of things he adds one more, “Don’t defraud”. That means, “Did you get your money by extortion? Did you get your wealth by tricking people out of it, charging ridiculous interest rates, taking advantage of the poor, etc.?” And this young man says, “I’ve kept all these”.

Now again note that Jesus doesn’t call him a liar. He doesn’t say, “Well, you’ve lusted, dude. You’re guilty of that one”. In fact Jesus gazes at him. He looks intently at him. And Jesus’ heart is breaking because he likely knows what is coming next. His heart is aching for this guy who looks like has everything but he’s about to walk away from the One thing—the One Person—that matters more than all of the wealth this guy holds.

And so Jesus moves to the first part of the 10 Commandments. “You shall have no other gods before me”. Of course he doesn’t say it quite that way. He says, “Here’s the one thing you lack. Sell everything, give it to the poor, then come and follow me”. Now has Jesus forgotten how to count? One thing, “sell, give it away, come, follow me”. That sounds like four. But it’s not. It’s all wrapped up into this one big thing.

What is Jesus saying to the guy who has everything? He’s essentially saying you need to become like Ollie, you need to become like a little child. This was the same call that he had to the fishermen in the beginning of the gospel. They had to leave their boats and their father’s business. You can’t hold onto stuff—your own merits, your own righteousness, whatever it is that you are trusting in for your identity—you can’t hold onto that and have Jesus at the same time.

This is why the young man is sad; this is why he is grieved. Jesus is saying, choose this day whom you’ll serve and the young man can’t do it. He can’t give up his identity. I like the way Tim Keller puts this:

When Jesus called this young man to give up his money, the man started to grieve, because money was for him what the Father was for Jesus. It was the center of his identity. To lose his money would have been to lose himself—to lose what little sense he had of having covered the stain.

This is what he was holding onto and he wasn’t willing to let it go. Luke then switches the story to the disciples. Jesus turns to the disciples and says, “How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!”

This is one of those places where we can miss the forest for the trees. It is certainly true that there is a type of self-satisfaction that often accompanies wealth. And this self-satisfaction is impossible to mesh with the gospel and so in that regard it isn’t surprising that the poor—who are everyday aware of their deficiency—don’t have as much of that hurdle to overcome. That’s all true. But Jesus is making an even bigger point, and we’ll see it when we consider the response of the disciples.

They are amazed because Jesus is about to blow up their view of the world. They had a view of the world and the gospel which would hinder children (shut out the kingdom to Ollie) and work hard to get in the good graces of the Stan’s of the world. Here’s how they’d answer the question we posed earlier, which one is closer to the kingdom—Stan or Ollie?

Well, Stan of course. He keeps the commandments, he follows the Law. His wealth doesn’t come from dishonest means. He’s wealthy because He is blessed by God. Jesus is about to blow that up. “Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God! 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.”

So hear this from the disciples’ perspective. They’d have looked at this rich young ruler and assumed that he was probably in an even better position than themselves. He was wealthy. He’s number one in line to get saved and so when Jesus says, “Yeah, it’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than this guy to enter the kingdom of God”, the disciples are exceedingly astonished and they ask the only fitting question, “Then who can be saved?”

Now let Jesus’ answer soak in for a second. “With man it is impossible.” It is impossible for man to save himself. NOT highly unlikely. NOT possible if you just try really hard. NOT if you do the right things. NOT if you get yourself in the right position. Sinner and saint alike we must come to the exact same conclusion. Absolute goodness is required of us, which we have none. Faith and repentance is required of us which we have no ability to do on our own. And it is impossible for man to save man. We must come to this conclusion. We are utterly dependent on the grace of God for salvation.

This of course is why Jesus says what he does in verse 16-17, “to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” If my kids don’t have a job. Sure they might do chores around the house or do certain things at times to earn some money—so it isn’t a one-to-one, but they are completely dependent upon me.

When Jesus says we need to become like children to enter the kingdom he doesn’t mean cute, cuddly, innocent, gentle, and pure. He means small, insignificant, needy, without social status—completely dependent upon Him. Banking entirely on His mercy and His work.

With man salvation is impossible. We can’t do it…but…

II. With God all things are possible

How can Jesus say this? He accomplishes what the Law demands. He has what we need. And so we approach him as a child would a gracious Father.

Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasures to give you the kingdom.

There is one way to be saved that means following the law…like the rich young ruler was trying to do. To love God perfectly. To love people perfectly. And we see that this way is closed to us.

But it’s not closed to Jesus.

So how do you receive the kingdom as helpless children?

Not banking on your own accomplishments, as if you are owed something. Or as if you have something to bargain with.

Unmitigated trust—daddy will catch me. Illustration with Isaiah.

Not trusting in attendance, baptism, Bible knowledge, etc.

Untarnished receptivity. They know how to receive a gift. “A little child takes its food, its parents’ love and protection, because they are given, without beginning to think of whether it deserves them or whether it is important enough to merit such attention. So must we all receive God’s kingdom and enter into it.

Thanksgiving—wow, thanks! Oh my goodness!!! They don’t contain their excitement.

We must not think a child cannot come to God until he is like a man, but a man cannot come until he is like a child. We must grow down until we become like a child.

The kingdom is received not achieved.

There is a way in which this never changes. Yes, we are to mature. But not in a way that leaves this childlike trust and dependence upon God. We mature in our trust, our experience, our bearing of fruit. But we never move on from dependence upon God.