Jesus, Young Man, and Perfection.
Last week one young lady preached in the church. She is not the preacher yet, but it looks like that she will become one, so she training herself in this field of preaching before becomes professional one. She conducted her sermon on the subject of eternal life and wealth, presenting passages from Matthew 19.16-23, there is written conversation between Jesus Christ and the young rich man.
She presented this story in the same way as I heard it many times before, and really she presented nothing new concerning this story. She said, like many others I heard before, that because young man was not willing to follow Jesus Christ, he could not enter the Kingdom of GOD and have Eternal Life. Same conclusion was made by many others I heard before.
Every time I hear this story in the churches or from people, I kind of feel sorry for the young man who always been condemned to Hell, because everybody said that he is not saved for the reason that he was not able to do what many of us also unwilling and incapable to do, means to drop everything we have and follow Jesus Christ. So I took another closer look at those passages and I found that for this general perception of this story, to it can be given another explanation.
The young rich man approached Christ and asked Him, “What good deed must I do to have inherit Eternal Life?” Jesus Christ answered him with FIVE Statutes from Ten Commandments and stop. So in this situation Jesus Christ decided that even FIVE Statutes from the Ten Commandments of Moses will be enough for this young to enter Kingdom of GOD and have Eternal Life (if of course he will keep them to the rest of his life).
Seeing that Jesus answered him only with FIVE Commandments from the Law and stop short to saying him the rest of the remaining FIVE, he asked Jesus another question, “I have kept all these; what do I still lack?” Thinking perhaps that Jesus will deliver him another FIVE Commandments, so he would answer Him that he also fulfills and those too, in order to make this issue and His answer to him complete. And Jesus did not argued with him about his answer to Him that he kept those Commandments, because He knew that the young man told Him the truth.
So, even from this short conversation it is obvious that by fulfilling the Law, or even a part of it, sometimes it is enough for a person to be saved and enter the Kingdom of GOD and have Eternal Life. All depends on the situation, certain conditions, and on the GOD Himself Who will, or will not approve entrance to His Kingdom and the Eternal Life, because each life of men differs from another life’s man.
While Old and New Testaments specified certain general conditions in order to inherit Kingdom of GOD and Eternal Life, but it varies from person to person because we have different lives, and we are coming to the Lord by many different ways. So in case with the young rich man, our Lord Jesus Christ decided that fulfilling only FIVE Commandments out of Ten, the young man deserves Eternal Life, and on this answer of Jesus the issue about Eternal Life ends.
But Jesus at this point changed the subject of conversation from Eternal Life to a subject of PERFECTION, and declared to young man, “IF YOU WISH TO BE PERFECT, go sell your possessions, and give money to the poor, and you will have TREASURE IN HEAVEN; then come follow Me.” Matthew 19.21.
By this Statement Jesus declared to the young rich man, that he could do better and go far above 10 Commandments, means to go extra mile in order to receive even more than Eternal Life, but certain TREASURE IN HEAVEN. So the question about his salvation and Eternal Life at this point has been solved, he is saved and would have Eternal Life, but he could have more if he make himself more willing and more PERFECT, by dropping everything he have and follow Christ.
TREASURE IN HEAVEN, certainly means no gold or silver or bags of money, but it means something spiritual and very important. Most likely it means high status, high position, high authority, high power and beauty in the hierarchy of Heaven among the servants, the angels of the Lord, and perhaps even much more we do not know about.
So this means that the Salvation and Eternal Life are not the ultimate goals for us to achieve, and not the end of the line, but beside these things there is much more to have and to achieve, and such work starts not in Heaven but here on Earth.
Word PERFECT, in this case between Jesus and young man, means to improve yourself, to achieve higher possible perfection of yourself, in order to have much more than just Eternal Life. It may also means to be as much as possible closer to GOD in the hierarchy of Heavenly Beings. We have many ambitions here on Erath, and many of us trying to achieve certain high goals, desires, and achievements in our Earthly environment. And in order to fulfill all our ambitions we have to educated ourselves, and made certain financial and material sacrifices.
And same things apply also and for Heaven. And in order to achieve greater goal in Heaven, we also must made certain sacrifices here on Earth, so we would have in Heaven “TREASURE.” And in this case with the young man, it required by Jesus to give up everything he own and follow Him in order to have that TREASURE.
But it is not the case with everyone, because to some Jesus told to follow Him, and to some He said not to follow Him, because He knew what kind of things requires for each and every man to be saved, or to be perfect and high in Heaven.
So, shall not the certain sacrifices have to be done here on Earth in order to achieve higher status and rank among Heavenly Beings in the Kingdom of GOD? And exactly about the same sacrifices of self-denial and self-sacrifice, giving up all possessions, Jesus Christ told the young rich man when He said to him, “IF YOU WISH TO BE PERFECT.”
Shall we not have the ambition to be greatest in the Kingdom of GOD instead of on Earth? Here on Earth everything is temporary, but in Heaven everything last forever.
Above all, we also must realized the difficulty of leaving everything behind and follow Christ. In the case with the young man, he must leave his family, his father and mother, brothers and sisters, and everything he own and posses, and his entire estate, and go with Christ to travel on dusty roads, have no place to sleep, to have occasional meals and be hungry and thirsty most of the time, be dirty and unwashed, suffer from heat by day and from cold by night, and be hated and persecuted by those who do not accepted teaching of Christ.
And here the question for all of us. If Jesus Christ comes to you right now and told you the same thing that He had told to the young rich man, would you drop everything and follow Him? And if you are honest and decent man or a woman, I believe that the answer will be ,”NO,” because it requires much more than we are capable of. And blaming the young man for not following Christ and saying that he is not saved because he does not follow Christ, is a plain hypocrisy and misunderstanding of the story.
And this is why disciples of Christ asked him, “Then who can be saved?” Because even for them, for those who have almost nothing, even for them it is very hard to give up everything they have and follow Someone Who has absolutely nothing Himself.
“But for GOD all things are possible.” That was the answer of Jesus Christ to their question. This means that GOD can make a human being literally give up everything and follow Him, and it was done with many, and even more was done by GOD than that, GOD make people to give up even their lives for His sake, which is will be impossible for human beings to do by themselves.
And there is no question in my mind that the young rich man was saved according to the Commandments of GOD and the answer of Jesus Christ to him. And we do not know what actually become of him later. Because by the power of GOD on him he may later did exactly as Jesus Christ asked of him to do, and may indeed become one among many greatest in the kingdom of GOD.
