Our scripture is Matthew 19:16-29. It’s the story of the rich young ruler. Maybe after reading the lesson you’ll want to go read it and think about these things.

The rich young ruler wants to know what he must do to be saved, to have eternal life. Jesus tells him to obey the commandments, after He points out that only God is good. The rich young ruler is sure that he has kept the commandments and Jesus doesn’t argue the point. Jesus tells him that to be perfect, to be complete, he needed to sell all his possessions and give them to the poor. Now the rich young ruler doesn’t decide to do it, at least not then. Jesus doesn’t chase after him and say, “Well never mind, just make sure you don’t love your possessions in your heart.” Our actions show our heart.

You’re choosing to continue in sin shows you don’t love God, because our love of God is wrapped up in our obedience. The rich young ruler felt like it was impossible to be saved, and the disciples had the same reaction. They’re right, it’s impossible for us to save ourselves. It’s impossible for us to cleanse the sin out of our lives. You cannot save yourself.

If the rich young ruler had sold all of his possessions and given the money to the poor, would he have been saved? Yes, otherwise Jesus would have been made a liar. Would he have been saved by works? No way! He would have been saved because it was impossible with man. Jesus knew that for this man, that was impossible without God changing his heart. So, if he had obeyed Jesus, that would have meant God had changed his heart, so that now he was choosing to love God instead of his wealth.

The rich young ruler walked away sad. Some people say that if we’re sad about our sin, it shows we’re Christians because a non-Christian wouldn’t care if they sinned. It’s not true. The rich young ruler was sad. He was sad he couldn’t obey Jesus’ command that he needed to in order to be saved. He was sad over sin because of its consequences. It wasn’t enough. He didn’t walk away saved.

On the day of Pentecost, when the crowd is sad, cut to the heart, it’s not then they were saved. They were saved when they repented and were baptized and filled with the Holy Spirit. They were given new life. New life is new and different. We’re not the same.

There was one more command, after the command to sell and give. He was told that he would, then, have to follow Jesus. It’s not one and done. It’s a lifetime of walking with Jesus, perfect and being perfected.