The Rich Young Ruler

Jesus taught that the demands of God's law go far deeper than mere outward obedience. The rich young ruler didn't understand that. He had a superficial understanding of the law. He still harbored the hope within himself that he could earn his way into heaven.

And beloved, he's no different from the vast majority of people who are in churches this Sunday morning. Think back to the last time you received a gift. Did you pull out your wallet and try to repay the person that gave it to you? In that case, it's no longer a gift. But as we read in Scripture, salvation is a gift, a gift of God.

We couldn't pay it back even if we tried. Today Dr. R.C. Sproul turns to the Gospel of Mark, chapter 10, to help us see that if we're like the rich young ruler, we are turning our back on the greatest gift of all. Now I want us to give our attention to the narrative about the rich young ruler. We read in verse 17 these words. Now, as he was going out on the road, one came running, knelt before him, and asked him, good teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? Now obviously this man who comes with his inquiry is not a disinterested bystander at one of Jesus' public orations.

Here's a man who ran for all of his worth. He was as eager as could be to ask Jesus the question that was burning in his soul. How can I inherit eternal life?

What do I have to do? He comes eagerly. He comes willingly.

And he comes with respect and honor. He falls on his knees before Jesus. And he uses a form of address that was somewhat unusual and rare among the Jews when he says to him, good teacher or good rabbi, what do I have to do to inherit eternal life? Now the Psalms in the Old Testament talked about inheriting life. And so often in the Old Testament the notion of inheriting life was related to obedience to the law. And this man comes with that assumption that the only way he will ever inherit eternal life is by doing something that would make him just before God.

Now I'm going to come back to that in a few moments, but for now let's go on with the question. Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Notice how Jesus answers the question. He answers the question with the question. He says, why are you calling me good? Don't you know that there's only one who is good, even God? Now some of the critics of the Christian faith go to this text and they say, here is manifest evidence that Jesus did not consider Himself sinless, that Jesus saw that there were weaknesses in His own righteousness because He disavows any description of Himself as being good.

But beloved, I'm quite convinced that that's not why the man heard these words from the lips of Jesus. Jesus was not saying to the man, why do you call me good? I'm not good.

I'm not good. Only God is good. Jesus knew that this man did not know to whom He was asking the question.

Jesus knew that this man did not know that He was talking to God incarnate. And what Jesus is calling attention to is that this man had a superficial understanding of what goodness is, just like we do, just like the world. We're so easy to call each other good. Well, he's a good man, she's a good woman, he's a good child, and so on, without giving much thought or consideration to what goodness entails. Good is a relative term, and we use it by comparing one person to another. We compare ourselves to each other just as we talk about animals. We say, I say about my dog, my dog's a good dog.

And what do I mean by that? I don't mean that my dog has a highly refined ethical sense of propriety, that my dog knows that my dog knows how to make those hard decisions that righteousness requires. No, I just say as dogs go, my dog's a pretty good dog. My dog comes when I call her. She doesn't bite the mailman, and she's housebroken. That's what a good dog is. So what do we mean when we say that that man is good? Maybe we mean he doesn't bite the mailman.

He comes when we call him, and he's housebroken. Hardly so. What we mean is that compared to other people, he's pretty good. But beloved, we're warned in Scripture not to judge ourselves by ourselves or to judge ourselves among ourselves, but to understand that ultimately goodness is defined by the character of God, whose character is made manifest in the law. And when we judge ourselves against the ultimate standard of the righteousness of God, we will understand why at first the Psalmist and then the Apostle Paul in Romans says, there's none righteous. There's none who does good.

No, not one. And we say, surely the Bible is exaggerating, speaking hyperbolically when he says there's no one who does any good. And Calvin noted that we see among pagans all kinds of self-sacrificial acts of what he called civic virtue, where people abstain from stealing or they give from the depths of their hearts to needy causes without being believers.

That's a good thing. He said, of course, what we mean by that is that people do externally those things from time to time that correspond to the law of God. But God requires that everything that we do be motivated by a heart that loves Him and seeks to honor Him. So, before God will consider your deeds good deeds, He looks not only on their outward conformity to His law, but He looks at your heart, said that this deed proceed from a heart that a hundred percent wants to glorify Him, and He knows the answer to that, and so do you. And so, from the viewpoint of God, there's none righteous.

No, not a single one. But with that same superficial view of the good that the man here has, we come assuming that we can do something to inherit eternal life. Notice the contrast in language between this man and the little ones that were brought to Jesus. The disciples said, don't bother the Master with these little kids.

He said, hey. They said Jesus was very displeased about this. And He said, let them come, forbid them not, for as such belong to the kingdom of God. And I say to you assuredly that unless you receive the kingdom of God like one of these little ones, you shall have difficulty inheriting the kingdom?

No. Unless you receive the kingdom like one of these little ones, you in no way, in no way will enter into the kingdom. And so, the rich man is looking for that way, not to receive the kingdom, but to inherit the kingdom, to do something that will make him worthy to inherit the kingdom.

He's still looking to the law, and he doesn't understand it. Last Sunday, I have to tell you what happened. The text was on marriage and divorce if you were here, and I tried to set forth the text to you. One of the ministers who came to the pastors' conference came early and was in the congregation, and afterwards he said to me, he said, I loved your style of worship. I loved the preaching. I loved the church. I loved everything about it, but you know, I didn't hear the gospel this morning.

I heard the law. Where was the gospel? You know, my first thought was, well, people come to this church and hear the gospel all the time, and I thought, yeah, but not today they didn't. Today they heard the law, and there were people who walked out of here thinking, well, I guess I'm going to hell because I didn't give them the gospel. And what the law is supposed to do is to drive us to the gospel, to expose our need, to expose our sin, and cause us to abandon all hope of earning our way into the kingdom of God. And I should have said last Sunday that if you're involved in an illegitimate divorce or if you're involved with pornography, these are not the unforgivable sins, that these sins are what sent Christ to the cross. And if you put your trust in Him and are justified by faith, your sins will be forgiven, and even divorced people can get in the kingdom of God.

That's the good news. But Jesus, before He sets forth any gospel to this young man, takes Him straight to the law. What do I have to do to inherit the kingdom of God? He asks, and Jesus answers, you know the law. And then He sets before Him what's often called the second table of the law, that part of the law that refers to our interaction as human beings. The first commandments talk about our relationship to God, that I shall have no other God before me, and I shall not make unto thee any graven images, and I shall not take the name of the Lord in vain, and remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.

Those are all about how we relate to God, but then from there it goes on with the prohibitions against murder and theft and adultery and covetousness and false witness, and the rest. Jesus starts with the second part, and let me put it this way, friends, He starts with the easy part. He said, you know the law, thou shalt not murder, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not commit adultery.

And all of a sudden this eager young man who came rushing up to Jesus to find out how to get in God's kingdom breathed an audible sigh of relief. Oh, thank goodness. Is that all I have to do? All I have to do is keep the law. And He said, Jesus, I've never committed adultery. I've never stolen anything. I've never murdered anybody.

I'm not a covetous person. All these things have I done since I was a little boy. Jesus, I was born and reared in the Jewish community. We recited the law all the time.

I know the decalogue. It's written on my heart. I keep those commandments every day. And they would expect Jesus to say, whoa, wait a minute.

No, you don't. Jesus could have looked at Him and said to the young man, sir, you haven't kept a single one of the Ten Commandments since you got out of your bed this morning. Obviously, this man had not heard Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus explained to the people there that if you've refrained from a fool or adultery, but you have lust in your heart, you've broken the law.

And even if you've never taken a human life, stabbing somebody to death, if you've been angry without just cause, if you've hated your brother, if you've insulted Him, you've broken the law against murder. And Jesus revealed that the demands of God's law are far deeper than the mere simple outward obedience that is spelled out. The rich young ruler didn't understand that. He had this superficial understanding of the good. He had a superficial understanding of the law. He still harbored the hope within himself that he could earn his way into heaven. And beloved, he's no different from the vast majority of people who are walking around this country today and from the overwhelming majority of people who are in churches this Sunday morning. Well, Jesus doesn't give a lecture to the young man. He doesn't say, no, you haven't kept the law since you were a little boy. No, you don't understand the gospel.

You don't understand justification by faith alone. Rather, He was trying to help this man understand what was going on. And listen to this. After the man said all these things I've kept from my youth, Mark tells us this, that then Jesus, looking at him, loved him.

Isn't that interesting? The young guy says, I've kept the law since I was a little boy, the law since I was a little boy. It says that to Jesus, to the Judge of heaven and earth who is standing right in front of him. And Jesus looks at him and loves him.

Why does He love him? Because He was so happy finally to find an Israelite and really in whom there was no Gao, finally to find somebody in the Jewish community that did in fact keep the law from the time He was a little boy. And Jesus loved this fellow because he was so lovely? No.

You know what? I don't think that this rich young ruler was an arrogant man. To be sure, his answers were implicitly arrogant. But I don't think that was his demeanor.

I don't think that was his attitude. He really wanted to know. And he really believed that he had kept the law. And I think of Jesus approaching Jerusalem and weeping, crying out in prophetic lament, Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and all who were sent before, how often I would have gathered you to Myself like a hen gathers her chicks, but you would not. When our Lord met people who were as lost as this young man, His heart was filled with compassion.

I think Jesus wanted to look at this man and put His arms around him and say, don't you get it? The only way you get into the kingdom of God is by getting into the kingdom is if you bring nothing in your hand. You have to receive it like a child. You can't buy it. You can't earn it.

You can't possibly deserve it. You have to receive it. It's by grace and grace alone. But instead, Jesus is trying to show Him step by step the error that He's in. And the fellow has just said, I've kept the whole law since I was a little boy. And it's like Jesus said, okay, you've kept the law.

Let's put it to the test. It's one thing you lack, one little thing you've done so well all those years, but you're going to miss this inheritance except for one tiny requirement. All you have to do is go out and sell all that you have, give it to the poor, go pick up your cross, and follow Me. Then you can get in the kingdom. Then you'll inherit the kingdom.

Just one little thing. Now, here's something I want you to understand. Jesus is not setting down here a universal rule for anybody to enter the kingdom of God, that they have to go divest themselves of all private property, go on and enter into a monastery, become an ascetic out in the wilderness sitting on a flagpole, or taking an oath of poverty, or seeking redemption through poverty, mysticism. That's not what Jesus is doing.

He's addressing His comments to this fellow. Here's what Jesus is doing. You've kept all the law. Okay, let's start with number one.

Okay, let's start with number one. Thou shall have no other gods before Me. And Jesus knew that money was this man's god. Money was this man's idol. Oh, maybe He went to synagogue. Maybe He went to temple worship. But His mind all week long was consumed with questions of wealth. What would His final estate be?

And the money ranked ahead of God. It's all that He lacked. Get rid of it. Pluck out the eye, cut off the hand, cut off the foot, whatever keeps you from the kingdom of God, get rid of it.

That's all you have to do. Now that sigh of relief is transformed, beloved, into a ground of despair. The Bible says He was sad at this word.

That word is not strong enough. He was downcast. He was appalled and shocked by these words, devastated. And this one who ran to Jesus walked away from Jesus in sorrow. He walked away from Jesus.

The pearl of great price was standing right in front of Him. All the treasures of heaven and earth were in the one He walked away from. It's like a man who wouldn't trade a nickel for a billion dollars, only even that's a poor analogy. He thought his own possessions were worth more than Jesus. He'd rather have his own bank account than the kingdom of God.

Beloved, here's what the young man didn't understand. The Bible says He was wealthy. He had a great estate. He had much riches, but the reality was He was bankrupt, utterly and completely bankrupt. And as He stood there talking to Jesus, the shadow of His credit report was hanging over Him. For the Bible says that all of us are debtors who cannot pay their debts.

Have you ever been in that position? Have you ever owed more than you had the resources to pay? God requires from us that we be holy, even as He is holy. And the minute we sin, we are now in debt to the righteousness of God. And as Paul said, we are heaping up treasures against the day of wrath, heaping up wrath. That debt grows bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger every time we sin. And if somebody left us a zillion dollars, it couldn't pay our account.

The tragedy in this event is that the only person in the universe who could get Him out of bankruptcy, the only person in the universe who could pay the debt that the man couldn't possibly pay himself was standing right in front of him. See, that's what the gospel is about. Christ pays for us.

He purchases us. He pays our debt, and He gives to us His righteousness, which is the only thing that will satisfy the demands of God's law. So that by faith, when you put your trust in Christ and Christ alone and despair of your own wealth, you let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also, and cling to Jesus. Then you receive the inheritance that you need to get into the kingdom of God. That's what Luther understood. After years in the monastery, after pilgrimages to Rome, after self-denial, after being the monk among monks, I keep falling further in debt until he fled to Jesus and came gladly. And he stayed there because he understood that the just shall live by faith. That is the good news of the gospel, and we find such freedom there. We've heard a message of hope today from Dr. R.C.

Sproul. You're listening to Renewing Your Mind, and we're glad you've joined us today. We're making our way through the Gospel of Mark each week here on the Sunday edition of our program.

We're about midway through chapter 10 now, so we have a great deal of study left to do. And to help you follow along, let me encourage you to request our resource offer today. It's Dr. Sproul's commentary on this gospel. You can go online and request it with your gift of any amount to Ligonier Ministries. Our web address is renewingyourmind.org. If you're listening to us on Ligonier's free mobile app, you can request the commentary by clicking View Today's Resource Offer. But again, if you'd like to make your request online, you can do so at renewingyourmind.org. Next week, as we continue this study, Jesus will teach the disciples about what it takes for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God. Can a camel go through the eye of a needle? Join us as we return to Mark chapter 10 next Sunday on Renewing Your Mind. .