How to Obtain Enternal Life
Matthew 19:16‑22
This morning, in our study, we're looking at Matthew chapter 19 again. And we come in our ongoing study of this great gospel to verses 16 through 22, Matthew 19, verses 16 through 22.
As a preface to looking at the text, I have been reminded of some time ago when I was riding on an airplane and there was a man sitting next to me. And as we were just flying along, he looked over at me and introduced himself and then said to me, he said, "Sir, you wouldn't know how I could have a relationship with Jesus Christ, would you?"
Now that doesn't happen very often to me, but it does. And I happened to have a Bible open and so that prompted him to ask the question. And I thought he was so ready and so eager and this is some time ago. And I said, "Well yes, you simply believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and accept Him as your Savior," and so forth. And he said, "I'd like to do that." And so we prayed and I was so very excited about what happened and tried to follow it up unsuccessfully to find out only that he has had no continuing interest in the things of Christ at all, as far as I can tell.
That's very hard sometimes for us to deal with but very frequently occurs. Anyone who's in any kind of ministry at all and even people who are lay people like yourselves, perhaps, out sharing Jesus Christ, have those occasions where someone prays a prayer with you or someone is led to Christ by you and you see no change in their life, nothing really happens differently and they never ever connect up with the church in any ongoing sense at all. And if you've been struggling with why that happens, then I think you're going to find the answer to that in the message this morning.
I don't think I really understood fully why that happened until I understood this particular story that's here in Matthew 19. The passage before us gives us an insight that I think is extremely valuable. We might even say that Matthew 19:16 to 22 is an illustration of another truth. And that truth is very clearly articulated in Luke 14:33. And maybe in the margin of Matthew 19:16 to 22, you ought to write Luke 14:33 because I believe this explains the meaning of that verse.
Luke 14:33 says this, "So likewise, whosoever he is of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, cannot be My disciple." Now that is a very straightforward truth. Unless you forsake all that you have, you cannot be the Lord's disciple. Salvation is not for people pray a prayer necessarily or people who think they need Jesus Christ, it is for people who forsake all. There is an abandonment of everything in genuine salvation. And that, I think, is the essence of what our Lord is teaching us with the encounter with the young man in Matthew 19.
Let's begin at verse 16, you follow and I'll read you the text.
And behold, one came and said unto Him, Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life? And He said unto him, Why are you asking Me what is good? There is none good but one, that is God, and if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. He saith unto Him, Which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness, honor thy father and thy mother and thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. The young man saith unto Him, All these things have I kept, what lack I yet? Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell what thou hast and give to the poor and thou shalt have treasure in heaven and come and follow Me. But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful for he had great possessions.
You see, there was a test. On the one hand, he had his possessions. On the other hand, there was Jesus Christ. He had to make a choice. Because he was unwilling to forsake all, he never could be a disciple of Christ. That's the essence of what the text is saying. Salvation is for those who forsake everything. Now I think it's very important to affirm that.
Now you'll notice in verse 16 that the young man poses a question related to eternal life. He asks about how to obtain eternal life. The term "eternal life" is used about 50 times in Scripture and is essentially the heart of all evangelism. In other words, in all that we endeavor to do, we try to get people to want eternal life, to seek eternal life, to receive eternal life. In fact, in the most familiar gospel verse of all, John 3:16, we remember that the text says, "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting, or eternal life." And we struggle and we work and we pray and we study and we strategize and we plan and we develop methods to try to get people to want and to receive eternal life.
But here comes a young man who walks right up and asks Jesus the very question. Most of our work in evangelism is to get somebody to this point. From here on out, it's easy. I mean, if you can just get the guy to say "what do I need to do to inherit eternal life" you've got him where you want him, all you have to do is say: believe, sign the card, raise your hand, walk the aisle, do whatever. I mean, you've got him right where you want him to be.
So, when the young man walked up and asked the question, he jumped over the whole process of normal preevangelism effort. Like the young man on the airplane, who jumped by all the things that you usually have to work on, like how do you know there's a God, how can you believe the Bible and on and on and on. He walked up and asked Jesus the question about eternal life.
Now, that's not an unfamiliar question to the Lord. It appears on several occasions in the New Testament. Not only asked by this young man, but also asked by a lawyer and also in John 6, asked by a group of people, essentially the same question. How do you get eternal life? And all of our evangelistic efforts are basically to bring someone to that point, aren't they? Where they seek eternal life. And it can be given to them in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I guess I have to say this has got to be the hottest evangelistic prospect in the gospel so far. I mean, this guy is really ripe. He is ready. But the amazing thing is he goes away without ever receiving eternal life. And the reason he goes away is because he is not willing to forsake everything. Jesus actually set up an insurmountable barrier for the man. Instead of taking him where he was and just getting him to make the quote/unquote "decision," Jesus stops him dead in his tracks and makes it impossible for him to get saved on those terms which he had already had come to.
Now you say, "What kind of evangelism is this? Jesus would have flunked the evangelism seminar. He doesn't know how to get closure. He doesn't know how to draw the net. He doesn't know how to sign the guy up. I mean, you get a guy coming along saying I want eternal life, you've got a hot one. You don't want to lose it."
But, oh do we need the truth that's in this text. We have so many contemporary unbiblical modes of evangelism. Our mass evangelism with its decisions, statistics and its aisle walking and its hurry‑up‑and‑come‑to‑Jesus and just believe and there's nothing else kind of approach is leading all kinds of people into the delusion that they're saved when in fact they're not. And so, we must go to this passage for its very important instruction.
Now, let's ask a question similar to the young man's question and then we'll flow through the text. And I think it will unfold very easy in your eyes and you'll see what happened that went wrong with this young man. How does one obtain eternal life? That's the question. How do you obtain eternal life?
Well, let's look at the points. First of all, it's necessary to know what you want. The man came to Jesus and he said I want to obtain, I want to do something to get eternal life. Now he knew what he wanted. And that's where it has to start. You cannot come seeking something if you don't know you want it. You've got to know what it is you seek before you can seek it. And he wanted eternal life. He knew he didn't have it. He had a lot of things but he didn't have that.
Matthew tells us that he was young, verse 20. Matthew tells us in verse 22 that he was rich. He had great possessions. Luke tells us in Luke 18:18 that he was arche, he was a ruler. And most likely he was a ruler of the synagogue, comparing it with Matthew 9:18. He was probably a ruler of the synagogue. He was a Jewish religious leader, devout, honest, in terms of his relationship to Judaism, young, wealthy, prominent, influential. Very rare that a young man would be a ruler of a synagogue. Well we don't know for sure that he was a ruler of a synagogue but that seems to be the best indication. But he was highly respected, very devout, very religious. As far as the culture of his day, the religious environment of his day, he had everything. And I think that's why in verse 16, Matthew says, "And behold," and that's an exclamation "and lo," and we would say in our vernacular, "Can you believe this, that this guy came to Jesus wanting eternal life who is a devout Jew who was a religious man, who is a ruler of a synagogue, who is influential, prominent," and so forth, it was amazing that he would come and admit that he didn't have eternal life.
He had not found the reality to put his soul at rest. He had not found a confident permanent peace, joy and settled hope. And he was feeling in his heart the absence of this. He was basically coming on the grounds of a felt need. There was a restlessness in his heart. There was an anxiety in his heart. There was a sense of being unfulfilled. And he knew what was missing...eternal life.
Now how did he know that? Well, the Jews understood eternal life. They understood that term or that concept. Simply stated, if life means‑‑and it does mean‑‑the ability to respond to your environment, that's what life means, if you don't think it means that, look at a dead person and see how well they respond, life basically means the ability to respond to your environment. Eternal life means the ability to permanently respond to your environment. And eternal life carries with it the divine environment. In physical life, we can respond to a physical environment. In eternal life, we have the ability to respond to the divine environment. In other words, we respond to the life of God. That's why when we're saved, Paul says we enter into the heavenlies. Our citizenship takes on a divine character and we all of a sudden come alive to God and that's unending.
But it is a quality of existence, not a quantity of existence. It is the idea that I am sensitive to God, that I can respond to God. Before I was saved I was dead in sin, utterly unresponsive to the divine environment. When I became a Christian, I became capable of responding to the divine environment and I shall always be capable of responding to the divine environment.
The Jews thought of it as the life of the age to come, the life which is characteristic of people who live in the age to come. And this young man knew that he did not have the ability to fully respond to the divine environment. He knew that he did not have the ability to fully respond to God. He wasn't sensing God's love, God's rest, God's peace, God's hope, God's joy, the security of belonging to God. He knew that he did not possess the divine life. He knew that he didn't have in his soul the life of God.
By the way, John uses the word zoe 34 times and every time he uses it in his writing, it always means the life principle itself which makes us spiritually alive. And so, eternal life is not just long‑time living, eternal life is a quality of existence which allows us to be alive to the world that God dwells in. It allows us to possess the very life of God. It is that life which is the result of the new birth. Nicodemus was born into a new life, a new dimension of living in which he was alive to God and that life is unaffected by death which only transfers us fully into the heavenly world.
Now the rich young ruler knew that he didn't have the life of God in his soul. He knew that he really didn't sense God fully. He knew that he didn't walk with God, commune with God. So he was very perceptive. He'd gone beyond the Pharisees in his own system who were content with their own musings and praying to themselves. He was not. He knew it was a quality of life which he missed. And I hope we can get it through our heads that eternal life is not just a long time of living, eternal life is a quality of being alive to God, a quality of possessing the life of God, of being aware of the environment of the divine.
It's reminiscent of the old Greek mythology story of Aurora who was the goddess of the dawn. And Aurora fell in love with Tithonis(?) and Tithonis was a mortal youth. And when an eternal goddess falls in love with a mortal youth, it's got its limitations. And so she didn't want to ever lose him and she knew he would die so she went to the head of the gods in the mythology who was Zeus. And she said I want one wish for you. And he said I would grant you one wish in behalf of your lover Tithonis. And she said I wish that he would live...I wish that he would never die, that he would live forever. And he said the wish was granted. And he did. But she left out one important element...she forgot to ask that he would stay young. And so in the Greek mythology, he lived for ever but he just kept getting older and older and older until life was a horrible punishment.
That's not eternal life in the biblical sense. Eternal life in the biblical sense is the process of ever getting younger and younger and communing with the living God in an unending communion. And that this young man wanted.
So, he knew what he wanted. And I think that when we preach or evangelize, we're trying to get people to understand...to understand what they should want. We're trying to get them to see that they don't have eternal life and they should have eternal life. That's part of it. And so he was on track.
The second element that comes through here is that not only did he know what he wanted but he felt deeply the need. Now there are people who know they don't have eternal life but they also don't feel any need for it. Have you ever met them? I've met some like that. They know they don't have eternal life but they don't feel any need for it. They know they're not alive to God but they really don't care to be alive to God. They know they don't sense the divine dimension, they don't have the full confidence of security in the life to come, the great settled hope that comes to believers, they know they don't have it. But they really aren't that interested in it. And sometimes we say they're not desperate enough to really want what they don't have. This guy was. He not only knew what he wanted but he felt deeply the want of it.
And I think there's an urgency in his question, "Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I might have eternal life?" He doesn't have any prefaces, he doesn't warm up, he just blurts it out. I mean, it's right on the front of his tongue. And if you look over into verse 20, at the end of the verse, he's gone through all the things he's done religiously and he says, "What lack I yet?" And I sense there a certain amount of frustration, a certain amount of unfulfillment, a certain amount of anxiety saying, "Man, I've been at this religious thing with all my might and something is missing in my life." And it's the cry of a heart that feels a need. I want this thing.
So, boy, he's a really great prospect. He knows what he doesn't have, eternal life, and he wants it very badly because he has an empty place in his life, he has some lack in his life and he wants to fulfill that. Oh, he's lived an exemplary life outwardly. He has avoided outward sins. He tells all those laws that he supposedly thinks he's kept. He's moral. He's religious. He's strong in heart to conform to the standards of his..of his religion. He is a leader in terms of the eyes of the people. And yet he's unsatisfied and he knows that it's eternal life that he lacks and he wants to know how to get it. And there is a real felt need deep in his heart. There is a vacuum there. Now you're beginning to see what a tremendous prospect he is, aren't you?
That takes us to the third element. In obtaining eternal life it is also necessary to seek diligently...to seek diligently. And so you have a person who knows what they don't have, wants it and is willing to seek Jesus, you know, waited for the man to come to Him. And we see that very often in our Lord's life. Of course, the prophet of the Old Testament, Isaiah, said if you seek Me with all your heart, you'll find Me. And so here's a diligent seeker.
You say, "How do you know that?" Well, in verse 16 it says "one came." And that's all that Matthew tells us but in the parallel passage in Mark 10:17, Mark says he came running...he came running. Now there's urgency in that. I mean, he's dealing with a real frustration in his heart. This is a religious guy with some integrity. He really does want to know God. I believe he really did want the peace and the joy and all of that. If you would have approached him on: how would you like to have peace, joy, happiness, love? Boy, you would have had...you would have had a guy on a hood right now because he felt deep psychological need. There were missing elements inside of him.
But would you note somewhere in your mind that this is a very self‑centered...young man at this point? He is coming for something that will satisfy his heart and the need of his heart. That's not wrong, it's just incomplete. But that was his approach. There was an urgency. There was an eagerness. I mean, he rushed down the aisle before there was an aisle, you know. He ran to Jesus before "Just as I am" had ever been written. He beat the invitationalists. I mean, he is in a hurry. He's enthusiastically in pursuit of eternal life, salvation.
In fact, Mark 10:17 says the Lord was walking down the road in Perea, no doubt there was a crowd around Him, as always gathered around our Lord in addition to the disciples. And this guy runs right into the crowd. He's not embarrassed by the fact that he's ever...he's known by the people in that area. Everyone perhaps knew who he was. If indeed he was a ruler of the synagogue, they surely did. He is not embarrassed by the fact that he confesses publicly and openly that he does not possess eternal life, which would have been some kind of a confession to make when you're a person of his stature. And beyond that, Mark says, he not only came running to Jesus but he got on his knees. And now he's in a position of humility before the Lord. He's prostrate in some sense before the Lord. He acknowledges the humble situation that he's in where he lacks something. Now that takes some kind of integrity to do that. That's stepping down off your high horse. And so there's something kind of special about this guy. He's serious, motivated, anxious. He wants eternal life so badly, so eagerly, he seeks it so diligently that he doesn't mind losing face with all the people who thinks he's a spiritual giant already.
You say, "What an opportunity. Boy, if you could just...I mean, this guy's ready and this guy...you get this guy saved, he'll be terrific. He's rich. Boy, we need rich Christians. Not only is he rich, he's influential. Boy, what could he do as an influential guy? He's a prime prospect for a testimony on Christian TV, or write a book or...I mean, this guy's a hot one. And you sure don't want to muff this opportunity. A can't‑miss convert."
That takes us to the fourth element of obtaining eternal life and that is he came to the right source. You know, there are lots of folks looking for eternal life and looking real hard but they're looking in the wrong place. Have you noticed? And why do you think Satan counterfeits religions all over the face of the earth? So that people go chasing the wrong thing. It isn't there. They won't find eternal life there but some people may be rather diligently looking for it there. But he came to the right source.
You know, in 1 John it tells us that, if not in many other places, chapter 5 verse 11 says, "And this is the record that God hath given to us eternal life and this life is in His Son." And verse 20 says of Him, "In His Son Jesus Christ, this is the true God and eternal life." So Jesus not only was the source of eternal life, He was that eternal life. And so this guy came to the right source.
No doubt he had heard of the power of Jesus, no doubt he had heard of the teaching of Jesus because he comes to Him and says, Didaskolos, or master, or teacher. He acknowledges that He was a teacher of divine truth. Mark and Luke tell us he called Him "good." It's added here in the Authorized of Matthew, but it isn't in the manuscripts of Matthew, but it is in Mark and Luke. And so he said, "good," agathos. Kalos means good form, good on the outside; agathos means good on the inside, good inwardly, good morally, good in nature, good in essence. So he says I know that You are good. I know that You are a good person. I know that You're moral. I know that You're upright and I also know You teach and You teach divine truth. You perhaps know the secret of getting eternal life.
I don't think he thought he was God. I don't even think he particularly thought of Him as the Messiah. I just think he was such...he was so struck with the power of Jesus' teaching and the power of His life however he had been exposed to it that he said surely this teacher has got the secret to eternal life. He must have it. And maybe He can tell me how to get it. So, I think he's approaching it that way, more than affirming the deity of Christ or the Messiahship of Christ. He just calls Him a basically internally morally good teacher whose life demonstrates that He probably walked with God and knew the secrets of eternal life. And so he came to the right source.
And even though he didn't know who He was in the fullest sense, he certainly did come to the right place. For Acts 4:12 says, "There's salvation in no other name than the name of Jesus Christ." So, he came to the right place for eternal life.
Fifthly, in moving through our outline, and we're still in verse 16, he asks the right question. He really did. Now a lot of people have sort of knocked the guy for the question he asked. They say he's saying, "What good thing shall I do?" And that he's asking some works oriented question. Well, certainly he was works oriented. Certainly he was raised in a Pharisaic system of tradition. Certainly he was trained to think that you did things religiously to gain divine goals and divine ends. But I still think with all of that obviously in the background, the question's a fairly fair question. I mean, I don't think we ought to knock him for the question. What good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life? That's a fairly simple question. And there's nothing in the text that says he specially said, "What good thing shall I do," we don't know that he verbally emphasized that.
And it's a fair question. I mean, you do have to do something to get eternal life, you have to believe, right? Your will has to be involved. There has to be a response. The question is basically a fair question. It's an okay question. He didn't say, "How can I be more religious...how can I be more moral...how can I get more self‑respect...," or whatever. He didn't say that. He said, "I want eternal life, what do I do to get it?" And I don't think it's a calculated question of someone trying to trap Jesus or trying to offer his self‑righteousness as a vehicle by which he will gain the answer. I think he just asked an honest question. What do I do to have eternal life?
It's not much different than the question in John 6:28 where the people said to Jesus, what do we do to work the works of God? Now that is a works question. But to that, Jesus said, this is the work if God that you believe. So, the question itself isn't that offensive to me. I think he's simply saying what do I need to do to have eternal life. Sure he thought it was something he'd have to do and there's a sense in which he was right. Because we must act as an act of faith...activate our will as an act of faith toward Christ. What does he do? It's the right question. He's asking how, you see. Now I know I need eternal life, I feel deeply the desire for it, I'm here diligently seeking it now how do I get it? Boy, this is too good to believe. I mean, if you lose this guy, you've really muffed it.
What good thing? And he even knew that he had to do something good, something really good, something genuinely good. And Jesus' answer is amazing. I mean, if Jesus was a contemporary evangelist, or contemporary evangelical, He might say, "Hey, just believe. I mean, Jesus died for you and rose again, if you just believe that, just pray and ask Jesus into your heart and confess Him as your Savior, your...you'll be saved." And Jesus didn't do that at all. Jesus put up a wall in front of this guy. I mean, Jesus drew him to a sudden stop.
Verse 17, "He said to him, Why are you asking Me what is good?" You want to know what good thing you have to do, why are you asking Me? Why are you asking Me what good thing you have to do? You think I've got some secret you don't know? You think I've got some insight that you've never heard of? You think God's given Me something that no one else knows about? You think I'm the only person in the world who knows what you have to do? What good thing...what are you asking Me about that for? There's none good but one, that's God and you know what He said so go on out and keep His commandments. That's what He's saying. I mean, if you want life, then keep the commandments. You know what they are, you don't need to ask Me. There's no new information. There's no secret. Why are you asking Me what is good?
Now, as a well‑taught Jew, he was saying‑‑in effect‑‑You know exactly what's good. You know what good things are written in the law of God, now go do them. That's what He says. "If you will enter in to life, keep the commandments." God alone is the one that's good and God good...in His goodness has revealed all of His will, you know the Word of God, you know the revelation of God, you know the law of God, it's all there, I haven't added anything to it, I have nothing to add to it, just go out and keep it all.
You say, "Why in the world does He say that to the guy?" Because, you see, there's a missing factor here. This guy is coming to Jesus and his seeking of salvation is based on his felt need, right? He's seeking a salvation because he has anxiety and he has frustration and he wants joy and love and peace and hope. And that is not a good enough reason to come to Christ. That is incomplete. It isn't wrong, it's incomplete. I mean, if we go around the world offering people happiness and joy and peace and so forth and so forth, it's very easy to get them to respond to that. All you have to do is find all the folks who are psychologically incomplete. And if you can offer them all the panaceas to their anxieties through Jesus, they'll take Jesus to get those things. But that is not a complete understanding of salvation.
So, Jesus slams a wall in front of the guy and says, "Look, the one thing you haven't done you know and it's all...it's good God who's revealed His good Word so you just go out and do it all. You keep the commandments." You say, "But nobody can do that." That's exactly right. That's exactly right. You say, "Well, why did He tell him to do that?" So that he'd realize he couldn't do it. You see, because the problem with this man is that by the time we get to the end of verse 16, there's something that hasn't been mentioned. What is it? His sin. There's been no mention of that. And the young man has no sense that he's offended a holy God. His...his desire for eternal life is purely wrapped up in his own anxieties and his own personal needs and has no thought for the affront that his life is to an infinitely holy God. And that is a necessary element in understanding the truth of salvation.
So, Jesus just says you know what you have to do to do the good thing, keep the law of God. You don't need Me to add anything. God is good and He's revealed His good will and His good will is His law so go out and keep it. Keep the commandments.
You mean you could get saved that way if you could keep them? But you can't. We've learned that over and over again. You can't. So the guy now has to be confronted with the fact that he has violated God. You see, people, you cannot bring people to Jesus Christ simply and only on the basis of psychological needs or anxieties or lack of peace, or lack of hope, or lack of joy, or lack of happiness. They must understand that salvation is for people who want to turn away from the things of this life and turn to God who see that they have lived in violation and rebellion against holy God. And they want to turn around, confess that and affirm their commitment to live for His glory. You see, God has to be involved. Salvation is not a psychological thing. God has to be involved. A man know...must know that unless he is willing to forsake all of the things in this life and come to God, he can't be His disciple. All he felt was a personal need. All he felt was personal anxiety. All he felt was the lack of stuff in his life. And that is not substantial enough.
So, our Lord takes the focus off of his felt need and puts it on God. And tries to show this young man that the real problem in his life is not what he doesn't have in his heart but it's what he's doing to offend a holy God. And when He says to him, "You keep the commandments," He is beginning to take this young guy and slam him up against the divine standard so that he'll see that he comes short. That's the issue.
As I look back to talking to that young man on the airplane, that's something I didn't do. I took him at such face value as he was feeling his own psychological needs and gave him Christ for his psychological needs without understanding that he was receiving Christ for his sin. So what you need to do when you evangelize someone is to make sure they understand the full nature of their sinfulness as it violates the holy law of holy God. So that salvation is a Godward thing, not just a manward thing.
All evangelism must take the imperfect sinner and place him up against the perfect law of God so he can see his deficiency. That's an utterly essential element. And evangelism that deals only with men's needs, only with men's feelings, only with men's problems lacks the true balance. And that is why the churches are jammed full of people who aren't really saved because they gain...they sought and gained some kind of psychological affirmation and not transactional redemption.
Why do you think Paul in Romans spends chapters 1, 2 and 3 affirming the sinfulness of man before he ever gets to salvation? That's the whole issue. And the rich young ruler had no sense of his offending God, he had no remorse. I believe there has to be remorse. I believe that's where you get the Beatitude attitude, you have to be begging God for forgiveness. There needs to be a sense of meekness. There needs to be a sense of mourning overwhelmed by your sin. You see, he didn't have that. He wanted psychological needs met. But I don't see the remorse over sin at all in this passage. I don't see him saddened that he's offended God. I don't see him aware of his sin. It's got to be more than something about my needs.
You can't just approach people on that basis. You know the truth of the matter is, this may sound lik
Unleashing God's Truth One Verse at a Time