30th Mar 26 | 13:54
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Luke 18 18-30 FOLLOWING JESUS TO HAVE ETERNAL LIFE 03 Righteousness before God
📖 Luke 18:18-30
30Sep2020 - *Righteousness before God* - _Luke 18:18-30_ - FOLLOWING JESUS TO HAVE ETERNAL LIFE 3 – Bible reading: _Matthew 5:17-20_
The Lord loved the Rich Young Ruler _(Mark 10:21)_ and longed for him to know, that he was speaking with God. He had come to the right person, asking the right question. The Lord made him consider the term, ‘good’, which he had used, if he would get it right here, then his quest for eternal life would end.
_Matthew 19:16-17 Now behold, one came and said to Him, "Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?" (17) So He said to him, "Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments."_
The young man’s question was, “what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?” The Lord’s response to him was, “…if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments”.
The Lord’s response, to some of us, could be quite startling. We have taken a negative view towards the law and we have switched fully to grace. Whereas, Jesus came to fulfil the law.
_Matthew 5:17-20 “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. (18) For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. (19) Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. (20) For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven._
The scribes and the Pharisees were fully disposed to obeying the law to its finest detail. This is what they also taught and in so doing they laid a heavy burden on the people to be right with God. Where did it leave the people? People were full of fear, dread and dismay towards God. There was no joy in their walk with God.
Where then did the scribes and Pharisees go wrong? The Lord said that our righteousness must exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, to enter the kingdom of heaven.
The law is good but a relationship with God is by faith through His grace by which we are able to enter into life. The Bible is whole and complete. Keeping of the law, which was in vogue in the Old Testament period, was also by God’s grace through faith.
The scribes and Pharisees were not seeking the law by faith but by the works of the law and there they stumbled. _Romans 9:32 Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone._
The Rich Young Ruler’s question was what should he ‘do’ to inherit eternal life. The Lord’s response was for him to ‘keep’ the commandments. Is there a distinction here?
We will understand this difference when we consider a couple of commandments and what its implications were in the sight of God. Therefore, we can be sure that the Lord did not expect the young man to obey the commandments as only an outward way of life but the Lord was expecting him to keep the commandments in the way it was pleasing to God.
If he was to keep the commandments, as Jesus meant him to keep them, then his relationship with God, would have been true and intimate. His response, as we will see, was that he had ‘kept’ the commandments and not just did what the commandments prescribed.
We can therefore conclude that this man was truly a person who loved God and was eager and intentional about his desire to be assured of eternal life.
*Thought to ponder*
Is your relationship with God a matter of ‘being’ or is it about ‘doing’?