Today’s Bible readings are Joshua 15:1-63Luke 18:18-43, Psalm 86:1-17, & Proverbs 13:9-10
Luke 18:18-23
18 Once a religious leader asked Jesus this question: “Good
Teacher, what should I do to inherit eternal life?”
19 “Why do you call me good?” Jesus asked him. “Only God is
truly good. 20 But to answer your question, you know the
commandments: ‘You must not commit adultery. You must not murder. You must not
steal. You must not testify falsely. Honor your father and mother.’”
21 The man replied, “I’ve obeyed all these commandments
since I was young.”
22 When Jesus heard his answer, he said, “There is still one
thing you haven’t done. Sell all your possessions and give the money to the
poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
23 But when the man heard this he
became very sad, for he was very rich.
What does it cost you to follow Jesus? That is a question
that I want you to ask yourself today. In our text we see a man who really
seemed to want to follow Jesus. He came to Jesus desiring to know what it would
take to have eternal life.
I believe that this man truly wanted to know the answer. It
doesn’t appear that he was trying to cause problems. But when he heard Jesus
answer it caused problems for him.
This man was a man of works. In his mind he could earn
eternal life. The first thing he asked Jesus is “What must I do”. We all know
that there is nothing that you can do to earn eternal life. It is the gift of
God. Yet, we all tend to be works oriented in this life. You work a day &
you get paid for a day. We have all been taught that if you want something then
you work hard to get it. This is true & I do not want to take anything any
from this virtue, but when it comes to the gifts that Christ offers things don’t
work that way.
We don’t have to earn or work for anything in the kingdom.
For example, you don’t have to do anything to be:
1. Healed
2. Delivered
3. Saved
4. Filled with the Holy Spirit
These are all GIFTS from God. We don’t have to do anything
for them. Jesus already did what was required. We now just simply share in his
reward. Healing is yours because of what Jesus did at Calvary. He was whipped
& had stripes put across His back so you could be healed. His blood flowed
so that you could be forgiven & made right with God. He ascended so He
could send His Spirit to live in you. The only thing needed on our part is to
simply receive all that He offers.
The gospel is so simple that we make it hard. We have a hard
time wrapping our minds around how God can give such extravagant gifts with
absolutely NO cost required on our part. I don’t want to make it sound like
there was no cost; the truth is that there was a great cost, BUT JESUS PAID IT
ALL. There is nothing left to pay for. God has accepted His payment once &
for all. Hallelujah, what a Savior!
Now let me shift gears for a moment. Jesus gave an answer to
the man that seemed to be asking a lot. He told the man to sell everything
& follow Him. This tore the man inside because he had great wealth. Why
would Jesus say such a thing?
I have learned that it doesn’t cost me anything to be saved
or to experience any of the graces that Christ offers. BUT it costs me everything
to love Him. There are many things that can pull at my heart in an attempt to
pull me away from Christ. That is why Jesus wants us to let nothing have our
heart the way He has our hearts.
I believe that this is the lesson in our story. Not that
Jesus doesn’t want us to have stuff & money, but rather, Jesus doesn’t want
money & stuff to have us. We needed money to preach the gospel, we need
money to build the kingdom, we need money to help people, BUT we need Jesus
FIRST. It is only when He is LORD of our life that we can operate in the things
that matter.
Make sure that today you spend some time evaluating yourself
through the light of the Holy Spirit. Is there anything that has your heart
more than Jesus does? If so, let it go & hold Jesus tightly once again. This
is where life truly starts.
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