JESUS or the World?

JESUS or the World? by Bill Keller

Now a man came up to Jesus and asked, "Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?"

"Why do you ask me about what is good?" Jesus replied. "There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, obey the commandments."

"Which ones?" the man inquired.

Jesus replied, "Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother, and love your neighbor as yourself."

"All these I have kept," the young man said. "What do I still lack?"

Jesus answered, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."

When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth. - (Matthew 19:16-22)

What makes this encounter between the rich young ruler and Jesus so moving is that it does not have a happy ending. When forced to choose between Jesus and the world, sadly, this rich young man chose the world.

Many of you are being confronted by Jesus, and just like the rich young man in this story, you have to choose -- Jesus, or this world.

The encounter between this rich young ruler and Jesus is the same encounter people have with Christ every day. No doubt this was a man who was very successful by the world's standards. He had all you could ever want in this life. However, deep down, he knew something was missing. He had obviously heard about this teacher named Jesus and approached Him one day, asking the Lord what good deeds he must do to receive everlasting life.

This makes sense since successful people are usually very goal oriented. They are used to performing. So it only makes sense that even in spiritual matters, they are looking for the bottom line, what do they have to do to succeed.

Successful people are accustomed to buying their way into the best clubs, the best restaurants; accustomed to having the best cars, the best homes, the best of whatever this world has to offer. They understand the mentality of work hard, achieve a goal, and purchase whatever you want. So when it comes to the spiritual side of their life, they are ripe candidates for a lie from the pits of hell that tells a person that with enough good works and enough money, they are assured of being part of the spiritual elite, just like they are part of the elite in this life.

Jesus shared with this rich young ruler some of the commandments and the young ruler affirmed he had followed those commandments. Then Jesus shared with this young man the price of following Christ. He told this young ruler to go sell all that he had, give it to the poor and then come follow Him.

I have heard many people over the years incorrectly use this passage of Scripture as an indictment against having wealth. That is NOT what Jesus was saying. Christ in His omniscience knew that as long as this rich young ruler had all of his possessions, he would never put Jesus first in his life because
when a person has been blessed with lots of material possessions, lots of money, the trap so many fall into is thinking they are sufficient unto themselves, that they don't need anyone else, and sometimes, even God can seem unnecessary to them.

When you have the ability to do whatever you want, go wherever you want to go, buy whatever you want to buy, you get the false sense that you are in control. While having money and possessions does give you a certain amount of control over your life, there is still so much that you are NOT in control of and never will be. Your faith and trust is in yourself and in your money, not in God. In most cases, it is not even the money as much as it is the power, the ego, the pride that comes with having wealth and possessions. Those things are actually more difficult to let go of than the money.

The sad ending of this encounter comes in the 22nd Verse when the Bible says, "He went away sad."

The bottom line, He rejected Christ and chose the world. When it came time to make his choice, he chose his money and possessions over Jesus.

We don't know what happened to the rich young ruler. I pray that at some point before he died, he did make the choice to follow Christ.

Many of you reading this are like the rich young ruler. You know deep down inside that something is missing from your life. You have heard about Jesus. In many cases, you have done your best to follow God's commandments but I am here to tell you that isn't enough, for you will never be good enough to earn everlasting life because everlasting life is God's gift to you.

You can't earn it, you can't buy it, it is only available by faith in His Son Jesus Christ.

When you ask Christ into your heart and life by faith, you are surrendering your life to Him. The Bible proclaims that it is no longer your life, but His. He gave His life in payment for your sins, and you in turn give your life to Him.

Like the rich young ruler, you can choose to reject Christ and hold onto your life. But think about it, what are you holding onto?

The reality is, your life will be over one day, sooner than you think. At that point you will pass from this short journey into eternity and those who don't know Christ as their Savior will spend that eternity forever separated from God your Creator.

What you do when you reject Christ is forfeit the treasure of eternal life with Christ in exchange for a few days of whatever scraps this world can offer. Clearly not a wise choice.

Today, you are having an encounter with Jesus just as that rich young ruler in Matthew 19. You have a choice to make today, since the Bible proclaims "today is the day of salvation."

Will you choose Jesus, or go away sad?