What Do I Still Lack?
Matthew 19:16-22
In our study of Matthew 19, we come to another memorable story. It’s familiar to many of us because it is found in all three synoptic Gospels—Matthew, Mark, and Luke. It concerns a certain man who came to ask Jesus about eternal life. his man is commonly known as the “Rich Young Ruler.” Indeed, this man was rich. Matthew 19:22 says that “he had great possessions.” Twice in this passage Matthew refers to him as a “young man” (Matt. 19:20, 22). And in Luke’s account of this story, he is called “a certain ruler” (Luke 18:18). Perhaps he was a synagogue ruler or a local community leader. Certainly, he was a respected man of influence in his society. For this man to have achieved this a level of status at such a young age was a considerable accomplishment. And more than all that, this rich young ruler appeared to be an outstandingly moral man. He was able to say that, from his youth, he kept the commandments of God.
So here we find a man who, in the eyes of the world was a great success—a paragon of human goodness and greatness. And the context here in Matthew 19 sets him in significant contrast to the little children in the previous story. Remember that, as Jesus journeyed on His way to Jerusalem, little children were brought to Jesus for Him to lay His hands on them and pray for them (Matt. 19:13-15). The disciples didn’t think that the little children were very important—certainly not important enough to bother their Lord and Master. These little children had no status or achievements of which to boast. They were unimportant in the eyes of men. But Jesus rebuked the disciples and said, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt. 19:14). The kingdom of heaven is for those who come to Jesus with child-like humility (Matt. 18:4) and faith (Luke 18:17).
What a contrast they are to this rich young ruler! As great as he was, and as much as he may have accomplished, this ‘rich young ruler’ was still empty inside. He knew that he had not yet accomplished what Jesus said was true regarding these little children. Craig Blomberg comments, “The children turned out to be nearer to the kingdom than most might have suspected; the rich man demonstrates that he is further away than most would have guessed.”[1]
I had us read Matthew 19:16-30 because the rest of this chapter is all tied together. In Matthew 19:16-22 we have Jesus’ encounter with the rich young man. That leads to Jesus’ teaching on the difficulty for the rich to enter the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 19:23-26) and His teaching on the rewards for following Him (Matthew 19:27-30).[2] Today, we will look at Jesus’ encounter with the rich young man and save the rest of Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 19 for next time. The dialogue between Jesus and the rich young man consists of three questions he posed to Jesus and the Lord’s answers to him. Together, these three questions show us that, not even the very best of us can be saved in any other way than by God’s grace through faith.
Let’s look together at his story. The first question—the question that drove this young man to seek Jesus—was a question that ought to be on the lips of everyone . . .
1. How Do I Gain Eternal Life? (Matt. 19:16-17).
Matthew writes, “Now behold, one came and said to Him, “Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?”” (Matt. 19:16).
Think about this man—young, powerful, wealthy, successful, moral. He is the model citizen. He had it all! Or did he? Because this young man, despite all his success only found futility. And to appreciate how desperately he wanted the answer, you should know some of the details we draw from Mark’s Gospel. Mark 10:17 says that as Jesus and His disciples were going out on the road, this man “came running, knelt before Him, and asked” this question. He ran and knelt and pled with Jesus. Why? Because he didn’t know what to do with death. He had obtained much in this life but he had no assurance of eternal life. This man, despite all his credentials, wants to know how to be saved.
Listen, our life here on earth will soon be over. I don’t care if you live to be 110, you will soon breathe your last. As the Psalmist says, “LORD, make me to know my end, And what is the measure of my days, That I may know how frail I am. Indeed, You have made my days as handbreadths, And my age is as nothing before You; Certainly every man at his best state is but vapor.” (Ps. 39:4-5).
So this man’s question reveals his desire for eternal life, but it also reveals his wrong understanding about both Jesus and how to obtain eternal life. Notice again how he states his question to Jesus, “Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?” (Matt. 19:16).
He didn’t call Jesus “Lord”, or “Master”, or “Son of God”. Instead, he referred to Him by a very honorable title—”Teacher” or “Good Teacher”, but it was a title that only recognized Jesus as a mere man.
And it’s then that Jesus forces him to come to terms with his belief about who it is that he was speaking to. Jesus responds to the man by asking, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is God” (Matt. 17a). The New American Standard version, translates these words relying on a different textual variant, “Why are you asking Me about what is good? There is only One who is good.” The man was calling Jesus “Good Teacher” and was asking Him about what was “good” before God. And yet, only God Himself is “good”. Psalm 107:1 says, “Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good!” Psalm 119:68 says of the LORD, “You are good, and do good; Teach me Your statutes.” God is good. But ever since mankind sinned in the garden, people are not good and they do not do good. Paul quotes the Old Testament in Romans 3:10-12, writing, “There is none righteous, no, not one; There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one.” (quoting Psa. 14:1–3; 53:1–3; Ecc. 7:20). In asking the man about who is “good”, it’s as if Jesus was asking the man, “What are you saying about Me? Do you believe me to be ‘God’?“
This has been the whole point of the Gospel of Matthew. From the beginning, Matthew has shown us that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. He is Emmanuel, “God with us”. He does the things that only God can do: heal the sick, raise the dead, give sight to the blind, cleanse the leper, walk on water, calm the storm, provide bread to feed the multitude, free the demonized, and forgive sinners.
This One who claimed to be the Son of God in human flesh was, even then, on His way to Jerusalem to die on the cross for sinners. If we want to have eternal life, it’s essential that we recognize Jesus for who He truly is. This is why Jesus answered the man’s question with His own question about what and who is truly good. Jesus was pressing the rich young ruler to come to terms with who it was that He was speaking to. If he truly understood Jesus’ identity, he would have the answer to His question about eternal life.
But not only was this man mistaken about Jesus’ identity, he was also mistaken about the means of obtaining eternal life. Notice that he didn’t ask, “How can I be given eternal life?” If that had been his question, the Lord may have answered differently. Jesus dealt with each person individually according to the condition of their own heart because He knew the hearts of all men. Instead, the man’s question was “What good thing shall I do?” His question assumed that he must “do” some “good thing” to earn eternal life. Likely, he thought that eternal life could be “earned” in just the way that everything else he had accomplished was earned. He assumed that righteous living was within his grasp. He assumed that he was able to live good enough to please God. The young man asked about doing good: “What good thing must I do?” Jesus points him to God who is good, because you can’t truly do good unless you are good. If only God is good, then there is no good thing we can do to obtain eternal life.
But the man did not yet understand this. So, Jesus responded to him according to the man’s own terms, “But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments” (Matt. 19:17b). Since the man was focused on doing good, Jesus directs him to God’s good commandments. The young man was looking for one big, radical thing he could do to ensure his entrance into heaven. He wanted to get it done all at once. Jesus instead directs him to the lifelong task of keeping God’s commandments. If you obey the commandments, you will live.
Why did Jesus tell him to keep the commandments of the law to enter life? First, we need to know that what Jesus says is true according what God revealed in the Old Testament. The LORD says in the law in Leviticus 18:5, “You shall therefore keep My statutes and My judgments, which if a man does, he shall live by them: I am the LORD.” The prophet Ezekiel had a similar word from the Lord, saying, “And I gave them My statutes and showed them My judgments, ‘which, if a man does, he shall live by them.’” (Eze. 20:11). If a man were to keep the commandments of God’s law perfectly, he would live.
But we also know from the rest of the New Testament that no one can be saved by keeping the law. Paul writes in Romans 3:20, “Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight…” The law could not make us right with God or give eternal life because no one can perfectly keep God’s law. Romans 3 tells us “Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God … for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” (Rom. 3:19, 20). So, I believe Jesus takes this man to the law in order to make him face the reality of his own sin.
That brings us to the man’s second question…
2. Which Commandments Must Be Kept? (Matt. 16:18-19)
Matthew tells us that the man went on to ask the follow-up question: “He said to Him, ‘Which ones?” (Matt. 19:18a). His question reveals that he totally missed the point Jesus was making. Jesus wanted him to understand the goodness of God and his own sinfulness. He wanted him to see that these things cannot be reconciled by anything we can do. But the man doesn’t reach that conclusion. Rather, this man asks for a clarification, “Which ones?“
So, “Jesus said, ‘You shall not murder,’ ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ ‘You shall not steal,’ ‘You shall not bear false witness,’ ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’” (Matt. 19:18b). Jesus gave this man six simple commands. Five of them come from what we call “The Ten Commandments” straight out of Exodus 20 or Deuteronomy 5. The last one comes from Leviticus 18 as a summation of the law. Four of them are prohibitions: things not to do. Two of them are positive commands: things to do. I believe that Jesus could have easily chosen other commandments. It’s not like Jesus was saying man must keep only these six. These commands are by no means exhaustive of the ones that you need to keep to inherit eternal life. But, they are certainly sufficient for this man to have seen how he failed to keep them.
Jesus told the man what he had asked to know. He wanted to know what good thing he himself had to do in order to inherit eternal life, and Jesus pointed him to God’s good law. Do this and you will live.
The man’s problem is that he didn’t recognize how high the standard of goodness is. It’s beyond human achievement. Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount, “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” (Matt. 5:20), and “Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” (Matt. 5:48).
For us, knowing God’s righteous standard of perfection, what the man says in response sounds absolutely ridiculous to us. Matthew 19:20 says, “The young man said to him, ‘All these things I have kept from my youth’” How in the world can this man profess to have kept all of these commandments? With what we know of Jesus’ teaching, it seems quite absurd for him to make such a bold statement, “All these things I have kept.”
Jesus said, “You shall not commit murder”. I doubt that any of us in this room have killed anybody. Yet, Jesus demonstrated in His Sermon on the Mount how we ought to take these words. He said that hatred in the heart is murder. “But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca!’ shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall be in danger of hell fire.” (Matt. 5:22).
Jesus also said, “You shall not commit adultery“. I don’t know if anybody in this room is guilty of adultery. But, again, Jesus said that adultery is more than the physical act. We need to get to the heart. Jesus said that lust in the heart is adultery. “But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matt. 5:28).
“You shall not steal”. It means you shall take nothing that isn’t yours. That includes everything that you have ever borrowed and not returned. That includes everything that is copyrighted. That includes even the smallest paperclip. That includes the creative accounting you do on your taxes.
“You shall not bear false witness”. In other words, you shall not lie. Every word from your mouth should be true. You have never spoken about somebody else in a wrong way.
“Honor your father and mother“. Speak well of your parents. Never do anything that would bring shame to them. Obey them in every instance. Serve them always with gladness.
“You shall love your neighbor as yourself“. Your words and actions toward your neighbor should be just like you want them to do to you. If they ever request that you do something for them, you are to be willing to do it quickly and with a cheerful heart. If they are in need, you gladly give to them what was yours.
Yet this man says, “All these things I have kept.” Really, it’s not so surprising when we consider the thinking of the Jews in Jesus’ day. Think about Saul of Tarsus before he became the apostle Paul. When it came to religion, Saul was as righteous as they came. Remember in Philippians 3, when Paul wrote that “concerning the righteousness which is in the law,” he was “blameless” (Phil. 3:6). He kept all of the ceremonies and rituals. He obeyed all of the commands. He had a good upbringing. He grew up in the synagogue. He learned the torah as a little boy, memorizing much of it. He constantly attended Sabbath services. He celebrated his Bar Mitzvah at age 13. Now, as a young man, the Lord had blessed him. In the Jewish world at the time of Jesus, a man’s material blessing was often considered a visible demonstration of a man’s righteousness. He was recognized as a ruler. The reason Paul and this rich young ruler could say such things is because the Jews focused their attention completely on the external righteousness of the law.
This leads us to the crucial question in our passage . . .
3. What Do I Still Lack? (Matt. 19:20-22).
The man looked at his life and saw his effort to keep the law, and yet knew—deep within himself—that he still did not have peace with God. He knew that he still had not succeeded in “doing” the good things that he must “do” in order to inherit eternal life. And so he asked, “What is still missing, O good Teacher? Where have I fallen short in doing all that needed to be done? Why do I still have that nagging emptiness inside that tells me that I have not yet achieved the right to claim eternal life to myself?”
This must happen when people are focused upon the externals of all of the commandments that they are trying to keep. They will always be looking to do more. They will never feel like they have done enough. If you are depending on your goodness to be acceptable before God, ask yourself, “How do I know when it’s enough?” Those focused on their external obedience will always be discontent like this man was.
I believe that Jesus Himself knew that He was not dealing with some hard-hearted rebel. He knew the man’s desperation of heart. In fact, in Mark’s Gospel, we’re told that at this point, “Jesus, looking at him, loved him . . .” (Mark 10:21). And in love, Jesus showed the man what was still wrong. He put His finger on the real problem when He laid a challenge to the man.
Jesus said to him, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions (Matt. 19:21-22).
With these simple words, Jesus puts His finger on this man’s heart. He was a moral man. I’m sure that he did many good things, and perhaps Jesus would not object to that claim. Perhaps the man even gave quite a bit of his income to help out his local synagogue. But he was a sinful man. And Jesus pointed out this man’s sin. He loved this world. He loved the things of this world. In Matthew 19:22, we read that this man “heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.”
I don’t believe that Jesus was actually meaning to be understood to say that, if anyone wants to inherit eternal life, they must do what He was telling this man to do. Rather, Jesus was tailoring His challenge in such a way as to reveal the fact that the man could not—in any way—“do” the good things that he would need to do to inherit eternal life.
Think of what Jesus had told the man before. He had told him what he already knew. He told him that he needed to keep diligently the second table of the law—that is, the last six commandments that have to do with our relationship with our fellow man. Jesus even summed it up through the commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Lev. 19:18).
But do you notice what Jesus had not said to the man up to this point? Do you notice that He didn’t yet mention the first table of the law—that is, first four commandments? Elsewhere, He summarizes the first four commandments with the quote from Deuteronomy 6:5; “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:36-37).
And so, when Jesus tells this wealthy young ruler to sell what he has, give the money to the poor, and then follow Him, He is putting his finger on that which the man loved more than God. He loved his success and wealth so much that he was breaking the first commandment in which God says, “You shall have no other gods before Me” (Exodus 20:3). The man had worked all his life to keep the law; and to his horror, he discovered that he’d been breaking it all along. He stood guilty before God as a sinner. That’s why he went away grieved; “for he had great possessions”.
In the sermon on the mount, Jesus made it clear, “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon” (Matt. 6:24). And this man was unwilling to give up his mammon god. So, he left without Jesus. He left grieved. He didn’t get what he wanted, because he wasn’t willing to let go of what we really wanted. For him, his money was more important than Christ. He was unwilling to submit Himself to the sovereign Lord of the universe. But, Jesus won’t accept partial submission. Jesus demands your all.
Before Paul found Christ, he thought himself to be completely righteous. He didn’t see his sin. But, in Romans 7, Paul described how the law convicted him of sin. He said, “I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, “You shall not covet.” But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire.” (Romans 7:7-8). Paul, although he was perhaps not as wealthy as this rich young ruler, was being convicted of his immense love for things. He was convicted of his sin of coveting things which means to want things you do not have.
But Paul unlike this rich young ruler, once Paul met Jesus, he didn’t cling to his possessions. Instead, he willingly let them go. In Philippians 3, we hear Paul’s own testimony: ” But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith” (Phil. 3:7-9).
This is Christianity: counting everything to be loss for the sake of Christ. There is nothing that ought to hold you back from embracing Christ. When Jesus called people to follow Him, He said, ” If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me” (Matt. 16:24). This is a life of faith—complete self-abandonment for the sake of knowing and following Christ. Jesus said, ” For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it” (Matt. 16:25).
This man wasn’t willing to depart with his possessions. This man wasn’t willing to forsake all and follow Christ. Jesus wasn’t willing to accept a half-hearted convert. He only accepts those who humble themselves as little children. He accepts those who have no status to depend on, no good works to commend them, no achievements to boast in. He accepts sinners who are poor in spirit, recognizing their own bankruptcy before God.
Perhaps one of the most penetrating statements that Jesus ever made concerning these things is found in Luke 14:33, ” So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.” It’s a pretty definitive, all-encompassing statement: no one of you can be My disciple who does forsake all that he has.
Now, I don’t believe that everyone needs to go around and sell everything that they own, to follow Jesus. This idea is absurd because the money you’d obtain from the sale would be given to other Christians for the sake of the kingdom. But these Christians would then need to give it to others Christians, as they need to give up their possessions. It’s like a game of hot-potato—you don’t want to be the one who ends up with the money in hand when Christ returns. Rather, these words mean that you need to hold these things with such a loose grip, that you are always willing to depart with your possessions.
There is a hymn in our hymnal that we have sung on several occasions. It is called, “I Surrender All.”
All to Jesus, I surrender, all to Him I freely give;
I will ever love and trust Him, in His presence daily live.
Another verse of that song not found in our hymnal is:
All to Jesus I surrender, Humbly at His feet I bow;
Worldly pleasures all forsaken, Take me, Jesus, take me now.
Do you feel like you are still lacking eternal life? What would Jesus tell you? Would He counsel you to give up your possessions, as He did for this man? Or, is there some other issue in your life that Jesus would address? Would Jesus address you with some sin that you simply haven’t been willing to forsake?
Are you trying to “earn” God’s favor with your good works? Have you worked hard all your life to be “a good person”? Would Jesus then say to you, “If you want to be perfect, then go into obscurity and serve your fellow man in a menial way. Give up the attention and reputation that you love. And come and follow Me”? Or, might He say, “If you want to be perfect, then give up your pride. Take My cause up as your own, and be willing to be despised by this world. Then, come and follow Me”? Might He even say, “If you want to be perfect, then give up your independent spirit. Remove yourself from the driver’s seat of your life, and allow Me to have control. Let me lead you where I want you to go—rather than where you want to go—and then come and follow Me”?
What is the “god” you place in your life before the one true God? What would Jesus show you to prove that you cannot earn your salvation on the basis of what “good thing” you might “do”? How might He reveal that you have not kept the first great commandment?
—————————————————————————–
[1] Craig Blomberg, Matthew, vol. 22, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1992), 296.
[2] Grant Osborne, Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament: Matthew, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, MI, p. 715.
