The Rich Young Man

I just was reading Chapter 19 in Matthew and came to the story of the rich young man. I have always loved this bible story. You can see the parallels in Mark 10 and in Luke 18.

What is the few points of these story? Well, the story goes on to talk about the rich, the wealthy. Jesus said that "only with difficulty will a rich person enter into the Kingdom of Heaven". So, is this story all about the rich? I don't think so. This story goes on to the disciples question "Who then can be saved?". Jesus replies with "With man it is impossible, but with God all things are possible."

I believe the top keys to this story is this: 1) God saves and 2) its a heart issue, not about our sacrifice.

1) Matthew 19:25-26 shows that the only way people are saved is by God, GOD SAVES! We can not save ourselves and would fail if it was an option. God works in the hearts of His children and shows Himself to them. We then drop to our knees, mourn over our sin, repent of our ways and by the strength of God live a God glorifying, Christ exalting life. The problem with the rich young man, like most of the world, is that he did not want to give up the things of this world, primarily his riches, to follow Christ....which leads us to #2

2) Salvation is a heart issue, its a heart transplant.....the heart of rock taken out and God's heart of flesh put in. The rich young ruler was trying to "work" his way to heaven, to "do" all the right things. He sacrificed living like the world to live a "nicer" life with the hope to get to heaven. Jesus sees his heart issue, greed and money, and Jesus attacks that with telling him to sell all that he has and give it to the poor. This was something he could not do because he still had the heart of stone, he was still of the world and he could not work his way to heaven.

I used to be like that. I thought I could be a good person, go to church, run a youth group and say all the right things to get to heaven. I thought that was the road to heaven.....to be obedient and "look" good. As God worked in my heart of stone, He allowed me to see the problems with that and that I was not truly living for God as the Bible calls us to do. I had never denied myself, I had never counted the cost......I just tried to be good. It was not going to get me to heaven.

BUT

"God being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us (ME), even when we (I) were (WAS) dead in our (MY) trespasses, made us (ME) alive together with Christ - by grace you (I) have been saved - and raise us (ME) up with him and seated us (ME) with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus"
Ephesians 2:4-6    (I personalized it in the parentheses)

God saved me, showed me Himself, and gave me a new heart! I saw my sin as the ugliness it was, hated it so much and was so repulsed by it. I repented and turned to God. To this day I still see my sin and ugliness, hate it more than ever and still repent daily of the sin in my life to my God and Father.

Let us give God all the glory of the work He does in the lives of His Children. We are saved BY God and the issue is a heart issue....is it stone or of flesh?

If you are reading this and in my description of my early life you felt like that is you.....please search the scriptures for the truth, contact me to talk with and pray with. Plead with God to show you himself......He is faithful and will.

For the Glory of God!

Chris