Jesus and the Rich Young Ruler (Luke 18:18-23 and Mark 10:17-27)

The account of Jesus and the rich young ruler is sobering (Luke 18:18-23 and Mark 10:17-27). The rich young ruler looks zealous, humble, and sincerely interested in spiritual matters. But he was willing to walk away from Jesus because earthly wealth meant more to him than heavenly wealth.Show more

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00:00 Jesus and the Rich Young Ruler (Luke 18:18-25)
11:25 Lesson One: We would be justified by the law if we kept it perfectly.
14:50 Lesson Two: We must be justified by faith because we can’t keep the law perfectly.
22:31 Lesson Three: The rich young ruler is the opposite of little children.
25:07 Lesson Four: Following Jesus requires repentance.
33:06 Lesson Five: Jesus isn’t chasing us down.
39:28 Lesson Six: Riches can choke Jesus out of our lives.

Luke 18:18 And a ruler asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

The parallel account in Mark 10:17 says, “As [Jesus] was setting out on his journey, [the rich young ruler] RAN UP and KNELT BEFORE HIM.” The rich young ruler sounds:

zealous: he ran up to Jesus.
humble: he knelt before him.
respectful: he called him Good Teacher and seems to think highly of him
sincerely interested in spiritual matters: he asked one of the most important questions we can ask: What must I do to inherit eternal life?” He believes in God and he wants to go to heaven.
Jesus responded…

Luke 18:19 And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.

Jesus isn’t saying he isn’t good, and he isn’t saying he isn’t God. Instead, He’s saying there’s only One who is good and that’s God. If the rich young ruler calls Jesus good, he must also recognize he is God. Or another way to say it is, if the rich young ruler doesn’t recognize that Jesus is God, he shouldn’t be calling him good.

Luke 18:20a You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery,

The seventh commandment.

Luke 18:20b Do not murder,

The sixth commandment.

Luke 18:20c Do not steal,

The eighth commandment.

Luke 18:20d Do not bear false witness,

The ninth commandment.

Luke 18:20e Honor your father and mother.’”

The fifth commandment. Apparently, when you’re Jesus, you can put the commandments in whatever order you want!

Why Didn’t Jesus Preach the Gospel to the Rich Young Ruler?
If you weren’t familiar with this account, or in other words, if you didn’t already know how Jesus answered the rich young ruler’s question about inheriting eternal life, what would you expect Jesus to say? What would you say if someone asked you about inheriting eternal life?

“Repent and believe!”

Our minds can go to Paul and Silas receiving this question from the Philippian jailer…

Acts 16:30 [the Philippian jailer] said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” 31 [Paul and Silas] said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.”

So, why did Jesus respond this way? Was he describing another way to be saved? I’m not trying to sound irreverent, but did he forget the gospel? And believe it or not, this isn’t even the only place Jesus responded this way! This account has similarities with the lawyer who tested Jesus.

Luke 10:25 And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”

The similarity between the lawyer and the rich young ruler is they both asked the same good question: “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” The difference is they had completely different motives:

The rich young ruler asked to learn.
The lawyer asked to put [Jesus] to the test. He wanted to trap him and make him look bad.
Not Courtroom Lawyers
When you read about lawyers, don’t think of courtrooms. Instead, think of the way lawyers in our day study the law for a living, and the lawyers in Jesus’s day studied the Mosaic Law for a living. Even priests and Levites didn’t know the law as well as them because they spent so much of their time performing sacrifices and serving in the temple.

The NIV and amplified Bibles say “expert in the law” versus lawyer. In the NKJV and NASB there’s a footnote that says lawyer could also be translated as “expert in the law.” If anyone who...

Read the rest of the blog post: https://www.scottlapierre.org/jesus-and-the-rich-young-ruler/