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Chapter 52 “What lack I
yet?” “And,
behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do,
that I may have eternal life? And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good?
there is none good but one, that is,
God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. He saith unto
him, Which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit
adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear
false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love
thy neighbour as thyself. The young man saith unto him, All these things have
I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet? Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt
be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou
shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me. But when the
young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great
possessions. Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, That
a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. And again I say
unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than
for a rich man to enter into the Here is a man who was anxious about his soul and concerned about eternal life. Such men are rare. He was rich; but he was concerned about his soul. He was young; but he was interested in eternity. He was a ruler of men; but he came to be taught by the Lord Jesus Christ. This rich young ruler came running up to Christ, and said, “Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?” Our Lord knew the man’s heart. He knew that this young man was thoroughly familiar with the law of Moses. And he knew that the young man thought, like most people do, that eternal life could be gained by outward morality, by obedience to the law. Therefore, he answered this young man according to the law. He told him to keep the commandments. The rich young ruler responded, “All these things have I kept from my youth up.” Then he asked, “What lack I yet?” Perhaps
some who read these lines ask the same question in their own minds, “What lack I yet?” You are very moral, and respectable in the eyes
of men. You believe in God. You
believe the Bible is the Word
of God. And you believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ. You believe that he is God. You believe in his death,
burial, and resurrection as the sinner’s Substitute. You even know that Jesus
Christ the Lord is the sinner’s only hope of salvation before God. Yet, for
all that, you know that you are not a child of God, a saved sinner, and an
heir to eternal life. Knowing all these things the question of great concern
in your heart is just this — “What lack I yet?” Many very moral and religious people yet lack that one thing which is essential to eternal life. They lack faith in Christ. There are three questions raised in this passage of Scripture that I want to answer from the Word of God. 1. “What good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?” (v. 16). The rich young ruler asked our Savior this question.
Looking at the question by itself, it
appears to be a very noble one, one that we all should ask. We find
this question many times in the Scriptures. Those who asked it became saved men. They were given eternal
life. On the day of Pentecost, a large number of men, after they heard the gospel
message, were pricked in their hearts, and they cried, “Men and brethren, What shall we do?” The Philippian jailor, with a broken
and submissive heart cried, “Sirs, what
must I do to be saved?” But
when this rich young ruler asked the question, his heart was not broken with
conviction. His soul was not humbled with a sense of sin. He was a terribly
proud, self-righteous man. He felt that he was sufficient in himself to meet whatever
requirements God himself might demand of him. In essence, he was saying to the Lord, “You tell me what God
requires, and I will do it!” He had a zeal for righteousness; but going about
to establish his own righteousness he had not submitted himself to the
righteousness of God ( There
is much about this young man that is commendable. He was not a base, profligate
rebel. He was moral, religious, and devout. He had been a respectful and
obedient son to his parents. He was a good husband, a good father, a good
provider for his family. He was a hardworking, honest man, who had acquired
much wealth. He was a good neighbor, a respected community leader. In
a day of abounding unbelief he came to Christ of his own accord. He came, not
to have some disease healed, not to plead for a helpless child, not to see
some great miracle, but out of concern for his immortal soul. He was earnest and sincere. Mark tells us that he came running to
Christ. He was orthodox in his creed.
He was a religious leader. He believed in God. He believed the Holy Scriptures. He believed in the reality
of eternal life. He was very strict and devoted in his practice
of religion. Since the days of his youth, he had outwardly kept the law of
God. His life was meticulously moral and precise. He even worshipped Christ. Again, Mark tells
us that when he came to Christ, he kneeled down before him. Like Nicodemus,
this young man realized that Jesus Christ was a teacher come from God. He
seems even to have acknowledged our Lord’s deity. When the Lord Jesus
asserted that no man is good, but God only, the young ruler did not withdraw
his statement. He seems to have acknowledged that Christ is God. Yet,
this young man demonstrated two very sorrowful characteristics. Two things about this rich young
ruler’s character show us that he was a lost, ruined, unregenerate man. First, he was ignorant of all spiritual truth. He knew much in a natural
sense, but spiritually, regarding spiritual things, he was as ignorant as a
man who had never heard of God. He was ignorant of God’s holy character. He was ignorant of his own sinfulness. He was ignorant of the law’s spiritual nature. He obviously thought that the law
only required outward obedience. And he was altogether ignorant of the gospel of Christ (Eph. 2:8-9). Second, the rich young ruler was, as I
have already stated, dreadfully
self-righteous. Beware of self-righteousness! No sin is more deadly, and more likely to keep you from Christ than
the sin of self-righteousness. And no sin is more common to man. All men, by nature, are self-righteous. It is the family
disease of all the sons of Adam. From the heights to the depths of society,
we all think more highly of ourselves than we should. We secretly flatter ourselves that we are not so
bad as some, and that we have something that will recommend us to the favor
of God. The wise man said, “Most men will proclaim everyone his own
goodness.” We forget the plain
testimony of Holy Scripture. — “In many things we offend all” (James
3:2). “There is not a man upon the earth, that doeth good and sinneth not”
(Eccles. Ever since man became
a sinner, he has been self-righteous. When man had a perfect righteousness before
God, he did not glory in it or cherish it. But ever since the fall, when we
lost all righteousness, man has pretended to be righteous. Immediately after
his fall, Adam wrapped himself a fig leaf apron and began to defend himself
by blaming his troubles on God who gave to him the woman, and the woman for
giving him the fruit. As it was with Adam, so
it is with us all. We justify ourselves before God and men. Self-righteousness
is born within us. While we can, to a degree, control our lusts and wicked
behavior, our self-righteousness will not allow us to confess our sins and
come to God for mercy as guilty sinners. Millions of sermons have been
preached against self-righteousness, but it remains the number one sin that
keeps men from coming to Christ. One old preacher said, “I scarcely
ever preach a sermon without condemning self-righteousness, yet I find I
cannot preach it down. Men still boast of who they are, what they have done,
what they have not done, and mistake the road to heaven to be one paved by
their own works and merit.” God help us! Our
Lord Jesus answered this man’s question plainly. He asked what he could do to win
God’s favor; and The Savior told him. “If you want salvation by human merit,
you must keep the law. As far as he understood the law, in its outward
requirement, he had kept it. He was like Saul of Tarsus, “as touching the law, blameless.” But he was not all that he thought he was. He
did not, in reality, love his neighbor as himself. The law must be kept
perfectly. It must be kept in all points. It must be kept at all times. It
must be kept outwardly. And it must be kept inwardly. God never
intended the law to be a basis of salvation. Its design is to show man God’s
holy character and his own condemnation and guilt. Nothing else. But those
who attempt to obtain righteousness by the works of the law do not understand
what the law requires. It requires perfect, complete obedience (Gal. 2.
“What lack I yet?” (v. 20) Though our Savior answered the rich young ruler’s question
so plainly that he should have been convinced of his inability to produce righteousness
for himself, his pride and self-righteousness compelled him to press the
matter further. He asked the Master, “What lack I yet?” Who would
dare be so bold? The man must be either mad or blind. Yet, this man, like
most, was very confident that he was righteous. He appears to be saying, “If there is any deficiency in me, I
do not know what it could be. I have done all that God requires of a man.” He
did appear to lack very little. If a modern soul-winner could find a young man like this,
he would have him under the water, dried off, and in the pulpit in no time.
But the Lord Jesus was not trying to get another decision to put on his
promotional charts as a “soul winning evangelist”. He labored for the souls
of men, not their applause. He was both compassionate and honest. Therefore,
he showed the young man exactly what he lacked. He was not lacking in
morality, religious duty, orthodoxy, sincerity, or zeal. But he was lacking one essential thing. He
had no faith in Christ. “Jesus beholding him loved him, and said
unto him, One thing thou lackest” (Mark Our Lord
commanded this young man to surrender
to his authority as his Lord. – “Go
and sell all that thou hast, and give to the poor.” He commanded the man
to trust him. He said, “Come.” Coming to Christ is an act of
faith. “He that cometh to God must
believe that he is, and that he is the Rewarder of
them that diligently seek him.” Mark adds the words “Take up thy cross.” That is to say, our Lord commanded the man to
confess him. And he commanded
this young man to obey him. He
said, “Follow me.” These are the
things which our Lord requires of all his people: submission, faith,
confession, and obedience. The
Lord had a good reason for giving this command to this particular man. He was probing at his heart. He
wanted to expose his point of rebellion. He was determined to show this young
man exactly what he was lacking. God always meets the sinner at his point of
rebellion. This man’s money was his
god. Therefore, the Master commanded him to give it away. This command
was designed to expose the evil of
his heart, destroy his self-confidence and pride, show him the impossibility of salvation by the works
of the law, and to show him the
necessity of the gospel. By this one, pointed command, our Savior
stripped away the fig leaves of the rich young ruler’s self-righteousness,
exposed the foolishness of his pride, and showed him his need of the grace of
God and his need of a Substitute. The
rich young ruler’s one fatal deficiency was a deficiency of the heart. Like Simon Magus, his heart was
not right in the sight of God. He was yet unregenerate. He was in the gall of
bitterness and in the bond of iniquity. His heart was not broken. His Spirit
was not humbled. He would not surrender to Christ as Lord. God met him at his
point of rebellion, and he would not bow. He would not come to Christ,
trusting him alone for salvation. He would not confess Christ to be Lord. He
would not obey the Son of God. Are
you like this young man? If so, our Savior’s words to him must be addressed
to you, “one thing thou lackest.” You have one fatal deficiency.
Your heart is not right before God. If ever you are saved, your heart must be
broken (Ps. 51:17; Isa. 66:2). And the only way
your heart will ever be broken is if God is pleased to reveal himself to you
in the fulness of his grace and glory in Christ (Zech. 3.
“Who then can be saved?” (v. 25) When the disciples saw and heard these things, they were
astonished, and cried – “Who then can be saved?” Our
Lord gives us a plain answer to that question. “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible”
(v. 26). Salvation is not a
work of man. It is not, in any way, or to any degree, dependent upon or
determined by man (John With men
salvation is impossible, “but with God
all things are possible.” Salvation
is accomplished entirely by his omnipotent, effectual, irresistible
grace (Ps. 65:4). If ever the almighty God puts his hand upon a sinner, that
sinner will be saved. “Who
then can be saved?” Let me tell you who can, who will, who must be
saved. All who are redeemed by the blood of Christ, all who are born-again by
God the Holy Spirit, all who are called by almighty grace, all who come to
Christ must and shall be saved. The Lord Jesus Christ has declared, and it
shall never be reversed, “All that the
Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no
wise cast out” (John Come
to Christ, no matter who you are, no matter how vile your transgressions are,
and he promises that he will receive you just as you are, and that he will
never cast you out, that he will give you eternal life, that you shall never perish.
Come, then, to Christ without any preparations to make yourself worthy of
coming, without making change to qualify you for acceptance. Come to Christ
without delay. Sinner, come and welcome! The Savior’s word is, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and
lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light”
(Matthew
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