“Who Then Can Be Saved?”
(Mark 10:17-27 – Pentecost 21 – October 13, 2024)
Mark 10:17-27 – 17Now as He was going out on the road, one came running, knelt before Him, and asked Him, “Good Teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?” 18So Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. 19You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery,’ ‘Do not murder,’ ‘Do not steal,’ ‘Do not bear false witness,’ ‘Do not defraud,’ ‘Honor your father and your mother.’” 20And he answered and said to Him, “Teacher, all these things I have kept from my youth.” 21Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow Me.” 22But he was sad at this word, and went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. 23Then Jesus looked around and said to His disciples, “How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God!” 24And the disciples were astonished at His words. But Jesus answered again and said to them, “Children, how hard it is for those who trust in riches to enter the kingdom of God! 25It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” 26And they were greatly astonished, saying among themselves, “Who then can be saved?” 27But Jesus looked at them and said, “With men it is impossible, but not with God; for with God all things are possible.”
Dear Redeemed by the grace of God and our Savior Jesus Christ, who alone is good:
In this world, often reward is based on merit. If you obey your parents and do as you are told, you may be rewarded with a gift or a special privilege. If you get good grades in school, you may be rewarded with scholarships and get into a good college. If you do a good job at work, you may be rewarded with a raise or a promotion.
Many people carry this idea into spiritual matters. The young man in our text was thinking of a merit system when he asked Jesus: “Good Teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?” (vs. 17). But Jesus’ answer shows that if it depended on merit, not even the best life we could live would make us worthy of heaven. If it depended on our sin-corrupted works, all of us would be lost.
By the end of our text, we hear the disciples asking: “Who Then Can Be Saved?” What is Jesus’ answer? 1) With men it is impossible, 2) But with God all things are possible. What we cannot do to save ourselves from sin, death, and judgment, God has done by the merits of His Son Jesus, who lived the perfect life for us and died for our sins that we might be saved for eternal life.
1) With men it is impossible
When this young man ran to Jesus, knelt and asked, “Good Teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?” (vs. 17), he was pretty sure there was something he must do, and could do, to earn heaven. This proud sense of merit in eternal matters seemed to find confirmation in the good life he felt he had lived. We are told he was rich (vs. 22). Luke’s account says he was a ruler (Luke 18:18). Surely, he did not get this far in life by being a slacker; he was respected by men for his hard work and rewarded for his merits. All he wanted now was the confirmation of God. He looked to Jesus, not as the Savior of poor miserable sinners, but as a “Good Teacher.” He looked to Jesus to teach what laws he must obey to merit eternal life with God.
If he wanted to try to be justified before God based on his obedience, he must know what it required. Jesus began to spell out the strict demands of the Law: “You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery,’ ‘Do not murder,’ ‘Do not steal,’ ‘Do not bear false witness,’ ‘Do not defraud,’ ‘Honor your father and your mother.’” The man answered proudly: “Teacher, all these things I have kept from my youth” (vs. 19-20).
When it comes to God’s Law, it is natural for us to have that same proud opinion. We want to make His Commandments into something convenient to obey. A person may point to whatever outward evidence he chooses and boast: “I haven’t murdered anyone, I haven’t had sex outside of marriage, I haven’t stolen what was not mine, I haven’t lied in court, I’m not like crass criminals and sinners out there; I live by the Golden Rule and do others as I would have done to me.”
But this is to lower the standards of God’s Law. As Jesus taught, just by harboring anger and hatred against someone, we commit murder in the heart (Matthew 5:21). Just by entertaining a lustful look, we commit adultery in the heart (Matthew 5:28). In fact, outward behaviors are but a tip of the iceberg when it comes to sin. Jesus pointed to the greater problem in the sinful condition of the heart: “For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man” (Matthew 15:19-20).
Like this man, it is possible to go through life praised from our youth as honorable children in the home, and as law-abiding citizens in society. And as we hear the praise and see the rewards, it is easy to think this is proof of our standing before God.
But what is the standard of His Law? It does not say, “Do your best. It says: “Be holy,” “Be perfect” (Leviticus 19:2; Matthew 5:48) – sinless in every thought, word, and deed. And if we fail but once, it says: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them” (Galatians 3:10).
As this young man boasted in himself, Jesus could not leave him in his proud delusion. He spoke the truth in love to show him how it was impossible as a sinner to be saved by his own merit. He showed how he had not in fact kept the Law in every way: “Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, ‘One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow Me.’ But he was sad at this word, and went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions” (vs. 21-22).
What was the one thing he lacked? Putting God first in his life. Despite all outward appearances of serving God, he was making a god of his wealth and riches. By this idolatry, he was breaking the very First Commandment: “You shall have no other gods before Me” (Exodus 20:3). And in breaking this, he was guilty of all!
As this man left in sorrow, Jesus said: “Children, how hard it is for those who trust in riches to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God” (vs. 24-25). It is hard to tell one who thinks he has it all that he lacks what he truly needs for life. It is hard to tell one who thinks he has done it all for God that he is perishing in his sin.
As Jesus spoke the truth in love to this proud rich man, the Law did its necessary work. It led this man to see what he lacked as a poor, beggarly sinner with nothing to offer to God. It cut him to the heart with sorrow. But what Jesus wanted above all was that this man should take to heart His Gospel and kneel in repentance and faith before Him as the Savior of sinners. Jesus wanted to share with him the riches of His grace and forgiveness. He wanted him to have the inheritance of eternal life God gives freely, apart from works, simply through faith in the saving merits of His Son.
Dear beloved of God in Christ: Jesus has come into the world, not just as a Good Teacher to show us how to live, but as the gracious Savior of sinners. He has come, not to save those who can boast in the richness of their own life, but to save poor beggarly sinners who have nothing to bring to God. Despite the best life we can live, the Law will always say: “One thing you lack.” But Jesus has come to preach the Good News to us poor sinners. It is the Gospel in which God declares us forgiven, blessed heirs of eternal life, through the perfect work and merit of His Son for us. So we are taught to sing in the hymn (The Law Commands and Makes us Know):
What curses doth the Law denounce Against the man that fails but once!
But in the Gospel Christ appears, Pard’ning the guilt of num’rous years.
My soul, no more attempt to draw Thy life and comfort from the Law.
Fly to the hope the Gospel gives; The man that trusts the promise lives.
2) With God all things are possible
As the disciples listened, each knew his own sinful shortcomings and asked with astonishment: “Who then can be saved?” Jesus replied: “With men it is impossible, but not with God; for with God all things are possible” (vs. 26-27). Here, as we are led to confess our helpless condition as sinners, Jesus leads us to put our hope in the immeasurably great things God has done to save us.
In the first place, as God looked down from heaven on our fallen condition, in His infinite grace and mercy He determined not to treat us as our sins deserved, but to send His own Son to do everything it would take to save us. “When the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law” (Galatians 4:4-5). The eternal Son of God became the Son of Man so He could live under the Law and fulfill it all for us. Jesus is the only one could ever say of God’s Commandments: “all these things I have kept from my youth” (vs. 20). He did what was impossible for us as our Substitute. Now for Jesus’ sake, God looks on you and me and says: “I count My Son’s perfect life to you. In Christ, I count you holy, without sin in thought, word, and deed.”
God did not stop there. He did what was impossible for men in taking away the sins of the whole world. No man can redeem his brother, let alone himself; the cost is infinitely greater than we could imagine (Psalm 49:7-8). Not all the silver and gold of this world offered to God, not all our greatest sacrifices, not even our own life, could remove a single sin. But what was impossible for us, God did. He made the all-sufficient sacrifice in the precious blood of Christ, as of a Lamb without blemish (1 Peter 1:18-19). On the cross, Jesus suffered the wages of our sin in His death. Now in the name of our risen Savior, God declares us forgiven all sin: forgiven every way we were ever found lacking, forgiven every sin in thought, word, and deed.
Finally, God did what was impossible for us in giving us the faith to receive this wonderful gift. We could not by our own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ our Lord or come to Him. But the Holy Ghost called us by the Gospel and worked saving faith in our hearts. We were baptized in the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit and given the new birth as God’s children. Therefore in Christ, God has given us the inheritance of eternal life (Titus 3:4-7).
“Who then can be saved?” Thanks be to God: it does not depend on our merit, or what we do for Him. The God of all grace has done the impossible for us. He has made salvation and eternal life ours, through the finished work and merits of Christ. And for all this, with thankful hearts we say: Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be. Amen.