How Does One Get To Heaven

“How Does One Get To Heaven?”

Luke 18:15-27

So how does one get right with God? How does one get to Heaven? Previously in Luke chapter eighteen, Jesus has just told the Parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, in which the two prayers of the two men represent two contrasting views of how to approach God; one on the basis of supposed good works and the other on the basis of God’s grace. And now is followed by another contrast, this time between a child who received Jesus just the way He offers and a wealthy adult who wanted to come to Jesus on his own terms. In verse fifteen we read, “Then they also brought infants to Him that He might touch them; but when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. 16 But Jesus called them to Him and said, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of God. 17 Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it.”

Remember in verse seventeen, the Lord is still dealing with the subject of how one gets into the Kingdom of Heaven, Jesus now makes a jarring declaration, “Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it." In this verse He sets forth the truth that for one to be saved one must recognize their total helplessness, and a corresponding dependence on God.

The young man that we are about to be intro-duced to may have the distinction of being the only man recorded in the Gospels who came to the feet of Jesus and went away in worse condition than when he came. He came to the right person, asked the right question and received the right answer, but made the wrong decision.

In verse eighteen we read, “Now a certain ruler asked Him, saying, "Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" Here we are introduced to the story of what has come to be known as “the rich young ruler.” All the Gospel accounts must be considered to get the complete picture. Mark says he is rich (Mk. 10:22 “had great possessions”). Matthew says that he is “young”

(Matt 19:20 – using a Greek word (neaniskos) that means less than 40 yrs. of age), and Luke says he is a “ruler”, a man of considerable influence.

Jesus immediately probes the motive of this man’s statement in verse nineteen. “So Jesus said to him, "Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. Some critics quote this verse to say that Jesus was denying that He was God. However, I believe just the opposite Jesus was pressing the man to take this statement to its logi-cal conclusion. Jesus wanted this young man to face the hard facts that there are only two possi-bilities, “If you want to call me good, you must be willing to call me God. If you won’t call me God, then you can’t call me good!” Jesus wanted this man to think about what he had just said. Is this mere flattery, or does he really believe that Jesus is God?

Jesus now turns to him and in verse twenty says, “You know the command-ments: 'Do not commit adultery,' 'Do not murder,' 'Do not steal,' 'Do not bear false witness,' 'Honor your father and your mother.'" (21) And he said, "All these I have kept from my youth."

When Jesus reminded this young man of God’s commandments, He in effect responded by saying, “Been there. Done that!” It seems incredible to us that anyone would claim, as this young man did, to have kept all the commandments perfectly. He, like so many others, did not understand that keeping the command-ments was a matter of the heart, not mere outward actions. He saw himself as a basically good person. There are a lot of people in this world who are counting on their goodness to get them a place in Heaven.

I want you to notice with four things that we learn from the rich young ruler.

First, His View Of His Goodness Was Super-ficial And Empty.

There are still individuals today who think that they are keeping the Ten Commandments. Perhaps you are one of those persons.

If that is what you think, then I want you to do a little experiment with me. I am going to list the Ten Commandments for you and I want you to count off the ones you have never broken. Then at the end I want you to tally up the ones you have never broken and let’s see how good you have been.