Loved But Lost Series

This is the story of the rich young ruler who, unlike the rich old ruler, Nicodemus, did not come to

Jesus by night, but came to Him publicly in the daytime. All three of the synoptic Gospels tell the

story, and each add something extra to the total picture. Matthew tells us he was young. Luke tells

us that he was a ruler, and all three tell us that he was rich. Riches are stressed because it was not

his youth or his position, but his possessions that played the major role in his great refusal. We want

to look at his experience in three stages.

I. THE SEEKERS DESIRE. v.17.

Jesus was about to set out on His last journey to Jerusalem, and almost as if He knew this night

would be His last chance, a young man ran up to Jesus, knelt before Him and asked what he must do

to inherit eternal life? Now that is a significant question for anybody to ask, but it is even more

significant in the light of the fact that this young man was a ruler in the synagogue, and was very

rich. He had power, position, popularity, and possessions, plus a pure life, and was no doubt a

perfect picture of spiritual success according to all the standards of contemporary Judaism. Yet, we

see him running to Jesus before He gets away, and asking what he must do to have eternal life.

Where could we find greater evidence of the truth that by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be

justified? This young man had heard Jesus speak of the life he came to give, and he was honest

enough to admit that he had a desire for such life, and an empty spot in his life that nothing else had

been able to fill. The degree of his desire is not only revealed in the fact that he ran, but in the fact

that he came to Jesus openly when the Pharisees had threatened to excommunicate from the

synagogue all who followed Christ.

Jesus knew there was a deep desire in this young man, but He knew also that he had a deep

delusion as to his own capacities of goodness. He calls Jesus good master, and then asks what he

must do, just as if to say, "you just tell me what has to be done to please God and be saved, and I'll

do it." The first thing Jesus did was to shatter this whole false concept which was so common

because of the self-righteousness of the Pharisees of that day. We know he was either a Pharisee or

greatly influenced by them, for Sadducees did not believe in eternal life as the Pharisees did.

Jesus says, "Why call me good, no one but God alone is good." In other words, let's not start on

this subject as if the source has no significance. God is the source of all goodness, and anything we

do that is worthy of being called good is not due to our selves, but to the grace of God. Jesus refused

to let religion become a mere matter of ethics where if you do more good than bad God rewards you

with a home in heaven. People tend to do this, and forget that God is not only the omega, but also

the alpha. He is the beginning and the end, and if we are to talk sensible about goodness, we must

start with God, and see Him clearly as the source. This will eliminate self-righteousness from the

start.

Jesus was not denying that He was good, but simply indicating that if the young man saw

goodness in Him, it was because he was from God, the source of all goodness. Nor was Jesus

denying that the young man was good in the sense of moral and ethical purity. Jesus did not teach

that man could not be good, on the contrary, He says in Luke 6:45, "The good man out of the good

treasure of His heart brings forth good..." We make a mistake if we think all men outside of Christ

are equally sinful. The Scripture says they are equally lost, but not equally evil.

Total depravity does not mean man is as bad as he can be. It means that in no way is he as good

as he ought to be, or must be to be pleasing to God. Jesus just wanted to help this young man to

unlearn his shallow concept of goodness, and cause him to see he was using the term too loosely

without due recognition that all true goodness is only a participation in the goodness of God. But

Jesus recognized the sincere and honest desire of his heart, and so he went on to give answer to his