How To Inherit Eternal Life
In this article, our sermon will focus on inheritance of eternal life as written in Luke 10:25-37. It is a straightforward two requirements how to inherit eternal life – love God and neighbor, but somehow complicated process in the sense that it involves something that is not easy to accomplish. Our Lord Jesus Christ parable of the Good Samaritan doesn’t just answered the lawyers question about inheriting eternal life in these verses; it radically redefines what it means to love your neighbor. So it is necessary to take a look at the Bible passage that was written in the Book of Luke, and this is what it says:
25And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested Him, saying, "Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" 26He said to him, "What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?" 27So he answered and said, ""You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your
strength, and with all your mind,' and "your neighbor as yourself."' 28And He said to him, "You have answered rightly; do this and you will live." 29But he, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" 30Then Jesus answered and said: "A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. 31Now by chance a certain priest came down that road. And when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32Likewise a Levite, when he arrived at the place, came and looked, and passed by on the other side. 33But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion. 34So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; and he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35On the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said to him, "Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I come again, I will repay you.' 36So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?" 37And he said, "He who showed mercy on him." Then Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise."
This passage is explicitly affirming that the two requirements for eternal life is to love God and to love your neighbor. We will first discuss “love of God” the first requirement. Loving God is tantamount in placing your faith and trust to God’s only begotten Son Jesus Christ, Loving God is inseparable from loving and believing in His Son because Scripture clearly says in John 14:6, that no one comes to the Father (God the Father) except through Jesus Christ. Furthermore, it was confirmed in Romans 10:9-10, the passage goes like this: “That if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” So from this verse, it was explicitly said that anyone who believes in our Lord Jesus Christ is made righteous, trusting that through Jesus sacrificial death on the cross, our sins are forgiven; and believing that by His resurrection, it will grant us salvation. But to complete the process, we must put it into action by confessing our faith in Jesus Christ as written in the passage, so as to guarantee our salvation as clearly stated in this verses; for it is by openly declaring your faith, and openly say you believe in Him telling others of your faith in Jesus what He did on the cross has given us, and what Jesus resurrection gave us, that is the only time our salvation is guaranteed. Without putting our faith in action, it is an incomplete process, salvation will not be granted, for it is an incomplete process.
Faith in Jesus is tantamount to the first requirement, “Love of God.” Faith in Jesus includes:
• Believing that Jesus Christ is God’s only begotten Son.
• If Jesus is God’s Son, we must believe that He has the power to forgive sins, because Christ died to save the world (John 3:16 and 1 John 2:2), trusting in Jesus death, our sins are forgiven
• If Jesus is God’s Son, He has the power to save us and give us eternal life through His resurrection
(Romans 4:25 and 1 Peter 3:21)
• If Jesus is God’s Son, we must accept Him as our Lord God and Personal Savior
So Jesus death dealt with our sins by trusting in His death on the cross, our sins are forgiven, and by His resurrection, it justified us being declared righteous before God, for the saving power comes through His
resurrection, thus securing our salvation. Only through Jesus death and resurrection, by trusting Him, we will have eternal life, accepting Him as Lord and Savior. Faith in Jesus – His death and resurrection, is the fulfillment of loving God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. So in short, the first requirement – love God accompanied by the second requirement – love of neighbor, will assured us of our salvation.
Faith in Jesus Christ is tantamount to love of God, but it must be a faith that is alive, and that faith must be put into action so that it is not a dead faith – it is an active faith.
The second requirement – love of neighbor is a complicated requirement. As we read the whole passage, we can see that in this scenario, a certain lawyer asked question to our Lord Jesus Christ how he can inherit eternal life. The Lord answered him by asking a question, “What is written in the law? The lawyer replied that you shall love God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind and your neighbor as yourself. and the Lord replied and said: “do this and you will live”; meaning you will live eternally in heaven because the lawyer is asking about inheritance of eternal life as stated in the passage. The Lord is not emphasizing you will live in this world, but He is pointing out living in the next world because the lawyer is asking the Lord what he should do to inherit eternal life as clearly written in verse 25. We all know that life on earth is not eternal but it is only a temporary physical life, and inheritance of eternal life can only be found in heaven; for all human being will one day die, one at a time in his appointed time given to him by God. For it is appointed for men to die once and after this the judgment. The judgment are only two, heaven and hell. The two judgment are both eternal in essence; heaven being eternal life, an everlasting blissfulness in the refuge of God’s kingdom, but hell is an everlasting sufferings and torments in the lake of fire burning with brimstone Revelation in the presence of Satan’s kingdom (Revelation 14:10, 20:10, 21:8).
Thus, love of God and neighbor will produce eternal life with God in heaven because the lawyer is asking the Lord about eternal life. Loving God fully and loving your neighbor sincerely is the key to eternal life — because such love is the fruit of someone who truly belongs to God. And since eternal life is only found in heaven, Jesus is pointing the lawyer to the kind of life that leads to heaven.
In other words, the lawyer is asking about eternal salvation, meaning life after death in God's kingdom—heaven. Jesus responds by pointing him to the Law of Moses, asking what he reads there. The lawyer correctly cites the two greatest commandments: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind (Deuteronomy 6:5) and Love your neighbor as yourself (Leviticus 19:18). Jesus affirms his answer and says, “Do this and you will live.” The Law that is being mentioned here is referring to the Mosaic Law, or the Law given to God by Moses in the Old Testament. Jesus is not teaching salvation by any good works of our own effort without divine aid, without God’s grace as confirmed in Ephesians 2:8-9, but rather affirming that true love for God and neighbor reflects the kind of heart that belongs to someone who is in right relationship with God. Loving God and neighbor wholeheartedly is not something we can do perfectly on our own — it points us to our need for God’s grace to have a transformed heart, that only God can produce so a person’s heart can be converted into transformed heart through faith in Christ.
During Jesus time, Jews and Samaritans had centuries of hostility. Samaritans reject parts of the Hebrew Bible, they were seen as religious heretics by the Jews. Social and religious divisions were so strong that Jews avoided Samaritan regions entirely (John 4:9 and Luke 9:52-53). The term “Samaritan” was even used as an insult (John 4:8). Priest, as a servant of God should be the one to show compassion on the wounded Jew. Likewise Levite, as the one who serve in God’s temple should also do the same. Both are considered spiritual leaders and mediators between God and the people. As religious leaders, they were expected to embody the Law’s command to love one’s neighbor. But in the parable that Jesus gave to the lawyer, the Lord said that both the priest and the Levites ignored and pass by the wounded man without helping. This is striking and very disappointing, because as religious leaders, they were expected to set a good example by helping the wounded Jew, but instead they avoided their countryman. Their failure highlights a disconnect between religious duty and compassionate action. Jesus uses this contrast to challenge us that true righteousness is not ritual purity, not visiting pilgrimage, not showing outside appearance to appear good outside but inside is the opposite, but true righteousness is showing mercy and compassion to neighbors without making distinctions.
The Samaritan – an outsider and enemy in Jewish eyes, becomes the role model of neighborly love. By nature, the Samaritans are culturally and religiously opposed by the Jews, but in this scenario, a Samaritan helps a wounded Jew. Our Lord Jesus redefines the word “neighbor” not as someone who lives nearby or shares the same background, but the word “neighbor” in this parable as the Lord redefines it is someone who shows compassion to anyone in need, regardless of race, religion, or relationship. It strongly opposes racial discrimination. It’s not about who qualifies as your neighbor, it’s about how you choose to be a neighbor to others, how you choose to show mercy to others so you will truly be a neighbor to others, and you can be a genuine neighbor by imitating what the good Samaritan did; by showing compassion to anyone, it is a clear re-definition of the word “neighbor” as the Lord Jesus describes in this context of the parable. This interpretation aligns with Jesus broader teaching in Matthew 5:44: “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”
Compassion is not confined to religious titles, social standing, heritage, and status in life; the heart of God’s law is mercy, not just ceremonial observance. This is the reason why the Bible says that mercy will triumph over judgment. Mercy and not money, is what makes the eternal world go round.
Our Lord Jesus flips expectations by making the Samaritan, and not the priest or Levite the hero. The Samaritan shows mercy to a Jew, crossing ethnic and religious boundaries. This act of love fulfills the command to “love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18), showing that neighborliness is defined by compassion, not proximity, not similarity, not only house neighbor, not only community neighbor, but a neighbor everywhere. So this love of neighbor that Jesus is telling us does not discriminate neighbor regardless of status, it can be summarize as the kind of love that shows love even for your enemy. Showing mercy is a manifestation of God’s character, which is love and mercy Itself, because Scripture
says in 1 John 4:7-8 that love is of God, for God is love.
Our Lord Jesus Christ emphasizes a fundamental change in loving your neighbor. He makes it radical in this passage when the Samaritan in the parable shows mercy to a Jew – someone who is considered an enemy. This passage directly indicates neighbor beyond proximity or familiarity. It include strangers, outsiders and enemies, not as someone who lives nearby or shares the same background, but as anyone in need, regardless of race, religion, or relationship. The Samaritan helps a wounded Jew – someone who is culturally and religiously opposed to him. That is truly indeed a radical shift
A common idiom of “money makes the world go round” refers to this earthly world (temporary world), but in the eternal world, it’s mercy not money that makes the world go round. The eternal world – meaning heaven, God’s kingdom and eternal life is governed by mercy. Mercy is more powerful than money in the eternal world; for mercy reflects God’s character, and showing mercy is a fruit of salvation. Mercy leads toward eternal life, because it flows from a heart that knows God. A life dominated by mercy is a kind of life that receives rewards for God, for it is a clear manifestation of God’s attributes. Mercy can take someone to heaven, for it reveals a heart transformed by God’s grace. Mercy can forestall God’s judgment. We read in James 2:13 “For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.” When mercy triumphs over judgment, Gods judgment – His loving kindness and forgiveness has greater power and authority than His repulsive judgment. Mercy produces victory of God’s grace over condemnation. When a person receives His grace, he is forgiven, not condemned. Condemnation is banishment from God. It results in spiritual death and separation from God. God’s grace reconciles us to Him, bringing us into fellowship and eternal life in His kingdom. When mercy wins over judgment, Gods grace is victorious over condemnation. Those who practiced mercy reveals hearts transformed through God’s grace, and in return, God responds by His grace, a mercy granted to the one who practice mercy.
So those who have shown mercy will experience mercy triumphing over judgment resulting in God’s grace of forgiveness and eternal life in God’s kingdom. This is a powerful verse that must be carried out especially to those who have a broad understanding of scriptural doctrines. This verse indicates that mercy can be a hindrance against God’s judgment as what the verse clearly indicates that mercy triumphs over judgment, that God’s judgment will not be executed because mercy triumphs over judgment. And if mercy triumphs over judgment, it will be a favorable judgment once a person dies and stands before God for God’s judgment. Since the person has shown mercy during his lifetime, it becomes a witness of his faith and relationship with God. The result is fellowship with God in His kingdom as supported by the verses in Matthew 5:7, and this is what it says: “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.” Micah 6:8 “What does the Lord require of you? To act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.”
Even though money makes the world go round in this earthly world, there is a hidden danger attached to money. Because Scripture tells us that the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. In the eternal world, money is nothing, it can never please God if you ever aspire for riches, because according to the Bible, riches can be a hindrance in going to heaven, for the Lord Jesus said two times in Luke 18:24 and Mark 10:23, “How hard it is for those who have riches to enter God’s kingdom.” Riches changes the heart and mind of a person, devotion to God can be affected by riches. Riches wont prioritize God, they can turn away from God. It is evident in 1 Timothy 6:9-10, and this is what it says: “But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.” So this passage is clearly telling us that riches has the potential to send men to hell as what the verse says “which drown men in destruction and perdition”, meaning riches can submerge a man and plunge him in destruction and perdition, not just physical ruin but spiritual and eternal ruin. The word “perdition is associated with eternal damnation, or a man’s soul going to hell. Money itself is not bad, but it becomes bad if a person craves so much for money and it becomes love of money that he wants to be rich by hook or by crook even to his own destruction. A good example of this are robbers who loves money and wants instant riches. If for instance, some bank robbers robbed, and they were caught by law enforcers during their robbery, and the robbers fought back, but unfortunately the robbers died during their gunfight while the police tries to arrest them, which resulted in their physical destruction as well as eternal destruction. Like when a man cannot control his casino playing, it can bring bankruptcy which can signal the start of his downward path. These are only examples, and there are many kinds of real life scenario where love of money brings forth physical and eternal ruin, a destruction tantamount to sending their soul to hell. That’s where the danger lies. If a man loves money. Money must be a necessity for food, clothing and shelter, not luxury and prodigal living.
But for those who have shown no mercy while they were still living on earth, and after their days are over, they will be judged without mercy as explicitly stated in the verse. And if this judgment is without mercy, a person can expect an unfavorable harsh judgment before God. This judgment without mercy aligns with condemnation or eternal separation from God – a damnation to everlasting punishment in hell when a person passed away, because a person lived without reflecting God’s character of love and mercy. God will judge without mercy those who refused to show mercy to others because judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy as clearly written in the verse. This judgment without mercy aligns with condemnation – a final and eternal separation from God, because the person lived without showing mercy to others, the person lived without reflecting God’s character of love, mercy and compassion.
So in short, a life lived without mercy will have an eternal destination heading towards hell after death, but a life lived in mercy is bound to eternal destination in heaven. So what good is riches if it can propel a man to hell. Certainly you cannot take your riches to your final everlasting destination, even in the grave you cannot bring them. That is why the Bible teaches us in 1 Timothy 6:8 that we must be content if we have food and clothing. Food, clothing and shelter are the basic needs of man. God is commanding us to be content with what we have. Contentment is the essence of happy living, by learning to be content with what God has given us, and not to aspire beyond what God has not given us. We must learn to accept what God has given us, we must accept what God will’s for us.
Remember that we are just pilgrimage in this earthy world, we are just passing by. Someday after our days are over we will face God for judgment, if we have shown no mercy while we are still earth dwellers, we do not expect to receive God’s mercy, but a condemnation is what awaits us, being cast away from God’s
presence eternally. We will be cast away into our everlasting destination in hell characterized by eternal sufferings and torments. On the other hand, if we have practice mercy, we can expect to receive God’s mercy. God’s judgment will be forestalled because of our mercy. Our shown mercy will lead us towards eternal life and everlasting blissfulness in God’s heavenly kingdom.
Mercy is a reflection of God’s nature. Genuine faith must be accompanied by merciful actions. A merciful life is evidence of saving faith. And faith is only by trusting God’s only begotten Son Jesus Christ. Placing our faith directly to our Lord Jesus Christ by accepting Him as our Lord God and Personal Savior.
