What Must I Do To Inherit Eternal Life Series

According to the Bible, eternal life is not about what you do because it has already been done by Jesus Christ. You can follow every one of God’s commandments to the “T,” go to church every week for your entire life, give all of your money to the poor, and you will still not earn a place in heaven. We cannot be saved by our own achievements. Jesus’ point about the children was that it isn’t about what you do, it is about faith. Eternal life is a gift God gives us which we receive by faith when we trust in Jesus and what he did for us.

Eph. 2:8 God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. 9 Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.

If salvation or eternal life is a gift from God by faith then why didn’t Jesus just say that to the ruler, rather than telling him that following the commandments was the way to eternal life (do not commit adultery, do no murder, etc)? I believe Jesus responded as he did to the ruler’s question, not to get him to do something, as much as it was to expose where his faith really was. He was revealing where the rich ruler’s heart truly was. His heart wasn’t for God, it was for money, power, and status. He was hoping that by doing certain things, following the right formula; perhaps going to synagogue every week, following the letter of God’s commands, he could earn enough frequent flier miles to get a one-way ticket to heaven, but what Jesus revealed through his response was that the ruler didn’t have child-like faith. If he had child-like faith, when Jesus asked him to give all of his possessions to the poor and follow him he would have done it. With child-like faith the ruler would have trusted that Jesus would take care of all his needs, that he didn’t need money, power, status, or control over others. He just needed to trust in Jesus and follow him.

Two stories later in the Bible is the story of another wealthy man named Zacchaeus. You know Zacchaeus, he was “a wee little, and a wee little man was he, he climbed up in the sycamore tree for there he wanted to see.” Zacchaeus was a wealthy chief tax collector who gathered money his money, as all tax collectors did, through deceit and extortion. When Jesus came by and called him down from the tree and invited himself over to his house for dinner, Zacchaeus made a promise right then and there before the entire crowd. Zacchaeus promised to give half of his possessions to the poor, and to pay back four times the amount of anyone he had cheated. While the rich ruler couldn’t even give a dime away to the poor, Zacchaeus, without being asked, gave away half of his possessions and then some. What was Jesus’ response to Zacchaeus, “Today salvation has come to this house.” Zacchaeus inherited eternal life, not because he gave his money away, but because he had childlike faith in Jesus, and giving his money away was a sign of his repentance from the wrongs he had done. Faith is the answer, not doing.