TO OBTAIN ETERNAL LIFE

Luk. 18:22 ... "When Jesus heard this, He said to him, 'One thing you still lack; sell all that you possess, and distribute it to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.'"

      One day there came to Jesus a young ruler who was very rich and posed to Him this question, "What shall I do to obtain eternal life?"  In essence Jesus told him to keep the Law of Moses, since it was still God's binding covenant with Israel.  The young man answered that he had been keeping this Law from his youth.  Jesus then told him there was one thing standing between him and eternal life -- his worldly possessions.  It was necessary for him to convert them into money and distribute it to the poor.  Through this great act of benevolence, he would invest real treasure in heaven.  

      As we survey this record, we must give credit to the young man.  First, he had assessed his spiritual life and determined there was something lacking for him to inherit eternal life.  He was not self-righteous with smug assurance that heaven was already his.  Second, he was spiritually oriented.  He believed there is a reward beyond this life, and he wanted to share in it.  Furthermore, he had been devoting his life to keeping the Law from his earliest ability.  And third, he recognized Jesus as the "Good Teacher" who could discern what he could not and then would instruct him in what he must do.  These three credits are more than can be given to the majority of people today.  In Mark's parallel account it adds that Jesus loved this individual, (10:21).  He saw in him the fertile soil where the seed of God's word, if sown, would spring forth and yield the abundant harvest of a Christian life.

      Jesus' answer initially might seem austere.  It would be a very hard thing for anyone to liquidate all his possessions and give the money to the poor.  One might think Jesus hates wealth and resents His disciples being wealthy.  So He commands them to give it away to the poor as they get it.  But this is a misrepresentation of Jesus' meaning.  His real point is, for one to obtain eternal life, he must value that life more than anything else.  That is, he must devote his energy, mental and physical, to the effort of preparing his soul to be fitted for life in heaven through eternity.  In the young ruler's case Jesus saw something which meant more to him than eternal life; it was the great wealth he possessed.  Matthew reports that "when the young man heard this statement, he went away grieved; for he was one who owned much property," (Mat. 19:22).  Had he really valued eternal life most of all, he would have been overjoyed to learn that divesting himself of his wealth was the key to that great goal.  

      There is a valuable lesson for us in the record of this young man's encounter with Jesus.  It should also be our desire to value eternal life more than anything else and readily give up whatever stands between us and that reward.  For many of us the intervening thing might not be wealth.  It might be the appetite for pleasure, worldly ambition, or pride in our talents, social standing, or achievements.  What comes between you and regular Bible study?  What can persuade you to neglect the assembly of the church at the appointed times?  What can turn you away from the practice of frequently praying to God?  What can influence you to refrain from standing up and speaking out for Jesus when His character is maligned?  The answer to these questions, after careful and honest scrutiny of your nature, will probably answer the question, "What shall I do to inherit eternal life?"  It is obvious we allow many barriers to exist between ourselves and the greatest of all rewards.

CAUSING LITTLE ONES TO STUMBLE

Luk. 17:2 ... "It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea, than that he should cause one of these little ones to stumble."

      We learn in Mat. 18:1-6, the parallel to this passage, that the setting was an occasion when Jesus used a little child to illustrate the type of individual who will be allowed to "enter the kingdom of heaven." The lesson, therefore, concerned entering that kingdom, the greatest privilege open to earth's residents.  Citizenship in the kingdom means fellowship with God in this life and eternal presence before God's throne in the life hereafter.  It should be the primary goal of everyone to enter the kingdom and also to assist as many others as possible to enter as well.  When one is thinking clearly and considering all truth available, these will indeed be his greatest goals and humanitarian concerns.

      Unfortunately, there are those who can see no further than the limits of the material world about them and hence choose to restrict their education to the wisdom of men.  They have no interest in being in the kingdom of God.  Their only concern is to maximize the condition of their lives this side of the grave.  If they are also altruistic people, they have a similar concern for the life-condition of others as well.  If human life were not interdependent, this view of life and all that issues from it, might be dismissed as the sad choice of those who deny the reality of revealed wisdom and the kingdom of God which transcend space and time.  But human life is interdependent; we do not live in isolation from one another.  Our lives overlap so that what one person does, says, and thinks has at least some impact on the lives of others.  Therefore, when a person refuses God's revealed word and rejects entrance into His kingdom, it is almost certain that his choice will make it more difficult for certain people to accept that revelation and act to enter the kingdom.

      There are those who turn their backs upon God and His sovereignty with no thought of what other people may or may not do.  They make the decision for themselves and leave it to others to make their own decision.  Whether they choose to learn from God and seek His fellowship, or like themselves reject both, is of little interest to them.  They accept no responsibility for the influence their decisions may have on others.  And there are people inimical to God and His kingdom who make it their resolved purpose to turn others out of the way that leads to the acceptance of God's word and entrance into His kingdom.  They hate God and want others to adopt the same antagonistic attitude.  Whenever they offend the "little ones," a figure Jesus obviously used to refer to those approaching God, or those having just come into His fellowship, they are quick to act and speak to disturb their faith.

      Whether one is deliberately or indifferently hindering the course of someone else toward God and His kingdom, he is making himself an opponent of God.  He is daring, as a mere mortal creature, to enter into a contest with the Creator.  And this is a contest NO ONE can win!  Any victory he might claim is really only apparent.  It just seems, in the here and now, to be a victory.  God cannot be outmatched and defeated by a finite being whose very existence lies within His infinite power to terminate at any instant.  But God will take that drastic step only after these antagonists have used up the last drop of His mercy, for God would have even them to awaken to their foolishness, repent, and resolve to learn from Him, and, at last, to enter His kingdom also as "little ones" themselves.  My appeal, then, to those who oppose and hinder others from coming to God, or from progressing within His kingdom, is to turn from your opposition while the opportunity still exists.  In eternity beyond the grave you will be so thankful you did.

SERVING GOD OR MAMMON

Luk. 16:13 ... "No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one, and love the other, or else he will hold to one, and despise the other.  You cannot serve God and mammon."

      The language spoken by the Jews in the days when Jesus was among them was Aramaic.  Some of the words of that language, which was also spoken by Jesus, have been left untranslated in the English Bible.  Jesus' cry on the cross, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani," (Mat. 27:46), is one such example.  It means, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?"  The word "mammon" is another example; it meant "wealth."  In this statement Jesus personified wealth as a master named Mammon, who is opposed to God.  There are those who choose God as their Master and subject their lives in service to Him.  But there are others who select mammon to be their master and yield their lives to its dominion.  Jesus wants us to understand very clearly that no one can choose both God and mammon as co-masters and serve each, thus claiming the best of two worlds.

      A similar statement is made by Paul, "Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness?"  (Rom. 6:16).  The opponents in this statement are "sin" and "righteousness."  It is clear that one cannot serve both, for the apostle states further that "having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness," (v.18).  That is, one must first be liberated from sin as master before he can become the servant of righteousness.  We might notice that this discussion in Rom. 6 is not afield from Jesus' thought in Luk. 16:13, since only two verses earlier he mentioned the "unrighteous mammon."  Mammon is one of the major venues of unrighteousness in human experience, and those who yield themselves to its dominion enter a sphere of service antagonistic to God.

      More precisely, mammon is the lust, or craving, for wealth and the pleasures it can afford.  Notice that I said the "lust" or "craving" for wealth, not the wealth itself.  There are those who have great wealth but are not controlled by it.  The essential factor is one's attitude.  We are assured that "the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil," (I Tim. 6:10).  So, it is the "love of money" rather than the possession of it that constitutes the root from which evil grows.  Understanding this should lead us to an important conclusion:  A person who is poor may be as much enslaved to mammon as the person who is very rich.  The penniless person may be as much convinced that power and privilege lie in wealth as the man who has great treasures and trusts in them.  Though he may never have much, he may struggle and grasp for the little he gets, and feel badly that it isn't a lot more.  He may consider life cruel to him for his poverty and live in perpetual envy of the rich, not realizing he is needlessly compounding his misery thereby.  The unrighteous mammon is as much his master as it is of the man who holds great wealth.

      Christians must learn that wealth is unworthy to be the master of human life, especially the life which has been purchased by the blood of Jesus.  We must realize that money is a means of life and not an end.  If we use it to cope with life and serve God, it is a blessing.  If we place our trust in it and think it to be the decisive factor in life, we have let it become our master.  We are counseled that "those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and hurtful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction," (I Tim. 6:9).  Wealth can possibly pamper a person with pleasure and power up to the point of death, but then its horrible end is "ruin and destruction."  Only God will reward His servants beyond the grave, where material goods no longer exist.  So, in this life we should be the master of mammon and never let it gain the rule over us.

REJOICING IN HEAVEN

No. 59: REJOICING IN HEAVEN

Luk. 15:10 ... "In the same way, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents."

      It is an unlikely thought that a person here on earth could do anything that would affect the nature of things in heaven.  Heaven seems so far away and so detached from worldly affairs that it is inconceivable something which occurs here would have any impact there.  Furthermore, since heaven is the place of God's immediate presence, it seems His glory would prevail so completely that an event on earth would be absolutely unnoticeable there.  Nevertheless, Jesus states that there is one human activity which does affect the nature of things in heaven.  That special event is the repentance of a person who has been walking in the pathway of sin.  A sinner's repentance has an immediate and impressive impact upon the residents of heaven.  Rather than temporarily diminishing God's glory, it magnifies it, because the opportunity for a sinner to repent is only attributable to the glorious work of God.

      God, who rules over all, has decreed that the penalty for sin is death.  Although He made man in His own image and loves us beyond our comprehension, it is nevertheless God's stated intention to destroy everyone who chooses the way of sin and continues to follow in it.  When people prefer sin to righteousness, God will act in His justice to condemn them and subject them to eternal punishment.  Even though God will certainly do this, He assures us in His word that He does not want to do it and takes no pleasure in it.  He had rather bless than curse, lift up than crush down, and exalt the human spirit than humiliate it.  But if a man chooses to reject God by turning into the path of sin, with sadness God will reject that man, crush him, and eternally humiliate him by casting him into a place of unending torment not prepared for man, but "for the devil and his angels," (Mat. 25:41).

      The residents of heaven are perfectly attuned to the mind of God.  His joy is their joy; His displeasure their displeasure; His sadness their sadness.  Sin in His human creatures displeases God and saddens Him, and His heavenly court responds likewise.  But when a sinner confronts his sin, begins to feel its offense to his soul and His soul's Maker, and consequently repents, God in heaven is pleased.  As the angels behold His divine joy, they together express their joy.  Jesus devotes Luke 15 to illustrating this great joy in heaven.  First, He pictures the lost sheep.  The shepherd, leaving the flock in a secure place, searched intently until he has found it.  Then he assembled his friends and neighbors and told them, "Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!" (v.6). Next, Jesus tells us about the woman who lost a coin and searched for it diligently.  When she found it, she also assembled her friends and neighbors and said, "Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin which I had lost!" (v.9). Last, He described the case of the lost son.  When the boy returned home, the father gave a feast for him with this justification, "We had to be merry and rejoice, for this brother of yours was dead and has begun to live, and was lost and has been found," (v.32).

      The lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son are symbols of people who lose themselves in the way of sin.  Their repentance results in their discovery and reclamation to beings of integrity, honor, and dignity.  The woman, the shepherd, and the father are symbols for God, or perhaps His agents, who search for the sinner and try to persuade him to repent.  The rejoicing, which is emphasized in each case, is the heavenly response to the penitent sinner who is rescued from eternal destruction.  O sinner, will you not repent and cause joy both on earth and in heaven?

 

PRIDE vs. HUMILITY

Luk. 14:11 ... "Everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled, and he who humbles himself shall be exalted."

      Pride and humility are attitudes that polarize human spirits.  They do not coexist within the human psyche.  Either pride takes control and drives out humility, or humility dominates and expels pride.  Morality is also inextricably involved in the tension between the forces of pride and humility.  Morality is defined not by human deliberation, but by God's standard for human behavior.  Even a superficial survey of the Bible reveals that God condemns pride and approves humility.  Those who exalt themselves with pride alienate themselves from God, but those who develop the attitude of humility find themselves ever closer to God's presence.

      The Book of Proverbs lists seven things which God hates because they are opposed to His nature, (6:16-19).  The first on the list is "a proud look."  A person's countenance mirrors the arrogance and cockiness of his spirit; and God, who sees both the face and the soul, finds offense in both when they emanate such pride.  We are told that "God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble," (Jas. 4:6).  It pleases God when a person divests himself of pride and clothes his mind with humility.  God bestows grace upon the humble, readily supplying them with all they need to endure and develop lives of service.

      It is stated that "pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before stumbling," (Pro. 16:18).  It makes one overconfident and too self-assured.  A veteran of the Pacific Theater in World War II told me of a man in his unit who boasted that "the Japanese bullet for me has not been made."  So, he took unusual risks after a battle to loot dead enemy soldiers.  But finally the Japanese made a bullet just for him.  As he was plundering dead bodies on an Okinawa battlefield, a sniper shot him dead.  His boastful, reckless pride earned him a 3x6 plot of ground in a foreign cemetery.  The Japanese no longer shoot at us, but we are warned about the "flaming missiles of the evil one," (aka Satan), which are aimed at us every day, (Eph. 6:16).  Thus we are issued the warning, "Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall," (I Cor. 10:12).  The strength of pride lies in deception.  It persuades the unwary soul that man is the measure of everything, that a person can deal with life on his own terms, and that he can be the master of every situation.  To take this persuasion into your heart creates there an expansive feeling of power and great personal worth.  This leads you, however, to the brink of destruction.  It sets you up as a target for personal disaster, as many unfortunate souls have discovered, albeit too late.  "How have the mighty fallen!" (II Sam. 1:19). 

      Pride would have you, like an ancient Achilles or Hector, to strap on the armor in which you trust and go forth to do battle with the enemy.  But Hector fell in his pride before Achilles' sword, and Achilles was slain by the chance arrow that penetrated the one vulnerable spot of his armor.  God counsels us to reject the deceitful persuasion of pride and assume instead the mental posture of humility.  And do not think that humility means weakness, paleness of life, and shame.  If you have that conception of humility, you have already been deceived by the counsel of pride.  Humility involves the total control of one's spirit so that it can be directed to glorify God rather than self.  Divine wisdom declares that "he who rules his spirit" is mightier than "he who captures a city," (Pro. 16:32).  To overcome great obstacles in one's own wisdom and power builds pride.  But eventually that pride will become the conqueror's master and destroy him.  However, to overcome life's barriers with the power and wisdom acquired from God will result in your exaltation in the aura of His glory both now and forever.