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The Impossibility of Salvation
(Luke 18:18–30)

A ruler questioned Him, saying, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments, ‘Do not commit adultery, Do not murder, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother.’” And he said, “All these things I have kept from my youth.” 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.” But when he had heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich. And Jesus looked at him and said, “How hard it is for those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom of God! For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” They who heard it said, “Then who can be saved?” But He said, “The things that are impossible with people are possible with God.” Peter said, “Behold, we have left our own homes and followed You.” And He said to them, “Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not receive many times as much at this time and in the age to come, eternal life.” (18:18–30)

The references to eternal life that bracket this passage (vv. 18, 30) reveal that to be the compelling theme with which the story is concerned. All Christians are benefitted by learning from the Lord Himself how to properly respond to those who show interest in their own eternal destiny. The heart of the lesson is that the sinner must be led to understand the cost required to receive eternal life.

Obviously, no one was more concerned about the danger of superficiality than the Lord Jesus was (cf. John 2:23–25; 6:66), and a careful study of the Gospels shows that, in light of that concern, He consistently made clear the difficulty those seeking to enter the kingdom faced (cf. Luke 13:24; Matt. 7:13–14; 10:38; 11:12; Luke 16:24–25). The Lord’s encounter with this wealthy, influential young man is a classic account of Him addressing the issue of the true cost of discipleship.

The matter here focuses on repentance and submission to the Lord. The Lord did not accept his superficial interest disconnected from the necessary heart attitudes of penitence and submission, because salvation comes to those who not only have a right understanding of the Savior, but also correctly assess the condition of their sinful, proud hearts and seek forgiveness while offering complete obedience.

The central meaning of this story is clear. No matter what one may believe, no one enters the kingdom without humbly confessing his sinfulness and by faith submitting completely to the sovereign lordship of Jesus Christ. Salvation is more than merely believing the facts concerning the gospel; it involves what people believe concerning their own sinful natures and the Savior’s authority. Genuine salvation requires acknowledging that one can hold on to nothing in this temporal, passing world, but must be willing to let go of anything the sovereign Lord demands.

Jesus gave this man the choice between himself and Christ, between self-righteous pride and possessions, and between personal priorities and total abandonment to the Lord’s will. Without a proper assessment of his heart and a willingness to forsake his pride in his religious achievements and abandon his worldly possessions and ambitions, he could not be saved. The test the Lord gave him revealed that he loved himself and his possessions more than Christ and hence could not be His disciple (cf. Luke 9:23–25; 14:26–27, 33).

The choice he made was surprising, because at first glance this young man appeared to be the perfect seeker (see the discussion below). No pre-evangelism was necessary in his case; the typical obstacles that hinder people from coming to the kingdom of God seem to have already been eliminated. He was ready and eager, and understood his need. Further, he had come to the divine source for an answer by seeking out the Son of God. According to contemporary evangelistic methodology, Jesus should have found the appropriate language and acceptable terms to move this hot prospect to salvation. But instead of finding terms acceptable to him, Jesus introduced terms to him that he found utterly unacceptable. And the amazing part of the story is that as good a prospect as he appeared to be, in reality he was a superficial, illegitimate, self-centered false seeker, who left Jesus rejecting the way to eternal life. And he needed to know that.

The Synoptic Gospels all (cf. Matt. 19:16–30; Mark 10:17–31) record this actual encounter. It is placed in the context of the discussion of the kingdom of God that began in Luke 17:20 to illustrate who enters the kingdom and who does not. The confrontation may be approached from both the human side and the divine side, and concluded with the Lord’s commentary on the outcome.

THE HUMAN SIDE

A ruler questioned Him, saying, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone. (18:18–19)

As noted above, this young man seemed to be a surefire prospect, for several reasons.

First, unlike the Pharisee in Luke 18:9–14, he recognized his need. He was aware that he did not have the eternal life of God in his soul nor the hope of heaven. Despite all of his religious achievements—enough to make him a ruler (most likely of a synagogue, and as such the most spiritually, morally, and religiously impressive man in that synagogue)—and his claim to have obeyed the law (v. 21), what he sought by all his religion and morality was absent in his life (cf. Nicodemus in John 3:1–3). Instead of being calm and confident, he was restless and anxious. He wanted relief from the crushing burden of legalism, and the assurance of God’s presence that brings hope, peace, joy, contentment, and a confident hope of heaven.

What he sought was eternal life, which the Jewish people understood as a kind or quality of life, rather than merely a duration of life. They saw it as that life which God Himself possesses and gives to His children. Eternal life is to possess the life of God, and to have a deep knowledge of Him (John 17:3). Eternal life involves the love of God being poured out in the hearts of His people (Rom. 5:5), the light of the knowledge of God shining in the hearts of believers (2 Cor. 4:6), the peace of God that passes all understanding (Phil. 4:7), and the “joy inexpressible and full of glory” of which Peter wrote (1 Peter 1:8). It is marked by peace, blessing, confidence, assurance, tranquility, satisfaction, and hope. This man was keenly aware that he lacked those realities.

Second, he not only understood his lack, but also urgently, eagerly, and diligently sought to gain what he did not possess. Heedless of his reputation and his dignity, the ruler “ran up to [Jesus] and knelt [in worship] before Him” in full view of everyone walking along the road with Him (Mark 10:17). His question was not a mere abstract theological one, but an honest serious, quest for the solution to his spiritual emptiness.

Third, he came to the right person. Many who seek true spiritual life look for it in the wrong places; the wrong church, wrong religion, or wrong teacher. This man, however, came to the only source of life—the Lord Jesus Christ, who is Himself the eternal life (1 John 5:20).

By respectfully addressing Jesus as Good (Gk. agathos; good in essence or by nature) Teacher, he elevated Him above other teachers and associated Him with God, who alone is good (v. 19). Whatever else he may have known or believed about Him, he affirmed Jesus to be both a teacher and an example of divine truth. Possibly, he hoped Jesus would be the one who could tell him how to possess the eternal life he sought.

Finally in commending him, he came to the point of asking the right question: “What shall I do to inherit or take possession of eternal life?” In keeping with his legalistic system of self-righteousness, he sought that one elusive good work that would push him over the top to obtain eternal life for himself. When the Lord Jesus was asked a similar question in John 6:28 He replied, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent” (v. 29). There the issue was the necessity of believing in Him. Here, however, this man was already prepared to believe in Jesus as the source of eternal life if he liked the terms (cf. John 3:3–4).

But the omniscient Lord knew that he had a fatal flaw that would reveal his desire to be false and deceptive. Therefore He answered the man’s question with one of His own. “Why do you call Me good?” He asked him. “No one is good except God alone.” Jesus was not, of course, denying His deity, as some of the cults purport. That would have contradicted His direct claims to be God (e.g., John 5:17–18; 8:24, 58; 10:30–33). On the contrary, Jesus was challenging this man to explain why he called Him good, knowing that only God is truly good, unless he was connecting Him to God. And if he did affirm that Jesus was from God, was he then willing to obey Him?

THE DIVINE SIDE

You know the commandments, ‘Do not commit adultery, Do not murder, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother.’” And he said, “All these things I have kept from my youth.” 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.” But when he had heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich. (18:20–23)

Speaking to him within the framework of his own legalistic paradigm, Jesus recited some of the commandments, specifically the second five of the Ten Commandments, which relate to dealing with other people: “Do not commit adultery, Do not murder, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother.” But His charge to this young man elicited a response, “All these things I have kept from my youth,” evidencing the self-deception of a hypocrite. The Lord’s reminder pressed home the point that if salvation comes through keeping the law, and this man had kept the law as he professed, why did he know he had not obtained eternal life? Why was he not satisfied? The truth is that his self-deception was shallow and his heart full of fear over his lack of true spiritual life and love for God.

Two divine requirements implicit in Jesus’ words to him reveal his misunderstanding of the law. First, he needed to confess his sin and inability to satisfy God and be reconciled to Him through the law. He had taken the law far too lightly, seeing it primarily as a means to elevate himself. The truth that “whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all” (James 2:10) had entirely escaped him. He certainly had not loved the Lord with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength and his neighbor as himself, which sums up the Decalogue. But he viewed the law of God in a corrupted way that allowed him to compare himself favorably to others rather than to God, whose perfect holiness is revealed in the law.

Second, he had also failed to see that the law only renders people sinners; it is unable to save. Self-righteousness had kept the law from doing its work of revealing his sin to him. As a result, he believed that he was more righteous than he really was. Like Israel, he sought to establish his own righteousness instead of submitting to God’s righteousness (Rom. 10:3). The Lord pressed home the point that no one can be justified by keeping the law.

This synagogue ruler was in much the same position that Paul had been before his conversion, as he later recalled in Philippians 3:4–6:

But something powerful and dramatic happened to Paul in the process of his conversion, as he noted in Romans 7:7–11:

The apostle had considered himself blameless in regard to the law, spiritually alive and well. But once he came to a true understanding of the law of God, sin became alive and he died. Far from giving him life, the law killed him. That was the turning point in his life; the one who had thought that he would gain eternal life through the law realized that it was in reality rendering him guilty before God. That was the point to which the Lord was directing this young man. That is also the point to which believers need to bring those whom they are evangelizing. Sinners need to determine whether they view themselves as made alive by superficially keeping the law, or killed by profoundly violating it, or in other words, whether they understand that the law cannot save them. The rich young man was unwilling to acknowledge that truth.

Jesus’ words 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,” reveal a second divine requirement. Salvation does not, of course, come through philanthropy, but through humble, self-denying, obedient faith (cf. Luke 9:23–24). But accepting for the sake of argument his misguided claim to have kept the law, and his accurate statement that Jesus’ goodness revealed that He was connected to God, the Lord challenged the rich young ruler to submit completely to Him. Jesus gave him a command to abandon all of his earthly priorities and divest himself of everything that mattered to him. Selling all his possessions would not only rid him of everything that he owned, but would also cut him off from his family (cf. Phil. 3:8). They would naturally first be incredulous, then irate that he failed to act responsibly as the steward of his family’s wealth, and might disown him. Was he willing to submit to the lordship of Jesus to that degree? Was eternal life valuable enough to him to confess Jesus as Lord and prove it by obedience?

It had all looked so promising for this young man, who now stood at the crossroads of eternal destiny. But as is the case with everyone, his decision hinged on the twin issues of sin and sovereign lordship. He was unwilling to acknowledge that he was a guilty sinner, affirm that his good works could not save him, and cast himself on God’s grace. Nor did he value Jesus’ terms of sovereign rule in exchange for eternal life. Instead, he clung to his self-righteous legalism, wealth, and relationships. He became very sad, but not with the godly sorrow that leads to repentance (2 Cor. 7:10), and “went away grieving” (Matt. 19:22), turning his back on the eternal life he had so hopefully and eagerly sought.

THE LORD’S COMMENTARY

And Jesus looked at him and said, “How hard it is for those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom of God! For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” They who heard it said, “Then who can be saved?” But He said, “The things that are impossible with people are possible with God.” Peter said, “Behold, we have left our own homes and followed You.” And He said to them, “Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not receive many times as much at this time and in the age to come, eternal life.” (18:24–30)

The Lord’s comment on this tragic incident may be summarized under two headings. He first described the poverty of riches.

After Jesus looked at the rich young ruler walk away, He turned to His disciples (Matt. 19:23) and said, “How hard it is for those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom of God!” They were no doubt shocked by that statement, since the idea that wealth was a sign of God’s blessing was deeply entrenched in Jewish theology. Accordingly, the rich were thought to have the inside track to salvation, since they had received greater divine blessings and could give more alms. That errant viewpoint was articulated by Job’s useless friends. Like the Jews of Jesus’ day, they assumed there was a causal connection between wealth and God’s blessing. Conversely, they saw suffering as a sure sign of God’s punishment for sin, and therefore pressured innocent Job to confess and repent of his sins.

In reality, it is impossible for the rich to buy their way into the kingdom, as the proverbial statement “For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God” indicates. The Persians expressed impossibility by using a familiar proverb stating that it would be easier for an elephant to go through the eye of a needle. The Jews picked up the proverb, substituting a camel for an elephant, since camels were the largest animals in Palestine.

Some, unwilling to face the stark reality that the saying implies, have attempted to soften it. Noting the similarity between the Greek words kamelos (camel) and kamilos (a large rope or cable), some suggest that a copyist erred by substituting the former for the latter. It is unlikely, however, that all three Synoptic Gospels would have been changed in the same way. Nor would a scribe make the statement harder rather than easier. He might change the wording from “camel” to “cord,” but not from “cord” to “camel.” But even a rope could no more go through the eye of a needle than a camel could. Others imagine that the reference is to a small gate in Jerusalem’s wall that camels could only enter with great difficulty. But there is no evidence that such a gate ever existed. Nor would any person with common sense have attempted to force a camel through such a small gate even if one had existed; they would simply have brought their camel into the city through a larger gate. The obvious point of that picturesque expression of hyperbole is not that salvation is difficult, but rather that it is humanly impossible for everyone by any means, including the wealthy (cf. Mark 10:23–24). Sinners are aware of their guilt and fear, and may even desire a relationship with God that would bring forgiveness and peace. But they cannot hold on to their sinful priorities and personal control and think they can come to God on their own terms. The young man illustrates that reality.

Those who heard the Lord’s words understood what He meant. They were astonished and exclaimed, “Then who can be saved?” The rich could afford to give more alms than other people, and the Jews believed that almsgiving was key to entering the kingdom. The apocryphal book of Tobit expressed that view when it said, “It is better to give alms than to lay up gold: for alms doth deliver from death, and shall purge away all sin. Those that exercise alms and righteousness shall be filled with life” (Tobit 12:8–9; cf. Sirach 3:30).

The Lord’s reply, “The things that are impossible with people are possible with God,” reiterated the truth that salvation is humanly impossible, and that only a sovereign act of God can change the heart (John 1:11–13; 3:3–8; 6:44; Eph. 2:8–9).

In contrast to the rich young ruler, the disciples had abandoned everything to follow Christ. As Peter noted, “Behold, we have left our own homes (no word for homes is in the Greek text, so that all their possessions are in view) and followed You.” Matthew 19:27 records that Peter followed up this statement with the question, “What then will there be for us?” The Lord’s reply introduced the second point in His comment on this incident, the riches of poverty.

Peter’s comment and question were legitimate, and Jesus did not rebuke him for them. Instead, He gave the wonderful promise, “Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not receive many times as much at this time and in the age to come, eternal life.” The Lord affirmed that, unlike the rich young ruler, the disciples (and all who forsake everything for the sake of the kingdom of God), had been granted by God the full blessings of eternal life.

To yield up everything in this life to gain access to the blessings of His kingdom is the greatest wealth (cf. Luke 9:24–25). God, in His lavish grace, promises that the redeemed will receive many times as much at this time in addition to receiving, in the age to come, eternal life. This is the great exchange: believers receive the treasure hidden in the field (Matt. 13:44) and the pearl of great value (Matt. 13:46) when they willingly give up the right to all that they possess.

Matthew’s account adds another dimension to the believers’ rewards. In Matthew 19:28 Jesus added, “Truly I say to you, that you who have followed Me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man will sit on His glorious throne, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” In addition to the spiritual blessings God pours out on them in this life, and the full blessings of eternal life in heaven, there is a third sphere in which believers will be blessed. The “regeneration” of which our Lord spoke is His earthly, millennial kingdom, “when the Son of Man will sit on His glorious throne.” That kingdom will be the rebirth of the world; paradise regained. Those who have been granted a spiritual rebirth at salvation will participate in the rebirth of the earth; the “times of refreshing” (Acts 3:19) and the “period of restoration of all things” (v. 21). It is the kingdom about which Jesus taught the disciples for forty days between His resurrection and ascension (Acts 1:3). In that kingdom, the apostles will “sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”

The Lord’s answer to the disciples’ question, “Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:7) is revealing. Instead of rebuking them for failing to understand amillennialism, which teaches that He spoke only of a spiritual kingdom in which the church presently replaces Israel, Jesus affirmed the kingdom coming to Israel when He replied, “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority.” The apostles were correct in assuming that the kingdom would be an earthly one involving Israel; but the historical time when it would be established was not for them to know.

All the saints from all of redemptive history—the Old Testament saints (Dan. 7:18), New Testament saints (1 Cor. 6:2), and, as noted above, the twelve apostles—are going to be gathered into that glorious kingdom to enjoy all the bounty of paradise regained.