June put down her chalk, bent over, got the spitball, and threw it back. She was a part of the anarchy! June Day was not perfect! She could not keep up her veneer of perfection. She was a party to the crime. It was then, as June’s arm was cocked back ready to sail another projectile through the class, that our teacher returned. “June! What are you doing?” I forgot to tell you that the teacher was her mother. But poor old June Day met her match, and she just couldn’t keep up her image of being perfect.
And you know what? Neither can you. None of us can. We cannot come to God based on our righteousness. Do you know what God calls it? He says our righteousness before Him is like filthy rags. So what do we do? We divest ourselves of such an idea. It is unbelief and it is a sin against Christ and His blood shed for sinners. We come to Jesus, just as we are, without one plea and cry out to Him. It’s called repentance.
Be divested of the “one thing”
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We must also divest ourselves, of what Jesus called “one thing.” Jesus looked at the young man and loved him and said to him, “You lack one thing.” The thing keeping him from God was his wealth.
Jesus went on to teach His disciples that it was easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. We read in Mark 10:26 that they were “exceedingly astonished.” Why? Because the disciples associated God’s favor with physical blessing. After all, Abraham was rich, David was rich. Having money wasn’t bad. And they were right — except that wealth can become a great stumbling block. When you have it all, you don’t need God. Wealth can become the “one thing.” Security in other forms can become the “one thing.”
My beloved, what is the “one thing” that keeps you from Jesus Christ? What is the “one thing” that keeps you from giving your life to Him today?
This rich young ruler was zealous but without a knowledge of God and man. His question — What must I do to inherit eternal life? — was the wrong question. He should have asked, Lord, how could a sinner like me ever stand before a holy God? It is not what I can do, but what God will do. He kept that law because you could not keep it, and when you come to Him by faith, He will lay your sins on His Son and impute His Son’s righteousness to your life.
The Way to Eternal and Temporal Security Is to Invest (Mark 10:28-30)
This issue of wealth and reward and faith is not something that just poor self-righteous Pharisees struggle with. Material security is something that well-meaning, earnest disciples of Jesus struggle with. And what is Jesus saying? To follow Me may involve the loss of relationships, for your loved ones may not follow Me. But I will give you a family, a family of people who follow Me and love Me and you will become part of them. To follow Me could cost you, not only relationships, but real estate. You could lose everything if there is persecution.
