The question this young man asked Jesus is a question that many people today are still asking. “What good thing must I do to get eternal life?” In other words, what do you have to do in order to go to Heaven when you die? The Rich young ruler was a very good man, he had kept all of the commandments from his birth, yet he still felt like there was something else he needed to do in order to make it to Heaven.
The question I want to pose to you tonight is this: Is being a good, moral, upstanding person enough to get you to heaven? Obviously it is better to live that kind of lifestyle than to be an immoral and unethical person. But is it enough?
If you were to die today and God were to ask you why He should let you into Heaven, what would you say? If asked that question, most people would say something like this: "Well I’ve tried to be a good person. I’ve tried to live by the Golden Rule. I’ve tried not to treat other people badly. I’ve tried to do good. I’ve tried to avoid sinful situations. I’ve tried to live by ethical and moral standards in my own personal life and in my business life. I haven’t intentionally hurt people. I’ve tried to be a good person. Oh sure, I’ve done some things that were bad, but I think the good things that I’ve done would probably tip the scales in my favor so that I would be able to make it in."
I believe that most people in America today believe that their good works will get them into heaven. What do you think? What or who are you trusting in to get you to heaven?
Salvation: Our Way
There are basically two, and only two, methods people use for trying to get to Heaven. Either people attempt to be saved according to God’s terms or their own. And this is precisely what Jesus indicated would happen. In John 10:9, He said "I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved."
The implication here is that Jesus is the only way to be saved. There is one door, and He is that door. If you go through this door you will be saved. Which means if you try to go through any other door to get to Heaven, it will not lead to salvation.
This is consistent with what Jesus said in John 14:6: "I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life; no one comes to the Father, except through Me."
In other words, there is a right way, and there is a wrong way. But it isn’t enough to say that Jesus is the right way. We must determine what that really means. Truth is not truth as different people interpret it. Truth is truth as it really is. Christianity is not what we think it is. Christianity is what it really is.
Let’s begin with what Christianity is not. Christianity is not our attempt to earn our salvation, because Salavation is not based on works. Throughout History men and women have made valiant efforts at obtaining salvation through good works. That is what the Rich Young Ruler was trying to do, when He asked Jesus What good thing he needed to do to get eternal life?”.
Many people who consider themselves to be Christians have this kind of understanding about Christianity. Someone has referred to this kind of philosophy as "American folk religion." It can be summed up in statements like "I’m not perfect, but I’m doing the best I can." — "I try to do what’s right and consider myself a pretty good person — there are plenty of persons worse than me." — "I think I’ve done more good than I’ve done wrong; so therefore I should be okay." This may be the philosophy of American folk religion, but it is not what the Bible teaches about salvation.
Ephesians 2:8-9 says, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast.”
According to the Bible, we were all born with a sin nature. Romans 3:23 says, “for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” And Romans 6:23 tells us that “The wages of Sin is Death.” So, obviously it is going to take more than a few good deeds to overcome our sin. After all a spiritual transformation is what we are talking about.
Unfortunately, some people substitute Religion for a personal relationship to Jesus Christ. These individuals mistakenly believe that their Religion will get them to Heaven. Some people have been led to believe that since they were baptized into the church as a child that they are saved. Others believe they are saved simply because they walked down the isle of a church one Sunday and told the pastor that they wanted to be baptized and join the church.
But that is not true. The Devil has done a good job of brainwashing many religious people into believing they are saved simply because they go to church every Sunday.
A few years ago John Warwick Montgomery wrote a book entitled, Damned Through The Church. The thesis of the book is that the church may unwittingly be giving people a false sense of security when it comes to their salvation. Many churches today allow people to become members without even questioning them about their salvation experience. The result is we have a lot of people around the nation today who are church members but who have never really been saved. Not only are these individuals not Christians, but Satan has tricked them into thinking they are simply because the church has accepted them as members. In a way these individuals are being damned through the very churches that should be leading them to Christ.
All works, even religious works, come up short. We cannot do enough good deeds to make ourselves acceptable to a Holy & Righteous God. God is holy, and any sin is inconsistent with His nature. Furthermore, He cannot ignore it. As we mentioned earlier the punishment for sin is death, or Eternal separation from a Holy and Righteous God.
Our sin is thoroughly ingrained into our being, and there is nothing we can do to clean ourselves up. Good works, even religious works only dust off the outside. We are like the Pharisees Jesus described in Matthew 23:27 as "white-washed tombs which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean."
In the end, no matter how hard we try, we still come up short. Romans 3:10-12 says it this way, "There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God; all have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one"
The reason God gives why salvation cannot be obtained by doing good deeds is so that no one can boast about it. No one can argue that they are better than anyone else. They aren’t going to be able to say that they ‘saved themselves.’ We must all come to Jesus the same way. No matter what level of education we have, no matter what kind of title or degree, or status in the community we have, we must all come to Jesus the same way. We must humble ourselves before Him. We must admit that we are sinners and we must put our faith and trust in His Son Jesus Christ.
Salvation: God’s Way
Because God knew that we could not earn our way to heaven, He provided another way. In fact, regardless of what some people will try to tell you, it is the only way. It is His way. The Bible tells us that we are Saved by grace through faith. If this is God’s way, then it is important for us to understand both grace and faith.
Grace is how God saves us. The word comes from the Greek word charis, which means "the undeserved favor of God." The idea is that we receive Salvation as a free Gift from God, a gift that we cannot earn and do not deserve.
In fact because of our sin, we deserve to spend enternity in Hell, but as a Result of His Grace we were given the gift of salvation.
But on what basis were we given this gift? We have already seen that it is not on the basis of our works. If we cannot be saved according to our works, and if God cannot simply ignore our sin, then How can we receive the free gift of Salvation?
We receive Salvation through the redemptive work of Jesus Christ on the Cross. It was there that He took the penalty of our sin upon himself. God did not simply ignore our sin, He allowed His “Only Beggotten Son” to take the punishment for our sin.
1 Peter 2:24 the Apostle Paul said this about Jesus: "He Himself bore our sins in His body on the Cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed." Jesus’ main purpose in coming to earth was to pay the penalty for our sins, so that we might be able to receive the gift of God, which is salvation by grace . . . through faith.
Whoever you are, if you have received the true salvation of God, you have received it as a gift of God’s grace. Pascal once said, "Grace is indeed required to turn a man into a saint; and he who doubts this does not know what either a man or a saint is."
Which reminds me of the story of a pastor who was asked to conduct the funeral service of a man who had died in his community. The man who had been a real scoundrel. He had been unethical in his business practices, and had lived an immoral lifestyle. The man had a brother that was as bad if not worse than he was. Well, his brother came up to the pastor before the funeral and said, "Pastor I will give you $1,000 if you will say that my brother was saint." The pastor thought for a moment and said "okay." So he got up and said, This man was a dirty, rotten, no-account sinner. He was immoral. He was unethical. He was one of the worst men that I have ever known. But next to his brother, he was saint."
You may think of yourself as being a good moral upstanding person. Other people in the church and community may even consider you to be a good person. But the truth is it doesn’t really matter what you think about yourself, or even what other people think about you, because that won’t get you to heaven when you die. Jesus said, “I Am the Way, The Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
Finally, we are told that the channel through which the grace of God comes to us is faith. But what is faith? Faith is more thank just head knowledge. Sometimes we encourage people to faith by telling them to believe. Indeed, the words believe and faith, are often used to refer to the same thing. But true Biblical faith is more than simply believing that Jesus Christ was a great man, who did a lot of great things for a lot of people. Jesus Christ and Abraham Lincoln are historical figures. But head knowledge alone is not enough to be saved.
Some people equate faith with feelings. Feelings are not faith. Because of our backgrounds in church, or some religious experiences that we have had, we may equate faith with the nostalgic and fond memories we attach to these things. But faith is much deeper than that.
A basic element of faith is trust. Faith begins with knowledge. There is a certain understanding about Christ that we must have. We must know that He Loved us enough to die on the Cross for our sins. But that’s not all, we must also trust in Him as the only hope we have for salvation. Faith begins with knowledge but culminates in commitment. We must trust Christ with our lives.
Let me give you an example of the kind of faith and trust that is necessary to become a Christian. The world-famous acrobat, Blondin, was born in France in 1824. His real name was Jean Francois Gravalet. Over the years, he became famous throughout Europe and America. In London he once played a violin on a tightrope 170 feet above the ground. On this side of the Atlantic, he became famous for crossing Niagara Falls on a tightrope 1,100 feet long and 160 feet above the water. One time he even pushed a wheelbarrow across the Falls while blindfolded. Another time, he stood on his head on the wire. Still another time he carried his manager across Niagara Falls on his back. When he made it to the other side, he looked into the crowd and asked a man standing near, "Do you believe I could do that with you?" The man answered, "Of course, I’ve just seen you do it." Then Blondin said, "Hop on, and I’ll carry you across." The man quickly said, "Not on your life!"
The man wouldn’t go across with Blondin because he didn’t really believe. He had an intellectual understanding of what was going on. He believed intellectually that Blondin could do it, but he wasn’t willing to stake his life on it.
True faith in Jesus means that we stake our lives on Him. We commit ourselves to Him as our only hope for salvation. We give ourselves totally to Him, and burn our bridges behind us. Without trust, there is no faith. Without faith, it is impossible to receive grace. And without grace, there is no salvation.
So, what is the answer to our question? Isn’t being good good enough? I suppose the answer depends on the definition of what "good enough" is. If by "good enough" you mean good enough to please your friends and neighbors, then it is good enough. But if you mean good enough to get you into heaven, then it is not "good enough." Being good is not good enough to get anyone into heaven. The only way to get into Heaven is through a personal relationship to Jesus Christ.
We must not only believe in Jesus, but we must trust Him with our lives, in order to receive the gift of eternal life.
