Jesus Asks The Rich Young Ruler a Question
The rich young ruler respected Christ and believed that He could answer his question
The rich young ruler had a question for The Lord Jesus Christ, but before Christ answered his question, Jesus had a question for him. It is very interesting that Jesus asked a question before answering the rich young ruler's question. Jesus asked him "Why callest thou me good?" Now the young man had great regard for Christ to kneel down before Him publicly, and he truly seemed to trust that Christ would have the solution to his inquiry. At the point when he had this inquiry, he must have been hoping for an answer he would like, however he surely disliked the response from Jesus. His renowned question to Christ: What shall he do to inherit eternal life? Jesus told him "...Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me." (Luke 18: 22). Now at this point the young guy became quite troubled. One of the main factors behind the ruler's distress was that he completely knew that he would need to surrender being the rich ruler so as to have God. He needed to deal with another issue too, he just was not keeping God's laws either. No one could keep The Ten Commandments aside from Christ. What Jesus really did was call the rich ruler on his wrongdoing and what was actually keeping him from serving God. The young man's sin and what was preventing him from truly serving God was his love for mammon. The love of money is the root of ALL evil.
He did not understand that Jesus is God
Going back now to the question Christ had for the young man "Why callest thou me good? Keep in mind that Christ asked this question before answering the rich young ruler's question. The reason that Christ asked this particular question pertains that Jesus already knew that this young man with numerous belongings and just about immeasurable wealth did not completely comprehend that The Lord Jesus Christ is God. The rich man seemed to be very curious and distressful at the same time. He got on his knees as to show great respect, and did consider Jesus a good master, however it was not obvious to him that Jesus is God.
This scenario is a very short, yet very powerful story in The Bible. It is quite profound, and could very well have made its way into a million or more sermons over the centuries. It was not having the money that was the sin, which some seemed to have misconstrued over the years, it was that the money itself had the young man. Many Believers have taken this teaching as that by selling all of one's possessions was the only way anyone could serve Christ and go to Heaven, however it is the assignment by Jesus Christ given specifically to those who have made money an idol. This young man certainly made money into an idol. Those who are serving mammon, and not Christ need to sell all of their possessions.
Jesus knew that money was what the man truly served, and not God. It might be said that the young ruler (practically) did not have money since it really is the thing that very much had him -the issue was that he was all the while serving mammon, and not God at all.
No one can serve two masters!
The Bible explains what happens when an individual serves two masters: Christ will not settle for second. Matthew 6:24 "No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon." This also has to do with in The Book of Revelation where Jesus will not tolerate anyone who is lukewarm, and would rather the person be either hot or cold. Revelation 3:16 "So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth." The person who serves two masters will only just love one and end up detesting the other. The rich young ruler was not serving God by much of any means. He cherished his riches, not God, and subsequently was captive to his own assets. Anyone who loves money does not fully grasp that ALL of the silver and gold is God's as each great blessing is from above from the Father of lights. We don't know, without a doubt, at any point if this man ever returned to Christ. To have eternal life, a person needs Christ because Jesus is God.
