Do You Know a Rich Young Ruler?

In Matthew chapter 19 Jesus speaks with a rich young ruler. Here is part of the conversation:

"Now a man came up to Jesus and asked, 'Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?'
'Why do you ask me about what is good?' Jesus replied. 'There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, obey the commandments.'
'Which ones?' the man inquired.
Jesus replied, "Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother, and love you neighbor as yourself.'
All these I have kept,' the young man said. (Matthew 19: 16-20)

Let's take a look at two big problems that the rich young ruler has (because many people have the same problems, thousands of years later). The first problem is that the rich young ruler wants to know what "good thing" he can do to get eternal life. So many people think that their "good" works are going to earn them a spot in heaven. Getting eternal life is not about what we can do, it is about what we will let God do in our hearts and lives.

Problem #2 appears when the rich young ruler tells Jesus that he has kept all of the commandments Jesus listed! Can you imagine some guy standing in front of Jesus (God's Son!) and telling Him that he has no sin in his life!!! The only person who has ever walked the earth that could make such a claim is Jesus. The rich young ruler has a distorted view of his own self-righteousness. He thinks that he is a good guy because he hasn't done anything terribly wrong, but he does not realize that small sins fall into these categories as well. Sin is sin no matter how our human society ranks it.

I also think that it is astonishing that the rich young ruler asked which commandments he should keep! Like Jesus was going to pick out a couple of commandments that this guy should focus on and not worry about the rest. You may think its funny, but how many people you know are trying to pick and choose where they want to be faithful and serve God and where they let sin rule?