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.’” – Matthew 19:16-17 (NIV)
Most non-believers recognize that there must be something more to life. Although they still persist in following the world’s promise of satisfaction through material possessions and pleasures, they follow this path as hypocrites, all the while knowing the world has lied and true satisfaction is still beyond them. This young rich man sensed that riches were inadequate for true happiness. He was unhappy with his present life, and terrified about his eternal life. If he wasn’t satisfied now, he realized he had no hope of being satisfied for all of eternity.
Yet we should notice what this young man did not sense. He was utterly ignorant of justification by faith in Jesus Christ [a]. He was trapped in his thinking that he must do something, earn something, perform some great act. This man measured his life according to worldly standards. When compared to the world around him, he was the superior. The wealthy have always been a small percentage of any society, and in Jesus’ day wealth was held by even fewer than today. This young man was surrounded by social inferiors. He was the standard that everyone else used as a measuring gauge. But still he was not satisfied because deep down he knew his faults and frailties. While he may have been a standard for societal success, he knew he was no standard for moral goodness.
Jesus senses this, and takes the opportunity to clearly impress the true standard upon his mind. God is the only standard of goodness. Jesus did not mean this to reassure the man, but to frighten him. Certainly if God was the standard, who could ever possible measure up? But Jesus is also inviting this man to see something about the Jesus’ own nature. Will this man recognize Christ as God, and thus as the true standard of goodness? Will he see that he will never measure up to Jesus, and therefore only has hope by surrendering his life to Christ?
Our Lord tells him to obey the commandments if he wants eternal life. Jesus isn’t pointing him towards works, but rather towards the futility of the law to produce goodness. Clement of Alexandria correctly notes that “salvation does not depend on external things, whether they be many or few, small or great, or illustrious or obscure, or esteemed or disesteemed; but on the virtue of the soul, on faith, and hope, and love, and brotherliness, and knowledge, and meekness, and humility, and truth, the reward of which is salvation.”
Jesus knows this man has relied on himself, and therefore subtly shows that he isn’t an adequate standard. Jesus also knows this man has relied upon the law, and now begins to demonstrate that the law itself is inadequate. The young man wants his heart to be at rest. Our Lord is trying to show him, as Augustine said so well, that his heart will be restless until it finds rest in Jesus.
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[a] David Dickson, A Brief Exposition of the Euangel of Jesus Christ According to Matthew, 1647. Comments from Chapter XIX, verse 16.
[b] Clement of Alexandria, Quis dives salvetur? (Who is the Rich Man That Shall be Saved?), Section 18. This work is essentially a commentary on Matthew 19:16-30. An older English translation can be found in volume 2 of the Ante-Nicene Fathers series.
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