Am I Good Enough?
In our earlier article, we saw that “good” in the New Testament refers to moral excellence. We began looking at a meeting between Jesus and a rich ruler. “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” he asked Jesus. Jesus tells him that only God is truly good. He invites him to think about God’s law. God must be good if his law makes someone good. The ruler responds by saying he has kept all of God’s laws; he misunderstood the point of the law. The point of the law is to show us our sin and need for God’s goodness. This leaves us with the question, “Am I good enough?” This is what Jesus invites us to consider next.
One Thing You Still Lack
In his response to Jesus, the ruler showed he had not reflected on God’s goodness, nor how his own perceived goodness compared. So, Jesus issues the ruler with a challenge.
When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “One thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” But when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich.
The rich ruler became very sad when asked to give up his money. There’s no sign that the rich ruler rose to Jesus’ challenge. Instead, if serving God meant parting with his money, that was a price he was unwilling to pay. Money had first place in his heart, not God. Jesus also taught this in the sermon on the mount.
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
Matthew 6:19-24 ESV
Earlier Jesus mentions five of the ten commandments which relate to our relationship with other people. With this challenge, Jesus encourages the rich ruler to examine his relationship with God. This is more than a shocking challenge. Jesus shows the rich ruler falls short of the first four commands, which deal with our relationship to God. Look at the first and fourth commandments:
“You shall have no other gods before me.
Exodus 20:3 ESV
You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God,
Exodus 20:5a ESV
Trusting God is difficult for people with material wealth, great intellectual ability, or high status and achievement. We put more faith in our own efforts than trusting God’s goodness.
Impossible or Possible?
The rich ruler’s sadness showed that he was neither loyal too, nor placed his faith in God. Jesus knew his heart and responded this way:
Jesus, seeing that he had become sad, said, “How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”
Jesus’ analogy of a camel passing through a needle’s eye is intentionally ridiculous. Of course, something so absurd is impossible.
At the time of Jesus, people believed riches were a sign of God’s blessing (Matt. 5:43-45). If you were rich, you were worthy of God’s blessing. So, if a rich person couldn’t enter heaven, then who could? That is exactly what the people asked. Let’s see how Jesus responded.
Those who heard it said, “Then who can be saved?” But he said, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.”
Jesus is clear, humans cannot be good enough to enter heaven. But praise God that nothing is impossible for him! Jesus’ death and resurrection on the cross accomplished what was impossible for man. The apostle Paul echoes this in his letter to the Ephesians.
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Conclusion
Am I good enough to enter heaven? No. Even if we are a “good person”, following the rules, our hearts will still wander and server other masters. This becomes more difficult when we have wealth, or status. The rich ruler trusted in his own efforts and abilities, not God’s. He thought he was good enough. But, he did not understand genuine goodness, because he did not know God’s goodness. We must trust in God’s goodness and not our own.
You maybe thinking, “I’m not wealthy, I’ve already chosen to trust Jesus and follow him. Good thing I’m not like the rich ruler.” Perhaps you wonder if the sacrifices you made to follow Jesus mean anything, because you cannot be good enough anyway. You are not alone if you think these things. In our next article Jesus’ disciples ask “What about us?”