The other day someone asked me to explain the story of the Rich Young Ruler in Luke 18.  It seems the anxiety of discovering that we are stuck in a materially structured society was a bit unsettling for my friend.  We talked about the danger of getting caught up in “things,” but I did not want him to miss what I believe is the central teaching of the passage.  So, I said, “Let’s tell the story in today’s religious climate.”

Imagine that Jesus was around today and passing through our town.  He meets an older man one day who says, “Good Teacher, what  must I do to inherit eternal life?”

“Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered.  “No one is good — except God alone.  You know the commandments (here is where I substitute Jesus’ words to what I imagine) — Hear, believe, repent, confess, be baptized, go to church 3 times a week, sing the right songs the right ways, read the correct version of the Bible, etc. . .”

“All these I have kept since I was a boy,” he said.

When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “You still lack one thing.  Sell everything you have and give it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.  Then come, follow me.”

When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was a man of great wealth.

The story, and my adaption, points out the central flaw of many people’s view of salvation.  No matter how hard we try to wrap our minds around the concept, we still end up trying to gain salvation through our own actions and efforts — the individual difference being only the extent.  This is why Jesus begins the story by reminding the man the “God alone is good.”   He reveals that there is no secret formula, or sequence of actions that creates salvation.  There is only God, who grants freedom and life to those who trust in His power to save rather than their own ability to perfrom perfectly. 

It is not a question of rather or not the commandments are good or bad — that is immaterial.  The only thing that matters is God’s eternal goodness.  We say that grace is a gift, that salvation is the work of God, and that there is power in blood — but when we qualify these realities and water down their effect through a partial dependency upon ourselves, we become just like the man in Luke 18.  That is why the “punchline” to the story is so powerful — “What is impossible with men is possible with God.”

Materialism is a great evil.  But depending upon our own righteousness to achieve salvation is a scandal and a heresy.  The call of Luke 18 is not a call to poverty, but a challenge to depend solely on God’s righteousness for salvation.