16 And someone came to Him and said, “Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may obtain eternal life?” 17 And He said to him, “Why are you asking Me about what is good? There is only One who is good; but if you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.” 18 Then he said to Him, “Which ones?” And Jesus said, “You shall not commit murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; 19 Honor your father and mother; and You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
The final trip to Jerusalem had been set in motion. A wealthy young man (vs. 20, 22) approaches him with a question which affords Jesus the opportunity to point out the real purpose of the law. The young man was ostensibly interested in how to be good enough to obtain eternal life. Jesus responds with two comments. In the first, He challenges the man’s sense of “good.” Only a perfectly good person would be able to answer what is good enough to qualify a person for eternal life. That one person would be God, who alone is good and therefore qualified to declare what is good. Logically, then, the natural thing would be to refer the man to the Word of God, which reflects God’s thinking: if you want to enter into eternal life, keep the commandments.
The back story to this interview was a favorite debate among the rabbis about their various ranking systems for prioritizing the commandments. Essentially, question of the debate was that if a person could not keep all the commandments, then which should be the focus of effort and attention? Jesus lists out the latter portion of the ten commandments, numbers five through nine, leaving out the tenth about coveting. He summarized with “love your neighbor as yourself,” His catchall, to refer to all the commands having to do with human relationships (in Matt 22:30 Jesus calls it the 2nd greatest commandment).
This response of Jesus, on the surface, seems to go against later inspired teaching, particular in the writings of the apostle Paul, where he says, “the law brings about wrath” (Rom 4:15), “the law came in that the transgression would increase” (Rom 5:20), we “are not under law, but under grace” (Rom 6:16). It is true that if a person keeps the law, he could enter into eternal life. But that is a big “IF.” There is only One who is good enough to keep the law—and that is God! All others fall short (Romans 3:23). This interview was designed to show the young man that “the Law is indeed holy” (Romans 7:12) and that he is not! With fuller revelation, we find out later that Jesus came “so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (Romans 8:4).
Lord, You are good and I am not. Thank You for graciously showing me that I need your goodness. Enable me to love others as myself.
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