The Sad Reality That Self-Seekers Aren't Bound For Heaven

By -
Why do many people hate the Gospel? It's because the Gospel has never been meant to cater to the self-seeking. The account of the rich young ruler and Jesus (Matthew 19:16-22, Mark 10:17-27 and Luke 18:1823) reveal the problem of self-seekers. The rich young ruler saying that he had kept the law since childhood is the problem of people people today. He wanted to seek eternal life but he was on the self-seeking side. He thought he was good enough. Jesus' remedy was to really address the fact that you couldn't keep the whole Law.

Jesus said in Mark 10:23-24 about the problem of trusting riches. Does being rich send you to Hell and the poor go to Heaven? You can be poor all you want and still end up in Hell. Any poor beggar who dies rejecting Jesus ends up in Hell with every other person that dies without Jesus. God doesn't spare you from Hell just because you're poor or automatically send you to Hell just because you're rich. It's all dependent on whether or not one's been truly born again.

I'd like to give this question on Got Questions on the rich young ruler, here's what we must understand:
In telling the young man to keep the commandments, Jesus was not saying that he could be saved by obeying the commandments; rather, Jesus was emphasizing the Law as God’s perfect standard. If you can keep the Law perfectly, then you can escape sin’s penalty—but that’s a big if. When the man responded that he met the Law’s standard, Jesus simply touched on one issue that proved the man did not measure up to God’s holiness. The man was not willing to follow the Lord, if that meant he must give up his wealth. Thus, the man was breaking the two greatest commands; he did not love his neighbor as himself, and he did not love the LORD with all his heart. He loved himself (and his money) more. Far from keeping "all" the commandments, as he had claimed, the man was a sinner like everyone else. The Law proved it. 
If the man had loved God and other people more than he did his property, he would have been willing to give up his wealth to the service of God and man. But that was not the case. He had made an idol of his wealth, and he loved it more than God. With surgical precision, Jesus exposes the greed in the man’s heart—greed the man did not even suspect he had. Jesus’ statement that only God is good (Matthew 19:18) is proved in the young man’s response to Jesus’ command. 
In His conversation with the rich young ruler, Christ did not teach that we are saved by the works of the Law. The Bible’s message is that salvation is by grace through faith (Romans 3:20, 28; 4:6; Galatians 2:16; Ephesians 2:9; 2 Timothy 1:9). Rather, Jesus used the man’s love of money to show how the man fell short of God’s holy standard—as do we all. The rich young ruler needed the Savior, and so do we. 

The rich young ruler's self-righteousness was defeated at that moment. The problem of self-seekers is all about self-righteousness. Many people think that their prosperous lifestyle is an indicator that God is blessing them. Some religious but lost people today can go ahead and brag that their wealth is an indicator that they're in the right religion. They think that whenever a person leaves their religion then the misfortunes were all about bringing in divine judgment. In short, they may go ahead and say that Lazarus should have gone to Hell and the rich man was a good person. But no, the Bible says that the rich man went to Hell and Lazarus went to Heaven. What's ironic many Roman Catholics tend to use the story of the rich young ruler in hopes of proving the idea of faith alone is invalid all the while they act like the rich young ruler. Many of them don't want to leave Roman Catholicism because they don't want to risk losing their business ties.

When it comes to self-seeking it hates the idea that man can't save himself. Ephesians 2:8-10 shows that from salvation to sanctification it's been the work of God. Many who say that Philippians 2:12 shows that we must work "for" our salvation when it says "work out". While the Good News Translation approved for Roman Catholics says to work out to complete your salvation yet verse 13 still says that it's God that works in the person negating the idea that salvation requires good works rather than good works as the evidence of salvation. The whole phrase "so none could boast" means this that this self-seeking isn't welcome at all. Arrogant people want to prove to themselves that they can please God.

Do you want to work your way to Heaven without grace? Then prove it by living a life without sin and prove to us you've never sinned. The problem of works salvation is that it gives the license to be arrogant and look down at the repentant. Meanwhile salvation by grace through faith produces authentic good works. The evidence of true salvation is that you got saved from sin and you're still being saved from sin and one day you'll be completely saved from sin. The good works of the believer is by God's grace. In short, Titus 2:11-14 attributes the good works of the believer. 1 Corinthians 15:10 attributes the changed life to God's grace.


See also: