Matthew 19:17, commentary and pictures

To enter life is to keep God's commandments, and only God is good and the source of goodness. The commandments meant are the moral law, the Ten Commandments given at Sinai, binding in both Old and New Testaments. The obedience required is not outward blamelessness but perfect, whole-hearted love for God and neighbor with the law written in mind and heart. This favor cannot be earned by works or personal merit, but is possible through faith in Christ, sharing divine power, relying on His perfection and sacrifice. The ruler's great possessions exposed his divided heart as an idol that kept him from loving God and neighbor, and he went away sorrowful rather than surrender all to follow Christ.

Seeker's Story and Question

The setting is the encounter with a rich young ruler of great possessions and responsibility who sincerely ran to Jesus and knelt before Him to ask what good thing he must do to inherit eternal life. He had been moved by Jesus' tenderness in blessing little children, his tastes and desires were favorable to spirituality, he wanted to become His disciple, and he was convinced Jesus was a good man with whom he could live in harmony. He fully desired to be as Christ was and realized the importance of gaining future life and a place in the abodes of bliss to live eternally with God.

His question about what to do to gain eternal life concerns his whole present and future. It is what people should be helped to understand, and what parents verging on the eternal world most need to understand in training children for salvation, following on to know the Lord and preparing for the great crisis just before us.

Christ's answer is plain, distinct, definite, kind and tender, and positive: if he would enter into life, keep the commandments. When then asked what is still lacking, He points out wherein there is failure, naming attachment to wealth and telling him to sell his possessions, give to the poor, and follow Him. He makes duty clear and invites obedience but does not compel, leaving each to choose whether to obey or refuse.

The ruler claimed to have kept the cited commandments since his youth and thought highly of his own righteousness, yet felt he lacked something. His claim did not reveal his true condition, for Jesus' further command exposed his supreme selfishness and fatal lack and his continuing attachment to possessions. Carefulness in small matters can thus coexist with neglect of what matters more.

Judas came in the same self-righteous spirit, appeared righteous and was numbered among the disciples while selfish, covetous and a thief, and failed to practice Christ's words. If he had asked what he still lacked, he would have received the same answer. The ruler's turning away shows a person may choose the world rather than accept Christ as leader, and wealth and influence did not exempt him from discipleship, to Judas' displeasure when Jesus did not secure his support for His cause.

Only God Is Good

Goodness belongs to God alone, who is the source of all goodness, and to enter into life requires keeping His commandments. Jesus gave this answer to the young man's question about what good thing he must do to have eternal life, declaring there is none good but God and directing him that entering into life means keeping the commandments. His condition pictures that of many Sabbath-keepers who come like that young man to know what to do to inherit eternal life, and his question involves the whole present and future. Receiving this truth is eternal life.

The commandments He named are duties toward other people: do no murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, honor father and mother, and love neighbor as self. The young man's claim to have kept them since his youth did not settle what he still lacked, for Jesus then called him to surrender what stood in the way of following Him by selling possessions, giving to the poor, having treasure in heaven, and following Him. His outward integrity did not meet God's standard, since attachment to possessions showed lack of love for God and others, so keeping the commandments means more than appearing blameless by a human standard and requires God's standard recognized and followed in heart and life. A rich man shall hardly enter the kingdom, which is impossible with men but possible with God, while those forsaking houses, family and lands receive a hundredfold and inherit everlasting life and sit on thrones judging Israel in the regeneration, where the first shall be last and the last first.

By asking why He is called good, Jesus tests whether the ruler understands that He is truly good and recognizes Him as the Son of God and God's representative. The question reveals the ruler's true view of Him, for if the ruler calls Him good he must receive Him as such, as God's Son and representative. God's character is expressed in His law, whose principles must guide every action, which is why entering into life requires keeping the commandments. The ruler thought highly of his own righteousness yet felt he lacked something, and his claim to have kept the commandments did not address the attachment to possessions that Jesus next exposed.

The declaration that none is good but God does not deny Christ's divinity or righteousness and does not exclude Jesus. He speaks of Himself and the Father as God and claims perfect righteousness for Himself. He was free from sin and error, with no trace of imperfection in life or character, and maintained spotless purity under the most trying circumstances.

Commandments Jesus Means

When asked what good thing must be done to have eternal life, the answer names entering into life by keeping the commandments, specified as doing no murder, not committing adultery, not stealing, not bearing false witness, honoring father and mother, and loving neighbor as self. The prohibitions against murder, adultery, stealing, and false witness with the commands to honor parents and love neighbor are the keeping required, and the young man's claim to have kept them does not settle what he still lacks. Being perfect further requires selling possessions, giving to the poor, having treasure in heaven, and following Christ, with the warning that a rich man shall hardly enter the kingdom of heaven, impossible with men but possible with God. Those who have forsaken houses, family, and lands for Christ's name receive a hundredfold and inherit everlasting life, sitting on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel in the regeneration, where many that are first shall be last and the last first.

What is quoted is five of the last six commandments with the second great commandment on which the last six hang, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, while the first four commandments containing duty to God are not named. The further command to sell all and give to the poor exposes lack, showing supreme love of riches as an idol that makes it impossible to love God with all heart, soul, and mind, so there is failure in the first four, and because the heart on treasure is blind to the wants of fellow men there is no loving neighbor as self, so there is failure in the last six as well.

The commandments meant are the moral law, the Ten Commandments, the ten holy precepts of Jehovah, the law given at Sinai and spoken to Moses from the pillar of cloud, not a ceremonial precept. The requirement is declared without reservation in both the Old and New Testaments, and Jesus Himself kept them and taught duty to keep them, without lessening the law's claims. The answer given to the young ruler about inheriting eternal life is the same given to the lawyer who asked how to inherit eternal life and the same principles spoken to Moses from the pillar of cloud, revealing deficiency where self-love is supreme and pointing to undone duties plainly specified in the law. Keeping the commandments is personal work that no one can do for another, requiring earnest faith, earnest work, and faithful improvement of every ability, while Christ as Mediator presents His atoning sacrifice and believers work in His vineyard.

The commandments are summed up as loving God with all heart, soul, strength, and mind and loving neighbor as self. The first four express duty to God and the last six duty to other people, and obedience to the command to love God prepares the heart to obey the command to love one's neighbor. Keeping them is the whole duty for all who expect eternal life, the way to live, regaining what was lost through Adam's disobedience, with the law as the rule of life and the standard by which character is measured. Commandment-keeping calls for the whole person in undivided service to Christ, with the affections centered on Him alone and preparation for service to God. Loving one's neighbor forbids taking advantage of or wronging anyone for personal gain, requiring treating every person, believer or unbeliever, as one would wish to be treated, with unselfish care that does not leave those in danger or need unwarned or uncared for and does not treat the erring with coldness and criticism.

Obedience includes observing the Sabbath of creation, which serves as God's sign. Those who accept the truth and join the church by baptism are to know that this obedience means eternal life, being reformed and brought into fellowship. Those once dead in sin are brought into fellowship with the saints and made to sit with Christ in heavenly places.

Obedience Conditions Eternal Life

Entering into life is connected with and conditioned on keeping God's commandments. Strict obedience to the letter brings the precious boon of eternal life, and willing obedience to all the commandments is the way to heaven. Christ rejects the claim that God's law is a yoke of bondage and affirms that obedience to it is the way of life, while eternal life is in the Son and those without the Son do not have life. Jesus names commandments about conduct toward other people and directs the seeker to the moral law as duty to be obeyed, teaching that the Ten Commandments remain binding and that He Himself kept them. The young man's claim to have kept them did not reveal his true condition, for his sorrow over selling possessions and giving to the poor showed love of riches keeping him from loving God supremely and neighbor as self, so outward keeping had not made him complete.

The obedience required is far more than outward blamelessness or merely legal compliance. It is perfect obedience and perfection of character, living the spirit and life of all the commandments as true love for God and for others with no selfishness. This obedience must shape life and character and appear in habits simple, honest, pure and free from all iniquity, with God's law written in mind and heart. Acceptable obedience is whole-souled, like Christ's obedience to the Father, involving the whole person in undivided service with affections centered on God alone, and true faith leads away from selfishness and self-sufficiency. Keeping the commandments means loving God with whole heart, soul, strength and mind and loving neighbor as self, and doing this is the way to live and be prepared for service to God.

Outward claim to have kept them is self-deception, for outward integrity by a human standard does not meet God's standard which must be recognized and followed in heart and life. A lover of self is a breaker of the law even while claiming to obey, because making self and worldly gain an idol leaves the heart without the principle that gives the commandments life. That lack is lack of everything that fits a person for the kingdom, putting him out of harmony with heaven. The rich young ruler would have seen his sin if he had understood the commandment rightly in spirit and truth, for obeying it so would have exposed and slain his sinful nature and he would have laid hold of eternal life. The law must be brought home to conscience to see the exceeding sinfulness of sin, a man must die to self and have self crucified, and until self is crucified he cannot know what spiritual holiness is and remains unprepared whatever the outward propriety of conduct or claimed belief.

Obedience regains what was lost through Adam's disobedience. Keeping the commandments is the whole duty of all who expect eternal life, summed as loving God with all heart, soul, strength and mind and loving neighbor as self. The law is the rule of life and the standard by which character is measured. Keeping brings harmony, peace and love, while disregarding leads the world toward ruin and toward wrath, so warning is grounded to obey God and avoid His wrath. A willful transgressor will not enter into life, so those who know the claims of God's law are responsible to honor it and represent its truth to the world.

The condition does not mean God's favor and the righteous person's reward can be earned by works or personal merit. Nor does Christ's righteousness permit disobedience, for the same perfect unblemished righteousness required of Adam remains under grace in full harmony with God's holy, just and good law. Because the ransom has been paid it is possible to obey, through faith in Christ by sharing the divine nature and being joined to His divine power, by which obedience becomes acceptable. Separated from Him no righteousness of one's own can be produced. Keeping God's law by itself does not supply the heart devotion and Christian goodness lacking, which requires a humble contrite heart giving supreme love to God and relying on the perfection of Christ, whose life gives power to overcome. Those who look to Jesus as their only hope are to walk in the way opened by His sacrifice and keep God's law, for His sacrifice bears sin's penalty and provides the only ground of a sinner's title to eternal life, while those persisting in rejection of light about the law choose sin and cannot enter life in transgression.

To enter life is to obey the commands of God in this life and work out a perfect character. Receiving this truth is life eternal. To enter is to receive the immortal inheritance, to enter the palaces of heaven and associate on terms of freedom and equality with Christ and heavenly angels and with the princes of God, gaining blessing both in this life and in the life to come. Those who do God's commandments are granted the right to the tree of life and entry into the holy city, and acceptable obedience is the kind Christ offered, expressed by hearing God's word and doing His will. Keeping is personal work that no one can do for another, requiring earnest faith, earnest work and faithful improvement of every God-given ability, for idleness is sin. While Christ as Mediator presents His atoning sacrifice on behalf of sinners, believers are to work in His vineyard.

Wealth Exposes Divided Heart

To be perfect the ruler is told to sell what he has and give to the poor, so to have treasure in heaven, and to come follow Christ. Those who forsake houses, family and lands for Christ's name receive a hundredfold and inherit everlasting life, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel in the regeneration. A rich man shall hardly enter the kingdom of heaven, which with men is impossible but with God all things are possible, where many that are first shall be last and the last first.

His great possessions were the plague spot of his life, an idol supremely loved that stood between him and eternal life. That supreme love of riches made it impossible to love God with all heart, soul and mind, so he failed the first four commandments containing duty to God, though they were not named to him. Because his heart was on his treasure he was blind to the wants of fellow men and did not love his neighbor as himself or care for the poor, so he failed the last six commandments as well, despite claiming to have kept the five named to him with love of neighbor. Christ touched that defect to expose self-love as supreme and to show that outward keeping had not made him complete, for his claim did not reveal his true weakness.

He went away sorrowful, unwilling to deny self, lift the cross and follow his Master in self-denial, which showed his weakness and proved he was not a true lover of God. He wanted heavenly treasure yet also wanted the temporal advantages of his riches and power, and counted giving up earthly treasure that was seen for heavenly treasure that was unseen too great a risk. He valued his riches more than the heavenly treasure and eternal life, refused the offer of life, renounced immortal life, and gave his worship to the world ever after. His choice illustrates how hard it is to turn love from earthly treasure even when eternal life is promised.

Christ demands of all who would follow Him an entire surrender of all they have and all they are, which is no more than He Himself gave when He left His riches, glory and honor, laid aside His royalty and humbled Himself to take man's nature in order to save men. Following requires humility, self-denial and sacrifice, taking up the cross, receiving Christ and letting God's love rule the heart, for keeping the commandments cannot be separated from yielding what keeps a person from becoming His disciple. Whatever would corrupt the whole person must be cut away, with love and self-sacrifice as the test of character at the final judgment, calling for practical love toward others and not merely a claim to love God. This rule applies to all disciples rich and poor, even to people with great possessions or positions of trust.

A rich person cannot enter God's kingdom while loving possessions more than God, other people or truth, for a heart ruled by wealth will give up truth rather than part with it. Human effort cannot free a person from this attachment, but with God it is possible: His Spirit can displace love of riches with love for Jesus and love for God. That change leads to generous giving, to using entrusted wealth to bless others and serve God, and to faithful management of time, talents and means as God's sacred trusts. Then even a rich person can keep the commandments by loving God wholly and loving neighbor as self, made possible because Christ gave up heaven and submitted to a shameful death.

The young man pictures the condition of many Sabbath-keepers and stands for a large class who want eternal life but draw back when obedience requires lifting a cross, held by earthly treasures so that few obey God. Willingness to keep the commandments did not mean readiness to follow Christ and make the sacrifice, for he still loved his possessions more than the heavenly treasure. Carefulness about small matters can coexist with neglect of what matters more, while worldly cares, riches and other desires can choke the word, leaving people unwilling to seek or understand truth until its light is lost.

Living Obedience Today

Earthly riches are lent to be used for God's glory, and they are kept by using them to help those Christ purchased, to relieve the suffering poor, to bless others, to become rich in good works, and to advance God's kingdom rather than living for self or honor. Hoarded wealth kept for self shows the heavenly inheritance is not valued enough, while even the poor who use little means to bless others are rich toward God. Caring for a neighbor is a claim that cannot be disregarded under the command to love one's neighbor as oneself, for the test exposed that claimed commandment-keeping that does not reach the heart in love and service to others keeps a person from choosing the heavenly inheritance. Through such surrender and practical love, Christ becomes the life within the soul and there is treasure in heaven.

When God's work calls for property to carry the truth forward, to speed messengers, and to feed hungry sheep dying for want of saving truth, withholding means follows the young man's sorrowful example when he would not give up his possessions. Earthly goods will soon be swept away by the coming scourge, so sacrifice must not be postponed until it is too late to lay up treasure in heaven. Entering into life therefore includes willingness to cut loose from earthly wealth and to distribute to advance the work, since attachment to possessions can prevent obedience.

Keeping the commandments includes the laws governing the body, to be lived out as the apple of the eye in loyalty to the commandments and in harmony with God's laws. Transgressing the laws of nature is transgressing God's laws, while obedience is life-giving to spiritual and physical well-being. Obeyed commandments are life and health to the flesh through healthful living as taught in Scripture, regulation of appetite and passion, relief of suffering by natural agencies God provided, and prevention of sickness. Such obedience fits the bodies God created to be presented to Him as a living sacrifice for acceptable service, with sanitariums as educating centers of healing, restoring, and teaching health-preserving principles to prepare a people for the Lord's coming.

The condition of entering life by obedience applies to husband, wife, and children to obey God's Word together, and to all entrusted with sacred truths and talents. Christ invites seekers to place themselves under His guidance and work with Him, so that united with Christ they reflect God's likeness and become a power for good as co-workers with Him. Those truly following Him must faithfully share their light rather than hide it, setting it on a candlestick by example and by seeking others to help, until the Master comes to reckon with His servants.

Commandment love forbids taking advantage of or wronging anyone for personal gain and requires treating every person, believer or unbeliever, as one would wish to be treated, obeying the law strictly in these dealings. Genuine love for God includes unselfish care for others, especially those in danger or need, warning and helping them rather than leaving them unwarned and uncared for or treating the erring with coldness and criticism. Christian profession alone is not enough without humility, self-denial, sacrifice, and a life showing changed allegiance and conduct on the path Jesus and His disciples trod.