Jesus Speaking to a Troubled Young Man and the Crowdby CBPepper
19:26Matthew 19:26
But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.
Jesus spoke these words to answer His disciples when, after the rich young man went away sorrowful and He warned how hard it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom, they asked in amazement who then can be saved. No person can save himself or gain eternal life by his own ability, power, or effort, but what is impossible with men is possible with God. No one who loves riches better than God and his fellow men can keep his riches and enter the kingdom, for love of Jesus and riches cannot dwell in the same heart. God makes entrance possible by changing the heart by His Spirit, crowding out love of riches until the possessor breaks from it, loves God wholly and neighbor as self, and uses all he has as God's trust to bless the needy and advance His work. What is impossible for man is made possible when God adopts him and transforms him by His Spirit, so that the weak and erring, who can do nothing apart from Christ, overcome besetting evil, receive the love and holiness the law requires, and become loyal and true.
Setting in Gospel Story
The saying closes the story of the young man who asked what good thing to do to inherit eternal life and then went away sorrowful because of his great possessions. After his departure Jesus warned that a rich man shall hardly enter the kingdom of heaven and that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. The disciples were exceedingly amazed at this and asked who then can be saved. Jesus answered that with men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible, meaning that people cannot save themselves or overcome the barrier to entering the kingdom by their own ability, power, or effort.
They had expected the young ruler to do as Matthew had done in leaving all to follow Christ, and his refusal left them sorrowful and dejected. The saying belongs to the event just before the parable of the laborers. That parable presents God's free grace against the teaching that God's favor must be earned by works to gain the reward of the righteous, correcting a grasping, mercenary spirit in worship that even the disciples shared.
Those who have followed Christ and forsaken houses, family, or lands for His name's sake shall receive an hundredfold and inherit everlasting life. In the regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of His glory, they shall sit upon twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. But many that are first shall be last, and the last shall be first.
Salvation Beyond Human Power
No one can save himself by his own ability, power, or effort, nor secure eternal life or overcome the barriers to entering God's kingdom, but what is impossible with men is possible with God. This is the answer to the disciples' question, Who then can be saved, asked after Jesus declared how hard it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven and that wealth and attachment to possessions form a barrier to entrance. Human power cannot bring about salvation, but God can do what is impossible for men.
This possibility rests on Christ giving His life to the work of soul-saving, thereby making it possible for human beings to return to loyalty to God and take their stand under His banner, even under the blood-stained banner of Prince Emmanuel. With men salvation from love of riches is impossible, but with God all things are possible because of that self-giving work. It was spoken to the disciples' amazed question after Christ said a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven and that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.
The verse closes the story of the young man who asked what good thing to do to inherit eternal life and went away sorrowful because of his great possessions, after the warning about the rich man and the camel and the needle. It exposes the condition of many Sabbath-keepers who are like that young man. His supreme love of wealth kept him from loving God wholly and loving his neighbor as himself, so that he turned away from the call to give to the poor and follow Jesus.
Rich Entering the Kingdom
With men it is impossible for the rich to enter heaven, yet with God it remains possible, because riches themselves are a hindrance. The hindrance lies in what wealth tempts its possessors to do: to use earthly advantage to exalt and glorify self, to withhold from Christ what He calls for, to spend His goods on self-gratification and pride and display, to follow the fatal current of worldliness toward perishing, and to place themselves where they cannot appreciate heavenly riches.
No rich man whose heart is on his riches, who loves his riches better than his fellow men, better than God or the truth of His word, can keep his riches and yet enter the kingdom. He cannot have his riches and a treasure in heaven too, for to try to keep both is to risk eternal life for worldly possession. The love of Jesus and riches cannot dwell in the same heart. Riches alone do not exclude, for the rich are not shut out simply for being rich.
What is impossible with men becomes possible with God because He is able to change and subdue the human heart. Truth brought home to the heart by the Spirit crowds out and drives away the love of riches. The love of God so far surpasses the love of riches that the possessor breaks away from possessive attachment and transfers his affections to God. Human effort cannot overcome that attachment or secure entrance, but God can and will do it through the one who heeds Him.
The rich person thus converted loves the Lord his God with all heart and soul and mind and loves his neighbor as himself, and so keeps the first four commandments and the last six. He holds all he has as not his own, treats what he owns as God's trust and stewardship, faithfully discharges his duty as God's steward, resists worldliness, and becomes united to Christ. Freed by Christ's love from clinging to possessions, he uses his riches after Christ's example. He makes it his highest pleasure to make a right disposition of his Lord's goods to bless the needy and administer to the wants of God's cause, to bless the suffering and lost and advance God's work, caring for the needy and investing means to help the poor. In this way a rich man can enter the kingdom of God.
Rich people must not trust their own plans or use of wealth as a way to gain eternal life, but need to follow God's direction and use their means in His cause. Despite discouragements and heart-sickening revelations in labor for those devoted to money-getting and whose lives have been devoted to gain, God can and will work through human agencies upon their minds and through the Holy Spirit to work miracles of genuine conversion. No person however great, influential, or devoted to gain is beyond His power, and even the greatest men of earth are not beyond divine power. When workers together with Him do their duty bravely and faithfully, God will convert men who occupy responsible places, men of intellect and influence. Through the power of the Holy Spirit He leads many to see spiritual poverty, to prefer Christ to self, to receive eternal life, to accept divine principles, and to use time, money, talent, and influence to serve the gospel.
Holy Life Made Possible
No one is holy by birth, and no method of human devising can make a person loyal and true to God, for human goodness and righteousness in themselves are worthless and nothing can be done apart from Christ. Holiness of character is not inherited by nature. People cannot meet God's requirements and the law's demands by their own strength, for they cannot make themselves love God and neighbor or make themselves humble, meek and holy. God promises to give the love, humility, meekness and holiness the law requires, and by faith in Christ and faith in that promise believers receive this help so that the righteousness the law requires is fulfilled in them.
What is impossible for man becomes possible through God, who adopts people into His family and transforms them by His Spirit. That transformation changes self-indulgence and supreme love for self into self-denial and supreme love for God. In the Redeemer's strength weak and erring people are transformed, overcome the evil that besets them, and become more than conquerors over it. Holiness and loyalty come through God's power, not by nature, inheritance or human strength.
What is impossible for a human agent God can do and will do through him if he heeds God's counsel and moves in Christ's order. Realizing personal inability brings assurance of God's sufficiency. The person should therefore begin and advance, doing the right work believing it is right and expecting the Lord to help and to lead in clear lines. God works in and through him until misunderstandings are cleared away, divine tenderness takes possession of the soul, and Christ's love and compassion flow out with pity for the weak, erring, unshepherded and hungry. By faith people lay hold of God's power and trust Him to fulfill His promises, for what is impossible through human power is possible with God. Faith is not sight, feeling or visible reality but the substance of what is hoped for and the evidence of what is unseen, and to abide in it is to set aside feelings and selfish desires, walk humbly with God, apply His promises in every circumstance, rely on Him to carry out His purposes through sanctification of character, and bear the fruits of the Spirit.
Power for God's Work
With men the deliverance of Israel from bondage was hopeless and impossible, but Moses could undertake that mission because he trusted God rather than his own ability, qualifications, strength, and wisdom. He obeyed God's commands even when the way ahead was unclear and when those commands seemed unreasonable to human judgment, and he relied on divine power rather than himself. His faith enabled him to lead the people through difficulties, dangers, and obstacles they could not overcome by themselves, for God worked through him who recognized his helplessness and relied fully on Him. Success in God's work therefore depends on trusting His power and following His commands, not on human qualifications or a clear view of every step ahead.
What people regard as impossible is possible with God in the worldwide proclamation of the message. God made it possible for the small, poor, and unpopular Sabbath movement to grow and for its publications to spread around the world as foretold. Limited faith must not restrict the work in cities and nations, and when His people walk in all humility of mind before Him He will work with great power. Then the light of the binding claims of the fourth commandment can be presented in clear lines before the people in the large cities and go in power to all parts of the world, to all nations, tongues, and peoples, to test and prove the world, growing to large proportions and giving light to all. What appears impossible can likewise become possible with God in advancing the work in Washington through self-denial, self-sacrifice, and using the means entrusted for God's cause.
What men cannot pay or accomplish on their own God can bring about for His work. He can open a way to buy property for a sanitarium despite the poverty of believers and their inability to pay its full price. He directs even delays in securing deeds to give time to raise the purchase money, moves brethren to give freewill offerings and gifts rather than interest-bearing loans, places property unencumbered in the hands of His people, and clears institutional debt carried for years. Although workers may have no money for the first payment for land, the Lord can provide what is needed, which calls for trust rather than distrust when the way forward is not yet visible and warns against human interference while God manages His work in His own time and way.
By His grace and the strength of the crucified Redeemer, people can succeed in making marriage happy and in helping a life made crooked by sin become straight in God. He can do this because He is perfect in wisdom, righteousness, power, and love. To talk of impossibilities is not faith, and plans must not be limited to what human arms can embrace, but must take broader views and enlarge faith and conception of the work.
Jesus spoke these words to answer His disciples when, after the rich young man went away sorrowful and He warned how hard it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom, they asked in amazement who then can be saved. No person can save himself or gain eternal life by his own ability, power, or effort, but what is impossible with men is possible with God. No one who loves riches better than God and his fellow men can keep his riches and enter the kingdom, for love of Jesus and riches cannot dwell in the same heart. God makes entrance possible by changing the heart by His Spirit, crowding out love of riches until the possessor breaks from it, loves God wholly and neighbor as self, and uses all he has as God's trust to bless the needy and advance His work. What is impossible for man is made possible when God adopts him and transforms him by His Spirit, so that the weak and erring, who can do nothing apart from Christ, overcome besetting evil, receive the love and holiness the law requires, and become loyal and true.
Setting in Gospel Story
The saying closes the story of the young man who asked what good thing to do to inherit eternal life and then went away sorrowful because of his great possessions. After his departure Jesus warned that a rich man shall hardly enter the kingdom of heaven and that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. The disciples were exceedingly amazed at this and asked who then can be saved. Jesus answered that with men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible, meaning that people cannot save themselves or overcome the barrier to entering the kingdom by their own ability, power, or effort.
They had expected the young ruler to do as Matthew had done in leaving all to follow Christ, and his refusal left them sorrowful and dejected. The saying belongs to the event just before the parable of the laborers. That parable presents God's free grace against the teaching that God's favor must be earned by works to gain the reward of the righteous, correcting a grasping, mercenary spirit in worship that even the disciples shared.
Those who have followed Christ and forsaken houses, family, or lands for His name's sake shall receive an hundredfold and inherit everlasting life. In the regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of His glory, they shall sit upon twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. But many that are first shall be last, and the last shall be first.
Salvation Beyond Human Power
No one can save himself by his own ability, power, or effort, nor secure eternal life or overcome the barriers to entering God's kingdom, but what is impossible with men is possible with God. This is the answer to the disciples' question, Who then can be saved, asked after Jesus declared how hard it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven and that wealth and attachment to possessions form a barrier to entrance. Human power cannot bring about salvation, but God can do what is impossible for men.
This possibility rests on Christ giving His life to the work of soul-saving, thereby making it possible for human beings to return to loyalty to God and take their stand under His banner, even under the blood-stained banner of Prince Emmanuel. With men salvation from love of riches is impossible, but with God all things are possible because of that self-giving work. It was spoken to the disciples' amazed question after Christ said a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven and that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.
The verse closes the story of the young man who asked what good thing to do to inherit eternal life and went away sorrowful because of his great possessions, after the warning about the rich man and the camel and the needle. It exposes the condition of many Sabbath-keepers who are like that young man. His supreme love of wealth kept him from loving God wholly and loving his neighbor as himself, so that he turned away from the call to give to the poor and follow Jesus.
Rich Entering the Kingdom
With men it is impossible for the rich to enter heaven, yet with God it remains possible, because riches themselves are a hindrance. The hindrance lies in what wealth tempts its possessors to do: to use earthly advantage to exalt and glorify self, to withhold from Christ what He calls for, to spend His goods on self-gratification and pride and display, to follow the fatal current of worldliness toward perishing, and to place themselves where they cannot appreciate heavenly riches.
No rich man whose heart is on his riches, who loves his riches better than his fellow men, better than God or the truth of His word, can keep his riches and yet enter the kingdom. He cannot have his riches and a treasure in heaven too, for to try to keep both is to risk eternal life for worldly possession. The love of Jesus and riches cannot dwell in the same heart. Riches alone do not exclude, for the rich are not shut out simply for being rich.
What is impossible with men becomes possible with God because He is able to change and subdue the human heart. Truth brought home to the heart by the Spirit crowds out and drives away the love of riches. The love of God so far surpasses the love of riches that the possessor breaks away from possessive attachment and transfers his affections to God. Human effort cannot overcome that attachment or secure entrance, but God can and will do it through the one who heeds Him.
The rich person thus converted loves the Lord his God with all heart and soul and mind and loves his neighbor as himself, and so keeps the first four commandments and the last six. He holds all he has as not his own, treats what he owns as God's trust and stewardship, faithfully discharges his duty as God's steward, resists worldliness, and becomes united to Christ. Freed by Christ's love from clinging to possessions, he uses his riches after Christ's example. He makes it his highest pleasure to make a right disposition of his Lord's goods to bless the needy and administer to the wants of God's cause, to bless the suffering and lost and advance God's work, caring for the needy and investing means to help the poor. In this way a rich man can enter the kingdom of God.
Rich people must not trust their own plans or use of wealth as a way to gain eternal life, but need to follow God's direction and use their means in His cause. Despite discouragements and heart-sickening revelations in labor for those devoted to money-getting and whose lives have been devoted to gain, God can and will work through human agencies upon their minds and through the Holy Spirit to work miracles of genuine conversion. No person however great, influential, or devoted to gain is beyond His power, and even the greatest men of earth are not beyond divine power. When workers together with Him do their duty bravely and faithfully, God will convert men who occupy responsible places, men of intellect and influence. Through the power of the Holy Spirit He leads many to see spiritual poverty, to prefer Christ to self, to receive eternal life, to accept divine principles, and to use time, money, talent, and influence to serve the gospel.
Holy Life Made Possible
No one is holy by birth, and no method of human devising can make a person loyal and true to God, for human goodness and righteousness in themselves are worthless and nothing can be done apart from Christ. Holiness of character is not inherited by nature. People cannot meet God's requirements and the law's demands by their own strength, for they cannot make themselves love God and neighbor or make themselves humble, meek and holy. God promises to give the love, humility, meekness and holiness the law requires, and by faith in Christ and faith in that promise believers receive this help so that the righteousness the law requires is fulfilled in them.
What is impossible for man becomes possible through God, who adopts people into His family and transforms them by His Spirit. That transformation changes self-indulgence and supreme love for self into self-denial and supreme love for God. In the Redeemer's strength weak and erring people are transformed, overcome the evil that besets them, and become more than conquerors over it. Holiness and loyalty come through God's power, not by nature, inheritance or human strength.
What is impossible for a human agent God can do and will do through him if he heeds God's counsel and moves in Christ's order. Realizing personal inability brings assurance of God's sufficiency. The person should therefore begin and advance, doing the right work believing it is right and expecting the Lord to help and to lead in clear lines. God works in and through him until misunderstandings are cleared away, divine tenderness takes possession of the soul, and Christ's love and compassion flow out with pity for the weak, erring, unshepherded and hungry. By faith people lay hold of God's power and trust Him to fulfill His promises, for what is impossible through human power is possible with God. Faith is not sight, feeling or visible reality but the substance of what is hoped for and the evidence of what is unseen, and to abide in it is to set aside feelings and selfish desires, walk humbly with God, apply His promises in every circumstance, rely on Him to carry out His purposes through sanctification of character, and bear the fruits of the Spirit.
Power for God's Work
With men the deliverance of Israel from bondage was hopeless and impossible, but Moses could undertake that mission because he trusted God rather than his own ability, qualifications, strength, and wisdom. He obeyed God's commands even when the way ahead was unclear and when those commands seemed unreasonable to human judgment, and he relied on divine power rather than himself. His faith enabled him to lead the people through difficulties, dangers, and obstacles they could not overcome by themselves, for God worked through him who recognized his helplessness and relied fully on Him. Success in God's work therefore depends on trusting His power and following His commands, not on human qualifications or a clear view of every step ahead.
What people regard as impossible is possible with God in the worldwide proclamation of the message. God made it possible for the small, poor, and unpopular Sabbath movement to grow and for its publications to spread around the world as foretold. Limited faith must not restrict the work in cities and nations, and when His people walk in all humility of mind before Him He will work with great power. Then the light of the binding claims of the fourth commandment can be presented in clear lines before the people in the large cities and go in power to all parts of the world, to all nations, tongues, and peoples, to test and prove the world, growing to large proportions and giving light to all. What appears impossible can likewise become possible with God in advancing the work in Washington through self-denial, self-sacrifice, and using the means entrusted for God's cause.
What men cannot pay or accomplish on their own God can bring about for His work. He can open a way to buy property for a sanitarium despite the poverty of believers and their inability to pay its full price. He directs even delays in securing deeds to give time to raise the purchase money, moves brethren to give freewill offerings and gifts rather than interest-bearing loans, places property unencumbered in the hands of His people, and clears institutional debt carried for years. Although workers may have no money for the first payment for land, the Lord can provide what is needed, which calls for trust rather than distrust when the way forward is not yet visible and warns against human interference while God manages His work in His own time and way.
By His grace and the strength of the crucified Redeemer, people can succeed in making marriage happy and in helping a life made crooked by sin become straight in God. He can do this because He is perfect in wisdom, righteousness, power, and love. To talk of impossibilities is not faith, and plans must not be limited to what human arms can embrace, but must take broader views and enlarge faith and conception of the work.