NOTES for Mat 19:16-26

The young man asks the question that matters most to us: the question of eternal life. At the same time he asks, "what must I do to have eternal life?" This is the approach of the Law, and Jesus naturally draws the young man's attention to how he fulfills the Law. Hearing that he does fulfill it, Jesus invites him to go beyond the legalistic approach: "If you want to BE perfect..."

To be, not to have! Eternal life is not something one has, but something one enters in order to be. And one enters eternal life not by means of what one possesses, whether spiritual or material riches, one's own righteousness, or "great possessions." It is extremely difficult for a person to give up any wealth, and the greater the wealth, the harder it is. Everything we have we received from God: our abilities and talents, and material goods as well. But if we begin to regard everything we received as a gift as our own, as our property, we become those rich people for whom it is impossible to enter the Kingdom of God. This Kingdom is given, not appropriated.

There is one path of salvation: "give everything away and follow Me"; be freed from possession and from yourself for God's sake, and entrust yourself to Him, for salvation is impossible for human beings, but "all things are possible for God."