YOU CAN'T SAVE YOURSELF! (PART 1)
TEXT
"And behold, a man came up to him, saying, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” ” (Matthew 19 verse 16, English Standard Version).
The Scripture reading for today is taken from the story of the rich young man who came to Jesus, worshiped Him and requested to know what good deed he must do to have eternal life. I must confess that my commendation goes to this rich young man because unlike so many out there, he cared about eternal life, hence he demanded to know what good deed he should do in order to inherit it. Unfortunately, there are many out there who care less about where they'd spend life after death, let alone how to inherit eternal life! Why do I say so? I say so because of the way many live their lives. They live in complete disregard to God and His Word, as though all ends here on earth.
Like I said, the rich young man we're talking about here deserves my commendation because despite his riches, he recognised the need for eternal life; but some snags about his request are obviously identified.
Firstly, he called Jesus "Good Master". Ordinarily, there shouldn't be any problems with this, but the Lord Jesus rejected this appellation because by it, He's recognised merely as "Good Master", but not as God. The Lord's response was "Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God:" (Matthew 19 verse 17). In other words, Jesus said "Only God is good. It's either you accept that I am God or not at all".
This is a very crucial point of interest. A whole lot of people today recognise that Jesus was not only an historical Fact, but also a good Man to the core. But the problem is that they refuse to recognise Him as God. The implication of this is that if Jesus was only a good Man and not God, His claim as the Saviour of the world would be fake, a ruse and one that is grossly untrue. It's either that Jesus' claim to be the Saviour of the world is true or untrue. It definitely cannot be both ways.
Although Jesus is God, never a time did He call Himself God. This is probably because of His humble and unassuming character; yet we have evidence that the Father referred to Him as God (Hebrews 1 verse 8). Besides, He accepted worship and admitted having divine abilities, which only God could receive and possess (see Matthew 14 verse 33; John 9 verse 38 and Matthew 28 verse 18, respectively). Brethren, truth is, Jesus is the God-Man that came to save humanity from eternal damnation.
Though the rich young man is commended for seeking salvation in spite of his wealth, his understanding of how to be saved wasn't right. His question to Jesus was "Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?”. No one needs to have good deeds on his account in order to get saved. We are all saved by Grace through faith in Christ Jesus (see Ephesians 2 verse 8). For instance, the penitent thief on the cross at Golgotha that was saved had everything but good deeds. Yet, upon repentance on the cross at the zero hour, he got saved. In other words, without a record of good deeds, sincere repentance and faith in Jesus earned him salvation. This is how to get saved. You definitely cannot save yourself by good deeds!
PRAYER:
Dear Lord Jesus, thank You for qualifying me for salvation. For by grace, without good deeds I have been saved. All glory to You Father, in Jesus name.