When I read this passage this morning it wrecked me. I had this same thing happen to me several
years ago when a guy that I got ordained came and essentially tried to say he
should be in charge of the church and I should let him do as he pleased and
take a step down. He, not surprisingly,
ended up leaving the church and trying to plant a church of his own which never
got off the ground. It is a painful and
difficult thing to have happen in ministry when your leadership is challenged
in this way. Moses was gracious as to
the challenge to himself and his leadership initially, defending Aaron against
the charges of Korah. When, however,
Moses was blamed for failing to lead them into the land, he got his back up and
prayed God's judgment. He was vulnerable
to this charge, they were going to die in the wilderness and that knowledge was
an awful thing. Sometimes all satan does
is pile on and kick the wounded.
This rich young man had a high opinion of himself didn't
he? He says he has kept all the
commandments from his youth, when he became responsible under the law for the
keeping of the law. He knows, however,
that even if he has done it isn't enough, he doesn’t have assurance of the
kingdom. What must he do? He must cast aside his earthly inheritance
and do the good work of giving it to the poor, utterly rejecting all he has
been given already, and following Jesus.
The disciples had to do the same in walking away from their past,
present and future to follow Him. We
must all be prepared to do that very thing.
Some of us are fortunate that we got a second chance when we walked away
at the demands of the Gospel the first time.
I hope this young man did too.
This day, however, he valued the kingdom a good bit less than he valued
his earthly possessions.
The principles of the Reformation were perfectly aligned
with Paul's words here. We are justified
by faith alone in Christ alone by grace alone.
There is no work of our own involved by which we can boast of our good
sense or take credit for our salvation.
The work was all God's, what is called monergism. Moses, in our first lesson, knew that he
couldn't lead the people into the promised land to take possession of it
without God doing the work to make it possible, the inhabitants of the land
would drive them back out and destroy them.
He knew that ultimately every fight belongs to the Lord, he knew his own
impotence to accomplish what God had promised and he also knew that no enemy
could stand against God fulfilling His purposes. The rich young man wanted to do something but
the reality is all he had to do was follow Jesus and watch Him do the work of
giving him the kingdom by grace in His sacrificial offering of Himself. Likewise, I can't build the church God wants,
He has to do that, I have only to cooperate with Him.
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