One Year Bible April 17th (Easter) Readings and Commentary "The Story of the Rich Man and Why Good Works Don't Cut IT!"

Happy Easter!  Christ is Risen! He is Risen in Indeed!

Click Here to Read Joshua 15

The Land Given to the Tribe of Judah

Joshua 15 recounts the allotment of the land to Judah, and also specifically to Caleb, the other spy besides Joshua to spy out the promised land. Like Joshua, Caleb came back from spying on the land the Lord had promised and urged the Israelites to go and take the land. He reasoned appropriately that if God had promised the land to them, He would give them what they would need to prevail.  Like Joshua, he was strong and courageous. 

The ending of the chapter is a little ominous. It says the Israelites could not drive out the Jebusites, who lived in Jerusalem. We are not exactly sure why this was the case. 

Guzik offers this explanation, "We can understand why Jerusalem was a city hard to conquer. The fact that it was set on a hill made it easy to defend."

Then he adds, "Yet, no matter how hard the struggle, with God’s promise, and God’s help, we can triumph – there is really no good excuse for why this city must stay in Canaanite hands until the time of David (2 Samuel 5:6-10)."

Bottom line, as we will see in the next chapter, the Jewish people did not completely drive out the Canaanites and it will come back to haunt them. Sometimes we are at our most vulnerable position when the Lord has given us victory. We might be tempted to rest on our laurels and get prideful. 

Click Here to Read Luke 18:18-43

The Rich Man

It is not a surprise that the rich man asked, "What should I DO to inherit eternal life." It seems like a fairly reasonable and logicial question. In fact, most people ask this question. They wonder how many good things they must do in order to earn God's approval and get a green light when they come to the pearly gates. 

Right away Jesus answers the rich man's question in a curious way. He says, "Why do you call me good?" I don't think he is implying he is NOT good, but he is trying to get to the man's view of what it means to "be good"?  He is challenging the man's standard for goodness. Is it man's standard or God's standard that the rich man is relying on? Jesus reminds the man of God's standards as he recounts the Ten Commandments. Obviously if he were to keep all of the ten commandments all of the time, he would be good. He would actually be perfect. 

The man says to Jesus, "I've have kept all of these commandments since I was young." He might have reasoned he never killed anyone, or wasn't thrown in jail for robbery. But Jesus gets at the real issue in the man's life. He gets at the one commandment he was breaking on a regular basis. Jesus  when he says to him, "One thing you lack. Go sell all of your possessions and give them to the poor. Then you will have a treasure in heaven. Then come follow me." 

When the man heard this he went away sad. Why? Because his riches were more important than following Jesus? When it came down to it, his real master was money. As the bible makes clear, money itself is not a problem. It is the LOVE of money that is a problem, especially when the love of money is more important than serving God. 

Jesus then quotes a proverb that is often misunderstood. He says, "It is harder for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven."  Some people have tried to rationalize that there is a place near Jerusalem that is called the "eye of the needle" where a camel could maybe squeeze through if someone took off all of its bags. But that's the point, "A camel can't go through the eye of a needle." A person who is trusting in riches CAN'T trust in Jesus alone. 

Then, Jesus gets to the main point. Just like the man thought he was a good at a surface level, Jesus showed him why his love of material things was in a violation of the very first commandment, "You shall have no other gods before me." 

And the main point is that none of us are good. This is why when the disciples ask him after hearing the story, "Who then can be saved?", Jesus says, "With man it is impossible, but with God all things are possible." 

The real answer to the man's question, "What can a man DO in order to be saved?" is "nothing". If there was something we could DO in order to be saved, Jesus would not have had to come and die in our place. If there was something we DO in order to be saved, we needn't celebrate Good Friday like we did two days ago. 

Jesus, in the next verses, explains what is about to happen to him. He told them that in accordance with the prophets (which I guess the 12 disciples were not that familiar with) he would be "whipped", "mocked", "spit upon", "flogged", "beaten", and finally "killed". But on the third day he would rise again. 

So the real answer to the man's question, "What must I do to be saved?" is ...

Believe in the Lord Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins. The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus. When Jesus rose from the dead he conquered sin, death and the power of the devil. 

Friends, good deeds alone won't cut it. But the only one who is good died for you so that you might have life and have it abundantly!

Happy Easter!  He is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!

Click Here to Read Psalm 86:1-17

Click Here to Read Proverbs 13:9-10