God does not mind you having things as long as things don’t have you. Case in point .
The Young Rich Ruler
Now as.Jesus was going out on the road, one came running, knelt before Him, and asked Him, “Good Teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?” So Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery,’ ‘Do not murder,’ ‘Do not steal,’ ‘Do not bear false witness,’ ‘Do not defraud,’ ‘Honor your father and your mother.'” And he answered and said to Him, “Teacher, all these things I have kept from my youth.” Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow Me.” But he was sad at this word, and went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. Then Jesus looked around and said to His disciples, “How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God!” And the disciples were astonished at His words. But Jesus answered again and said to them, “Children, how hard it is for those who trust in riches to enter the kingdom of God! 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.” And they were greatly astonished, saying among themselves, “Who then can be saved?” But Jesus looked at them and said, “With men it is impossible, but not with God; for with God all things are possible.( Mark 10:17-27)
Now the first thing we notice is that the young rich ruler wanted to know what he had to do to inherit eternal life . We need to understand that eternal life does not come by our doing but it comes by our believing in what Christ has already done for us! Jesus knew that He had to bring this young rich ruler to an end of all his doing ways so He could then bring him into the faith way. Jesus often used the law to accomplish this. The law was never given for us to keep but to show us that no matter how hard we tried , we couldn’t keep it! The law was never given to justify us , make us righteous or give us eternal life , but the law was given to bring us to the end of all our doing ways and to point us to complete faith in Christ (Galatians 3:11) ( Galatians 3:24-27)
So Jesus played along with this young rich ruler and said “you know the commandments , and then Jesus began to list the big ten one by one , of course the young rich ruler immediately interrupted and responded back to Jesus with ” Oh yes I’ve kept them all from my youth up!”
I like the next response of Jesus , it says that Jesus just looked at him and loved him. Jesus knew that this young rich ruler was bound by his own legalistic deception. Jesus knew that nobody including this young man had ever kept the law. There was only one that had ever kept the law and He was standing right in front of this young man looking at Him with eyes of love.
Jesus also knew that this young rich ruler not only had many things but his many things had him ! This is why Jesus told him specifically to go and sell his things. I have heard many who were so bound by legalism that they often tell people ” see we must sell everything before we can be saved! ” I recently heard one very popular author and mister say ” that we cannot claim to be a true follower of Christ unless we sell everything and give it to the poor!” Talk about heaping condemnation on folks ! My first thought after I hear someone preach things like this is ” have you really sold everything and given it to the poor?” And the answer if they are honest will always be no! So why are they demanding everyone else do this? If they haven’t ? Legalism will always bear fruit of hypocrisy . Sometimes I wonder if preachers really ever stop long enough to think about what’s really coming out of their own mouths!
So Let me set the record straight ! God is not telling everyone to put all their stuff on eBay before they can qualify for heaven! No! Jesus was dealing with this one man that was bound by his own legalistic deception and Jesus knew that this young man had a coveting and a idolatry issue in his heart The issue was not that the young rich ruler had things the problem was that things had him!
God does not mind us having things , in fact I believe that God blesses us with a lot of things and wants us all to have nice things ! God even desires to give us things and is even eager to add things to us but we must not make seeking things our top priority in life. God shows us in the word the healthy way of seeing things coming our way so that we possess things but things will never possess us!
But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Matthew 6:33
Now if a God didn’t want us to have anything then why does God tell us that all these things will be added to us ? God is showing us the ultimate healthy way of living in this life . We are to see first the Kingdom of God and He righteousness then all these other things will be added to us.
When our priorities are right then we never have to look for things , things will look for us! In fact Gods blessings will run us down and overtake us!( Deut 28:2)
It’s the same way with money the bible does not say that money is the root of all evil but the love of money is the root of all evil. Money is a tool , but money is not to be our God. We do not trust money we trust God who gives us the power to obtain wealth for His kingdom purposes.( Deut 8:18)
Now for the shock treatment ! We are never to use our faith to seek for things..if we will instead use our faith to seek Gods kingdom and His righteousness , then all these other things will be added to us.
Faith in the past has often been used to seek things , when we should be using our faith to seek Gods kingdom ( His Will ) and ( His righteousness ) (Faith Righteousness)
Faith Righteousness is one of the main things that we should be using our faith for. Faith righteousness is the key to accessing all that God has already given to us in Christ. (Ephesians 1:2)
For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. (Romans 10:1-4 NKJV)
Many Christians today are still ignorant about faith righteousness. Many believe that righteousness is something they have to do , when the truth is that true righteousness is something that we receive. True righteousness can only be received and never achieved.
Over and over the word tells us that new covenant righteousness is a gift that is believed and received not achieved. You can’t earn or achieve righteousness you can only receive righteousness..
So why is it so hard for man receive righteousness as a free gift ? Why do men still feel like righteousness is something they need to work hard for or achieve? Well there is no short answer for this but it really goes back to the garden .
When Adam ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil , man spiritually died and the fruit of the tree also put in Him the need to perform! Or to somehow earn his way back to God, it took man out of his simple walking relationship with man and put in man a rule mentality way of trying to relate to God. This rule , what must we do? way has ultimately become the root of all religion today.
Today you have two kind of ways that all men try and relate to God . The rule way and the relationship way and God is much more interested in the relationship way over the rule way.
This is why Religion often sees righteousness as a work or a list of rules they do instead of a gift they receive. But It is only as we first receive the gift of righteousness that we will ever produce the true fruit of righteousness or right living . Our right living is a by-product of believing that we have already been made right with God through the cross.
Right believing and right receiving will always produce right living. If we get the cart before the horse then we might have works but they will be dead works. Dead works are the by-product of men trying to earn righteousness with God, but again you can never earn righteousness , you can only receive righteousness.
As we learn to believe and rest in the true righteousness of God through the finished work of the cross. Then all other things will be added to us. It’s Gods pleasure to give you His kingdom.
When the disciples asked Jesus ” who then can be saved” after they saw the way Jesus dealt with the young rich ruler, Jesus said ” with man it’s impossible! but with God all things are possible!” Jesus was telling them right here that it was impossible for man to save himself. No matter how hard man tried to keep the law or do the right thing man cannot save himself or fix himself. It took God sending His son to the cross to save us! And as we believe in Christ we will be saved and experience all the blessings of the Kingdom.
It's Grace 