Chapter 21: Can the Rich Be Saved? The rich young man, who was righteous according to the law, did not understand that Jesus was speaking figuratively. He could not see how the same person could be both poor and rich. How could he both have wealth and not have it? How could he both use the world and not use it? So he went away sad and downcast. He walked away from the life that he desired but could not obtain. In this way, he turned something that was difficult into something that was impossible.
To be sure, it's difficult for the soul not to be seduced and ruined by the luxuries and enchantments that come with great wealth. But it's not impossible to lay hold of salvation, even for those who are surrounded by wealth. It's not impossible that is, if such a person withdraws his attention from the wealth that is material and turns it instead to the wealth that only the soul can grasp, the wealth taught by God.
Such a person must learn to properly use material things, which are indifferent to good or evil, and he must strive after eternal life. Luke 13:24. Why the Apostles Were Alarmed. Notice that at first even the disciples were alarmed and amazed by what Jesus told the young man. Why? Was it because they themselves were rich? Definitely not. They had already left their nets, hooks, and rowing boats, their sole possessions, long before this time. Why then did they ask with dismay, "Who can be saved?" Mark 10:26.
The reason was that, as good disciples, they had understood what the Lord was figuratively saying. They perceived the depth of his words. Up to that point, they had been confident of their own salvation on the grounds that they were not wealthy. But when they realized that they had not yet fully renounced their materialistic desires, they were distressed. Remember, they were neophytes, only recently selected by the Savior.
So they were as much in despair about their own conditions as was the rich young man who clung so fiercely to the wealth that he preferred more than eternal life. And they had good reason to fear. Both the person who possesses wealth and the one who is teeming with materialistic desires are the rich. And the rich will be expelled from the heavens. For salvation is the privilege of pure souls free from fleshly desires. Salvation, a joint project.
But the Lord answered their despair by saying, "What is impossible with man is possible with God." Mark 10:27. Once again, his words were full of great wisdom. A man working by himself to gain freedom from his fleshly desires achieves nothing. But if he plainly shows himself to earnestly desire this freedom, God will give him the power to attain it. God conspires with willing souls. But if they abandon their eagerness, the spirit who is bestowed by God will be restrained.
For to save those who are unwilling is the role of one who exercises compulsion. But to save those who are willing is the role of one who shows grace. The kingdom of heaven does not belong to sleepers and lazy people. Rather, the violent take it by force. Matthew 11:12. This is the only commendable kind of violence: to force God and to take life from God by force. He knows who perseveres firmly or violently, and he yields and grants to them. For God delights to be conquered in this way.
Upon hearing Jesus' words, blessed Peter, the chosen, the preeminent, the first of the disciples, and the only one for whom the Savior ever paid taxes other than himself, immediately grasped the sense of them. Matthew 17:27. Notice his reply. "We have left everything and followed you." Mark 10:28. Now, if all he meant was that he had left his own property, he boasted of leaving less than one drachma in all.
And he would have been forgetting to acknowledge that the kingdom of heaven was the reward for leaving behind such a small amount of property. But if he was talking about leaving what I was previously discussing, the old mental possessions and soul diseases, for the purpose of following in the Master's footsteps, then by this act they join the others who are to be enrolled in the heavens.
For to truly follow the Savior is this: to aim at sinlessness and his perfection, to adorn and compose the soul before the mirror of Christ's perfection, and to arrange everything in our lives to reflect that image. Jesus continued his instruction by saying, "I tell you the truth. Whoever leaves what is his own, parents and children and wealth, for my sake and for the sake of the gospel, will receive a hundred times as much." Mark 10:29 and 30. But don't be troubled by that saying, nor by one that is even harder.
Whoever does not hate his father and mother and children and his own life besides cannot be my disciple. Luke 14:26. The God of peace, who exhorts us to love even our enemies, obviously doesn't want us to hate our dear ones and dissolve our relationships with them. If we are supposed to hate our relatives, we should hate our enemies even that much more. Simple logic tells us that, but that would contradict Jesus' teachings. However, Jesus' commandments do not contradict each other.
However, in applying Jesus' words, a person who loves his enemy may also hate his father. That's because he neither takes vengeance on his enemy nor venerates his father more than Christ. The first command, "Love your enemy," destroys hatred and injury. The second command, "Hate your father," prevents excessive attachment toward your relatives when such behavior is detrimental to salvation.
In other words, if someone's father or son or brother is godless, and if they become a hindrance to the believer's faith and an impediment to the higher life, then the believer should not be friends with them or agree with them. Because of the spiritual enmity, he should dissolve the fleshly relationship. For example, suppose there's a lawsuit. Imagine that your father presents himself to you and says, "I brought you into being and I raised you.
Join me in wickedness and do not obey the law of Christ." And suppose he says other things that a blaspheming man with a dead nature would say. On the other side, hear the Savior saying, "You were born into the world headed for death, but I gave you new life. I freed, healed, and ransomed you. I will show you the face of the good Father, God. Do not call any man on earth your father. Let the dead bury the dead, but you follow me." Matthew 23:9, 8:22.
I will bring you to a rest of overwhelming, indescribable blessings, which eye has not seen nor ear heard. It has not even entered into the heart of men. Angels long to look and see what good things God has prepared for the saints and the children who love him. First Corinthians 2:9, First Peter 1:12. I am the one who feeds you. I give you myself as bread. Anyone who tastes this bread no longer experiences death. John 6:51. And I supply day by day the drink of immortality. I am the teacher of heavenly lessons.
For you I struggled with death, and I paid your death, which you owed for your former sins and your unbelief toward God. Having heard the arguments on both sides, decide for yourself. Cast your vote for your own salvation, even if your brother made the same claims or your child or your wife or anyone else. In preference to all of them, let Christ be the conqueror in you, for he fights on your behalf. You may say to yourself, "Certainly, Christ does not prevent me from owning property.
The Lord does not envy my possessions." That's true. But are you overcome and conquered by your wealth? If so, leave it. Throw it away. Hate it. Renounce it. Flee from it. As Jesus said, "Even if your right eye offends you, quickly cut it out." Matthew 5:9. The kingdom of God is better to a man with one eye than the fires to someone who is whole. Whether it's your hand, your foot, or your soul that offends you, hate it.
For if it is destroyed in this life, for Christ's sake, it will be restored in the life over there. Our Savior continued his instructions to his disciples, talking about leaving lands, money, houses, and brothers in this life, but receiving more with persecutions. It's not particularly the penniless, the homeless, and those who don't have a family that the Lord invites to eternal life.
As we have shown above, he has also called rich people, and he has also called brothers such as Peter and Andrew or James and John, the sons of Zebedee. But they were of one mind with each other and with Christ. The two kinds of persecution. Then what about the expression "with persecutions"? By this, Jesus means that we must not grasp at money, property, and family. You see, there are two kinds of persecutions. One kind comes from the outside.
It comes from men who attack God's faithful people because of hatred, envy, greed, or demonic pressure. But the most painful kind of persecution is that which is internal. This persecution comes from each person's own soul, as the soul is plagued by irreverent lusts, diverse pleasures, earthly hopes, and destructive dreams. It's always grasping for more. Maddened by savage loves, it is inflamed by the passions that attack it, like stinging insects.
In the end, it leads a person to give up hope for eternal life and to have contempt for God. Internal persecution is more painful because it is always with a person. The persecuted one cannot escape it because he carries the enemy everywhere inside himself. The persecution that comes from outside is merely a trial. But what comes from inside produces death. The war on the outside may be easily ended, but the internal war in our souls continues until the day we die.
So in light of this persecution, abandon whatever leads you to evil, whether it be your worldly wealth or your fleshly brothers and other pledges. Instead, procure peace for yourself by freeing yourself from these prolonged persecutions. Turn from them to the gospel. And above everything else, choose the Savior and advocate and Paraclete of your soul, the prince of life. For the things that are seen are temporary, but the things that are not seen are eternal. Second Corinthians 4:18.
In the present life, everything is vanishing and insecure. But what is to come is eternal life. Jesus concluded by saying, "The first will be last and the last first." Mark 10:31. This saying is full of meaning, but it doesn't demand immediate investigation. For it doesn't refer only to the wealthy, but to all men who haven't surrendered themselves to faith. So let this stand aside for the present. I think I've demonstrated my premise as I promised I would.
That is, the Savior has by no means excluded the rich from eternal life merely on account of their wealth. Nor has he fenced off salvation from them because they possess property. But they must be able and willing to submit their lives to God's commandments. They must prefer his commands to the transitory objects of this life. And they must look to the Lord with a steady eye, like those who look for the nod of a good helmsman. They must see what Jesus wishes, what he orders, and what he indicates.
They must see what signal he gives his mariners and where he directs the ship's course. But what harm has anyone done if before he became a believer, he applied his mind, saved his earnings, and collected a sufficient means for his needs? And it is certainly less reprehensible if by God who gives each one his life, someone has been born into a home among people who are wealthy, powerful, and influential.
If a man was banished from eternal life simply because he was involuntarily born into wealth, then he would be wronged by God. For God who created him would have given him temporary enjoyment only to deprive him of eternal life. In fact, why should wealth have ever sprung up from the earth if it is the author and patron of death? But what if someone is able, although in the midst of wealth, to turn away from its power? What if he is still able to maintain moderation in his feelings and to exercise self-control?
What if he is able to seek God alone, to breathe God, and walk with God? Then such a man is really poor in spirit. He submits to God's commandments, and he is unconquered and unharmed by wealth. He lives free of his disease. But if that's not the case, it will be easier for a camel to go through a needle's eye than for such a rich man to reach the kingdom of God. Mark 10:25. Now I will present the point of this parable of the rich young man and explain why it is told.
Its purpose is to teach the prosperous that they are not to neglect their own salvation, thinking that they are already destined to face doom. Nor should they cast their wealth into the sea or condemn it as a traitor and an enemy to life. Instead, they must learn how to use wealth and obtain life. Certainly, no one perishes simply because he frets over the fact that he is rich. Likewise, no one is saved simply by trusting and believing that he will be saved.
Instead, people should investigate the hope that the Savior gives them. By investigation, they should find out how they can confirm that which is unexpected. They can thereby possess the thing they hope for.