With Man This is Impossible

Matthew 19:23-26 NIV

“Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.’

“When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, ‘Who then can be saved?’

“Jesus looked at them and said, ‘With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.’”

How many of you have heard people quote just this last verse and then broadly apply it to their lives and circumstances? And does this verse stand well alone? I don’t believe it does, and here is why. If out of this context we just say that with God all things are possible, then that would have to include all things including what is sinful and what is against God’s design and purpose for our lives. So, this has to be all things according to God’s will. And it is best if we keep the quote to the context, in this case.

Okay, so why is it so hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven? I believe it is because it is harder for rich people to give up all they have to follow Jesus with their lives. 

Now, does God require us to sell our homes and all we own to follow him, in a literal sense? I don’t believe so unless he specifically calls us to do that because he is sending us to a foreign country, et al. But Jesus did teach us that to follow him means surrendering it all to him, forsaking our sins and the things of this world to now follow him in obedience. I believe the point is that we now give over to God ownership of everything we possess, and we let him decide what we are to do with it all, even if it is barely anything.

So, yes, it is hard for rich people to be saved because it is hard for rich people to give up all they have to follow Jesus with their lives. But it is not impossible for rich people to be saved, for it is possible with God, for our Lord can change people’s hearts and minds. For the faith to believe in Jesus comes from God anyway, and it is gifted to us by God, and it is not of our own doing, and we can’t even come to faith in Jesus unless God the Father first draws us to Christ, i.e. unless he persuades us to come to genuine faith in Jesus, surrendering our all to him.

But this isn’t just about giving up material possessions, is it? This is about self-denial, dying to sin daily, and following our Lord in obedience to his commands. This is about us surrendering our lives to Jesus Christ to do his will and us bowing the knee to him in submission to him as Lord. It is about us dying to our old lives so that we can now serve Jesus Christ with our lives. For if we hold on to our old lives of living in sin and for self, we will lose them for eternity. But if we deny self, die daily to sin, and follow Jesus in obedience to his commands, by the Spirit, we have eternal life with God.

[Hebrews 12:1-2; Ephesians 2:8-10; John 6:44; Luke 9:23-26; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; Ephesians 4:17-24; Titus 2:11-14; Acts 26:18]

Video Talk

With Man This is Impossible

October 2, 2022

https://youtu.be/YPwkor-oopw

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[FYI: In the video, I was sharing Scripture references from memory and I said 1 John 6:9-10 instead of 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, so if you try to find 1 John 6:9-10, it doesn’t exist, for 1 John has only 5 chapters.]