What Must You Do to Inherit Eternal Life?
An oxymoron is a figure of speech in which two things that are in conjunction contradict each other fundamentally. For example, jumbo shrimp or deafening silence. We find an example of this type of speech in a question that is posed to Jesus in which two men on two separate occasions ask Jesus what they must do to inherit eternal life. We know that the gift that God has given us is not something that we can earn in any fashion, but then how does Jesus answer this question? Let’s look at Jesus’s answers to these two separate men, as we learn what we can do to be faithful members of His kingdom and inherit eternal life, knowing that we can never earn it.
The account in Mark begins with an eager young man who approaches Jesus addressing him as “good teacher.” He asks Him “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus begins by questioning the man's use of the word “good,” reminding him that God alone is good, in turn giving Himself the authority to answer the questions. Then He asks the man if he knows and has kept the commandments of the Lord. The man responds that he has kept them since his youth, which Jesus already knows. The text then tells us that Jesus loved him and told him of the one thing he still lacked, that he must sell his possessions and give to the poor so that he would have treasures in heaven rather than on earth. The man walked away from this sorrowfully because he had significant possessions on earth. This man showed great obedience to the law of the Lord, but lacked in his love for whose law it was.
In Matthew 6:24, Jesus says, “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”
Because he had developed such a love for his earthly treasures, the young man was hindered from serving those around him to his full capacity.
In Luke 10:25, another man approached Jesus with contempt, hoping to trick Him with this same question. After being asked the question, what must be done to inherit eternal life, Jesus responds like He did with the rich young man; He asks about the law. Being a lawyer, the man likely is well acquainted with the law, and he recites that you must love the Lord and love your neighbor as yourself. Such a simple explanation of the law but, still, an all-encompassing answer, to which Jesus responds that if you follow those two things, you will have eternal life. But the man continues trying to bait Jesus by asking who his neighbor is. Jesus follows this question with a parable, truly proving His title of “good teacher.” He tells the story of a man who has been robbed and beaten and left for dead on the road. The priest and the Levite pass him by without showing him any care. But when the Samaritan came by, he immediately came to the aid of this man, sacrificing time and great money to be sure the man was being cared for. After telling the story, Jesus let the lawyer decide who the true neighbor was, which the man states is the one who showed mercy. This man showed understanding but looked for ways to justify his lack of obedience and love.
Neither man met the conditions necessary for the inheritance of eternal life. While we know this is not something we are even capable of earning, there are things that God expects of us to maintain our status as an heir. Romans 6:23 shows us a great insight into this gift of God:
“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus our Lord”
Like many gifts in this world, there are qualifications that must be met. If we were winning the lottery, we must be 18 years or older. If we were winning a raffle, we must have purchased the ticket and been present to win. Both of those examples give conditions but nothing that would warrant saying the winners have earned that gift. Our free gift from God is similar; we can never earn it, it is freely given, but there are conditions that we must meet. Jesus summed them up in these two accounts with the ideas of obedience and love. With both of these men, Jesus first inquired of their obedience of the commands of God. This order seems purposeful, as we generally learn to obey long before we understand what we are obeying and why we should love to obey it. We see this in children as they question everything they are told, constantly asking why and complaining that rules are just there to eliminate fun. But as they get older and become young adults, generally, they see the purpose of the laws put before them.
Like children, we, too, must first learn to obey the commands of the Lord, but maturity in our faith will always mean that we also learn to love the law as well. David speaks frequently of his love for God's law.
“Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked nor stands in the way of sinners nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on His law he meditates day and night” (Psalm 1:1).
With the love for God’s law, must also come the love for Him and for His people. Jesus alluded to this very principle in speaking with the rich young man; because he was serving two masters, he could not truly serve the Lord and His people. And in telling the story of the good Samaritan, Jesus showed the lawyer, and us, that we must not make justifications and loopholes in his law, that loving Him means loving all of His people.
In both accounts, the question is the same, but the intention behind the question was drastically different. Even so, the answer was the same. We must make whatever sacrifices necessary to meet the terms and conditions. We must learn to obey the commandments of the Lord, and we must grow to love that law and, in turn, the people that follow it. Without our obedience to God and our deep and loyal love to Him, we will forfeit our status as heirs. We will be blotted out from His will, never to hear Him welcome us into our inheritance of a life with Him in heaven.
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and love your neighbor as yourself… do these things and you will live” - you will inherit eternal life.