The Lord had vindicated marriage according to its beginning from God against the Pharisees. He had blessed babes in spite of rebuking but now rebuked disciples. We have Him next eagerly sought out by the rich young ruler. “And when he was gone forth into the way, there came one running, and kneeled to him, and asked him, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?” There was no lack of moral integrity here, no failure in reverence to one who was instinctively felt to be superior, no indolence that avoided trouble; but earnestness was there, honest respect for that righteous man, and a sincere desire to learn a new lesson and take a fresh step in well-doing. It was nature doing its best, yet fundamentally at fault; for his question assumed that man was good and could do good—man as he is. His very salutation of honor to Jesus proved that His person was unknown, and therefore the truth unknown both as to God and man. Had the young ruler believed Him to be the Son of the living God, he would not have accosted Him with “Good Master” —a style suitable enough to a respected and honored teacher, but both needless and improper in addressing One who was equal with God and was God. But the evil of man he had never realized, the total, hopeless sin and ruin of the heart in God's sight. Hence the need of such an One as Jesus was unfelt, of One who, God and man, came down to the depths of sin in divine love and is raised up to the throne of God in divine righteousness, who suffered all on earth from God on behalf of guilty man, that He might have man redeemed, reconciled, justified, glorified, by and with Himself in heaven, and in both, as in all things, God glorified through Jesus Christ.
Our blessed Lord therefore refuses the honor which ignored the only just foundation for it, jealous for the truth as well as for God's glory, as indeed it is the only real love to man. If not God, Christ was not good; if good, He is God. “And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? There is none good but one, that is, God. Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Defraud not, Honor thy father and mother. And he answered and said unto him, Master, all these have I observed from my youth. Then Jesus beholding him loved him.” (Ver. 18-21.) It is striking to observe these two things following—the comparative severity of our Lord's answer and the express assertion that He looked upon him and loved him. The one showed how He dealt with amiable nature, intruding into what it knows not; the other, how no curtness of rebuke for spiritual kindness, no consciousness that the young man was faithless and would depart sorrowful at His word, hindered the Savior's love for that which was sweet and attractive in burrow nature. Our Lord gave its full value to his honoring of the commandments, which He does not contradict; but He meets him on the ground he had chosen, not of a broken-hearted convicted sinner asking what he must do to be saved, but of a blameless man who was conscious of nothing wrong in his life, but who felt desires after a more excellent way from One so pre-eminently excellent in his eyes as Jesus, who accordingly “said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up thy cross and follow me.” Jesus had done infinitely more; for though He was rich, yet for our sakes He became poor, that we through His poverty might be rich. But this ruler knew not the grace of our Lord, though he could not but see His ineffable moral beauty; he knew not His grace, for His glory was unknown to him. Little did he think even when he kneeled to Jesus, that there stood before him One who, subsisting in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be on equality with God, but emptied Himself and took upon Him the form of a bondman and was made in the likeness of men, and having been found in fashion as a man, humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. It was not then that He who repudiated all good save in One, save God, shrank from that test which He represented to the good-seeking ruler: yet the one thing the young and ardent Jew lacked was oh! how incomparably short of the path of Jesus both in life and death. Still it was far too great a demand on the loveliest sample of humanity which, as far as we read, crossed the path of the Lord; and it made plain in his sad departing footsteps to others, if it did not discover to his own conscience, the covetousness of his heart, the value he set upon his possessions, the trust he had in riches, the little heart he had for treasure in heaven, care for himself rather than for others, even for the poor, of whom the Lord ever thought much, and above all, that so taking up the cross and following Christ was harder measure than he was prepared for. What is man? wherein is he to be accounted of? Well may we worship God in the spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. “There is none good but one, that is, God.” How true, and how blessed for us that so it is! “Verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity.' Jesus had but disclosed the shadow, and not the very image, of divine goodness in Himself; yet did the beauty of the amiable devotee consume away like a moth. “And he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved: for he had great possessions.” (Ver. 17-22.) Surely every man is vanity.
The great prophet, the perfect minister of grace and truth, turns the incident to the good of His own. “And Jesus looked round about, and saith unto His disciples, How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God!' Even the disciples understood not, but were astonished at His words. They too knew not there is no good thing in man, or in the advantages of the world, for the kingdom of God. “But Jesus answereth again, and saith unto them, Children, how hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter into 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 astonished out of measure, saying among themselves, Who then can be saved? And Jesus looking upon them saith, With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible.” Thus Jesus softens in no respect the rigor of the truth. The very blessings, as men speak, of the flesh and of the world turn out hindrances in divine things. With men, then, salvation is impossible. It is a question here too of God; but blessed be His name, all things are possible with Him. (Ver. 23-27.)
What hearts are ours that even the solemn circumstance of the ruler, and the still more solemn sentence of the Lord which fell upon the amazed ears of the disciples, drew forth a self-complacent inquiry from him who seemed to be somewhat, yea a pillar among those nearest to Jesus! “Then Peter began to say unto him, Lo we have left all, and have followed thee. And Jesus answered and said, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel's, but he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life. But many that are first shall be last; and the last first.” (Ver. 28-31.) It is much to be noted that the Lord speaks but of abandoning nature for His own sake (and the gospel's, as is added most appropriately in this gospel only), even as Peter speaks of their leaving all and following Him. To leave for the reward would be worthless, and moreover never stands. Christ is the only efficacious attraction, the motive that governs a renewed heart. There is pasture for the sheep, there is the flock also; but the sheep follow Christ, for they know His voice. Rewards will follow by and by, but saints follow not the rewards but the Lord. As our evangelist speaks of the gospel's sake, so he shows that the faithful sufferer receives an hundredfold now in this time for what he has left, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life. But, says the Lord, (and if it was a significant word to Peter, is it not for us all?) many first shall be last, and the last first. Righteous judgment will in the long run reverse many a thought founded on that which meets the eye. It is the end of the race that tells, not the start, though God is unrighteous to no person and to no act. It is well therefore here, as before, to trust in God and His grace. “There is none good but one, that is, God.”