What Good Thing Shall I Do, That I May Have Eternal Life?

Keep the commandments of God. Note, though, in verse 18, in this list, thou shalt do no murder, commit adultery, you know, all of those things. And none of those things mention Jesus at all. Notice that? If Jesus is so essential to salvation, why isn’t he mentioned at all? Like, not even passingly. He’s just absent from this, air quote, plan of salvation. Totally absent. All right, so let’s start at the beginning, if you would. Verse 16 says, one came and said unto him, good master, what good thing, notice twice the word good is used, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life? Now, I will say that this, as I said a minute ago, this is a vital question. This man is not just concerned with, he’s obviously a wealthy man, but he’s not only concerned with material wealth in this world. Some people never get beyond that. The truth is, some people never get beyond the idea that as long as I have the physical possessions that I need, as long as I have good health, I’m good to go. And the clear answer to that is you’re not good to go.

One day, your possessions are going to run out, and even if your possessions persist and endure, your body is going to wear out. One day, this matter of eternal life is going to matter, even if to you it doesn’t matter at this moment. It will. It will. It will matter. At least this young man is bringing eternal matters into the forefront of his mind and is thinking upon them, because that is commendable. And that’s something many people never even get to that point. That’s just, they just push it off out of their mind because it’s a thought that can be unpleasant, and it’s a thought that can be confusing to many people, and it’s a thought that is something that we can easily procrastinate. And I’ll be honest with you, I’m one of the kings of procrastination, and so, you know, I can sympathize with procrastinators, but that is not a subject that you should procrastinate with, because we have no guarantee of tomorrow. We have no guarantee of good health. We have no guarantee of worldly possessions. We have no guarantee that we will live to think about it another day. The Lord says, think about it now. This man is thinking about this matter of eternal life now, which is good. He calls Jesus good master. He expects Jesus to tell him what good thing he must do. Verse 15, notice you’ll see the word good a few other times, and Jesus, he said unto him, verse 17, why callest thou me good? There is none good, but one that is God.

Now, let me pose a question to you. Does Jesus, in verse 17, say, I am not good? No. Although that is assumed. Although that is assumed, because if Jesus said, I am not good, then at that moment, he ceases to be God, right? He is no longer deity. He is now but a man, because God is good, Jesus says it himself. But notice, Jesus did not, although we might read into it, it does not say, Jesus does not say, I am not good. There’s only one good, and I am not him. That’s God. But Jesus does pose the question, why callest thou me good? Now, what’s interesting is, you know, this man’s probably, if I had to guess, he’s probably using the term good in a very common kind of vernacular sort of way we would use, like for instance, we say, you know, such and such is a good person, right? Maybe he’s using that lightly in that way. I don’t know, but the point is, is that the Lord did not allow him to use it like that. However he’s using it, the Lord says, okay, stop. Think about what you just said.

You called me good. Do you believe that? Because there is none good, but one that is God. So I’m going to say this, and then we’re going to go to another thing, and we covered this in Sunday School, a year ago, but Jesus is pointing out at least two facts. The first fact that he’s pointing out is that it is his own deity, right? He never says, I am not good, but what he says is, think about what you’re saying, man. Am I good? Because what if you say that I am good, if I am, if I qualify for that attribute, you are equating me with God. You’re saying I am God. That’s what Jesus is saying in this passage. He says there is none good, but one that is God. So if you or I or Jesus or anyone else qualifies as good, that is an attribute that only God has, according to the Lord’s own words in verse 17. So if Jesus is good, then he is God, I believe. I am absolutely convinced that Jesus is good and also God, and so there’s no problem. I have no contradiction with that. Verse, the second thing I want you to see from this, in these two facts I want to point out to you, is this. None is good. None is good. Why callest thou me good? There is none good, but one that is God. The Lord actually says it. He actually points out a scriptural truth that I want to show you, and that scriptural truth is this. There is none good. You see, he says there is none good. Now he’s saying it to a young man who is convinced that he is good, and that’s why it matters. Look if you would back, don’t lose your place here, but look if you would back in Psalm 14. We’re going to look at several verses. I want to show you this truth that Jesus is pointing out. Psalm 14. He did not lightly say there is none good, but one that is God. No, that was a clear scriptural truth that the Lord repeatedly speaks to us in the Bible. Psalm 14 verse number one says this. The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God. They are corrupt. They have done abominable works. There is none that doeth good.

The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any that did understand and seek God. They are all gone aside. Speaking of the children of men now, that’s everybody. They are all together become filthy. There is none that doeth good, no not one. Now you’ll notice there’s a slight difference between what Jesus said in Matthew 19 and what this Psalm says. This Psalm says doeth good, does good. Jesus said is good. Someone might look at that and say, well okay, Jesus says there’s no one that does good, but listen, sometimes I make mistakes. Sometimes I mess up and I don’t always do good, but in the end I am good. I’m a good person at heart. I’m a good person at heart. Well, does a good person do evil?

Because Psalm 14, twice, this is also repeated in Psalm 53 verse 1 and verse 3 also, which are parallel passages, both say there is none that doeth good. There is none that doeth good. So how can a person say, how can a person say, no at heart I’m a good person, deep down I’m a good person?

When God says nobody does good, there is none that doeth good. You say, well okay, okay sometimes I don’t do good, but I am good. Okay, let’s look a little bit further. Look at Ecclesiastes, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes. This is one of my go-to verses. This is a good verse right here. Ecclesiastes chapter 7 verse 20. Pay close attention to the words of this verse. It says this, for there is not a just man upon earth that doeth good and sinneth not. There he is again. You see it? Doeth good. Now there’s a little bit of extra information in this verse though. Notice the first part of the verse says there is not a just man. Just is just another way to say righteous. There is not a just man.

There is not a righteous man upon earth. So if a person says, listen at heart I’m a good person, like righteous? Because this verse plainly disclaims that and says there is not a living, breathing human being that is righteous. There is not one that is good. Furthermore, it says this, he defines what righteousness is, what goodness is. He says that doeth good and sinneth not. So to do good means you don’t sin. That’s what that verse is saying right? That doeth good and sinneth not. I want to ask you a question. If a person sins are they doing good? Can you say I do good if I also sin? And of course at that point we say, well you know I make mistakes sometimes but I also do good. So I have good and I have bad. So I have good and I have bad. So I have good and I also do good. So I have good and I have bad. So can I ask you a question? If a person does good and does evil, is that person good? No. No. Because remember when we’re talking about good according to what Jesus says, Jesus says there is but one that is good and that is God. You know why?

Because God only does good. He is always righteous. He is always righteous. Look if you would a little bit forward into the New Testament to Romans chapter 3. Romans chapter 3 verse number 12. You’ve heard this verse before but I just want to wind it up here. Romans 3 verse 12. Speaking of mankind, the Lord speaking says this, they are all gone out of the way. They are together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good, no not one. Now if you want to compare that to Ecclesiastes 7 verse 20 that we just read, you can look at verse number 10.

As it is written, there is none righteous. Here’s what we do. We like to play kind of fast and loose with the verb versus the adjective. So we like to talk about our verb as in doing good. We do good sometimes and then we like to kind of apply that to the adjective. Therefore I am good. So here’s the way most people, I mean just generally speaking, here’s the way most people view themselves.

This is the way this young man viewed himself. I’ve got to say that. He’s got to say that. This is the way this young man viewed himself I believe which is this. I do good sometimes therefore I am good.

I do good sometimes therefore I am good. The problem with that is it’s the other part of the sometimes. It’s the other sometimes when we don’t do good. We do evil because that part robs us of being called good. That part is the reason Jesus said in Matthew 19, there’s none good but one that is God. Because that unrighteousness, that doing evil is testifying to our condition.

You see whether or not a person is good, whether a person is good or not good is determined by what the person does. Right? That’s how you know. You can’t just say, you can’t just ignore your life, ignore your choices, ignore your deeds and say well no I’m good. You know there’s plenty of people in prison who say they’re good. There are many, many of them. But people outside of prison that aren’t incarcerated will also even though they do evil, and they say well no but I’m good. They don’t connect the two. God wants us to connect the two.

God wants us to connect the two. Whether a person is good is determined by what the person does. We can say anything we want of ourselves, of our internal, our inner self, we can say anything we want of ourselves, of our internal condition. We can say oh I’m good, or I’m this, or I’m that. You can say whatever. But none of that matters. It’s proven by what we do. If we do not do good, then our words and our inner estimation and judgment of ourselves means nothing. What does it matter if I say oh Adam you’re good, but I don’t do good?

What does that matter? It doesn’t matter at all. It’s self delusion is what it is. So if God says no man doeth good, then how can it be said that a person is good? This is the part where people get, people really get hung up, which is this. What we think of ourselves and what the Lord says of us are like this. They diverge. They disagree. We say yes sometimes I do wrong, but sometimes I do good, therefore I’m good.

God says sometimes you do good and sometimes you do wrong, therefore you’re not good. That’s quite a difference isn’t it? You see our sin testifies to our condition. Again our sin, the evil that we do testifies to what we are. This is what our Lord is saying. You see we always judge ourselves whether we do good or do evil, our good or our good. Whether we do good or do evil, our good or our evil based upon some earthly comparison.

In other words we compare ourselves to the next guy. Do I do more good than that guy? But that’s faulty. That’s faulty. Go back to Matthew 19 if you would. I want to show you why. Because this is the crux of the whole argument. Matthew 19 verse 17. Comparing ourselves to the next guy is faulty thinking. Our Lord here in verse 17 does not and will not compare us to the next guy when we stand before him.

Verse 17 he says, Why callest thou me good? To whom then does he compare himself? To whom then does he compare this question of good? He compares it to what? To God. You see why callest thou me good? There is none good but one that is God. So the question then must be asked. And this is a valid question. You might call yourself good. You might say you do good as God because that’s what Jesus is saying.

Well no, of course nobody is that good. Exactly! This is exactly what we’ve been saying. And this is the thing this young man did not see. Jesus is comparing goodness to God himself. So doing good cannot be defined as occasionally doing something nice or not doing evil or something like that. But it is defined as doing only good. Ecclesiastes 7.20 says that. This is the definition that God uses in this verse of himself. God is good. And it’s fitting.

Because this man’s idea of himself is that he is good. Verse 18. In verse 17 the Lord says, But if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. He saith unto him, Which? You see keeping the commandments of God is the doing good. Here’s another dirty little secret about the whole doing good thing and how we estimate our own righteousness and goodness. Here’s how we do it. We do the same thing this young man does.

The Lord says, You want to do good? Here’s how you do it. Keep the commandments of God. That is the definition of good. Keeping the commandments of God. Okay? Everybody with me? So what we do like this young man is we say, Which? You see we carve out the commandments of God that our pattern of life, inconveniently violates. And we say, We’re not really going to count those when we judge ourselves. We’re just going to count these.

Like I’ve never stolen, I’ve never committed adultery, I’ve never murdered. Why is it when you ask somebody about their moral life they always say, I’ve never committed murder? Most people haven’t committed murder people. Okay? All non-murderers aren’t going to heaven. Okay? It’s not the criteria. The criteria is the commandments of God. And those commandments that we conveniently brush to the side. I’ll give you an example honoring our father and our mother.

That’s an easy one. All of us, every one of us has broken. And by doing so has forfeited the word good. Because that is doing good and we haven’t. Well I did it sometimes and? So we say, Which? It’s an effort to maintain our self-righteousness. That’s what it is. Remove some of the commandments and we give ourselves a subset of commandments that are easier to, that we think that we followed.

We really haven’t. Right? Right? We say we haven’t murdered but Jesus says if you hate someone in your heart you’re a murderer. We’ve not committed adultery but if you look on a woman with lust you committed. So you see what I’m saying? We’re still in violation even of the ones that we have chosen as the subset to judge ourselves.

So the honest answer we can give if I were to ask you, have you kept the commandments of God? Jesus said if you want to have life keep the commandments. That is plain and simple. So I ask you, have you? I ask me, have I? And an honest person, every honest person on two legs, every honest person that breathes would have to say no. We could say maybe sometimes or imperfectly perhaps.

But if we have not kept the commandments of God and kept them perfectly as God then we cannot justly say that we’re good. How can a person who does evil, that is breaks and violates God’s commandments, call himself good? We have again forfeited that word. You see this word in verse 17 of Jesus Christ is the only criteria by which a person might correctly judge his own goodness.

So I ask you, have you kept the commandments of God? This young man says in verse number 18 he says which? Which? Why would this young man ask the question which unless he was seeking to exclude some one of the commandments so that he could conveniently maintain his own self-righteousness? You see by excluding some of the commandments, by saying which, he evades the guilt that those excluded commandments might bring upon him.

He says well I don’t have to worry about those. Good to go. It is a matter of self-righteousness. That’s what he’s trying to do. A person who was not trying to maintain self-righteousness would say oh no, I haven’t kept them. Not which ones might I exclude from this list. But notice the Lord’s list in verse 18. Thou shalt do no murder. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness.

Honor thy father and thy mother. And thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. You know what Jesus’ list is? What’s that? Exactly. They’re the second table sins. What we might call, in other words there were two tables of stone where God wrote the Ten Commandments. Most of these are the Ten Commandments. But if you divide them up, the Ten Commandments into sins against God versus sins against man, and sins against God on the first table, sins against man on the second table, these sins are on the second.

What happened to the first? Is Jesus just saying well forget those? No. The Lord is not paring this thing down and making it easy for us and saying okay, listen you don’t have to worry about all the commandments, just these five. He’s not doing that. He’s just picking five. The man is not even going to pass muster on these five, nor do we. And it’s really the last one that gets us, which is what?

Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. You know why that gets us? Because that encompasses all of the commandments related to our fellow man. All of them. Not just these four or five he points out specifically, but all of them. That catches every one of us. Every one of us. Whether it be an evil thought towards somebody who’s driving the way that you don’t prefer, or committing actual murder. It’s all in there. It’s all under that big umbrella.

Now, the Lord is not saying the first set of commandments about God are not relevant. No they are. And he’s certainly not, Jesus is certainly not prescribing a new method of salvation whereby we only need to worry about a few commandments and if we do that then we’re good to go. No, he’s not doing that at all. He has a specific point with this young man and that’s what we want to see.

We divide up the commandments of God into big commandments and little commandments, do we not? Why? It’s the same thing as saying, which? Same thing. Mortal sins and venial sins, which? Hey, what about Adam and Eve? Would you consider eating a piece of fruit, God forbid, a big sin or a little sin? That’s certainly not in the big sin list. Yet they were banned from the Garden of Eden for one.

They were, in fact, in our conversation, Ben and I, with those two Jewish men yesterday, that’s one thing we talked about. That man, knowing the Old Testament scripture, actually brought that up. And I was like, okay, well, you want to walk into this, that’s fine with me. And you know what I did? Actually, did we not, Ben? We actually did the same thing Jesus is saying, which is, okay, the law, you want to keep the law, the commandments of God, the Ten Commandments, have you kept them?

I haven’t kept them. Have you kept them? This is exactly what Jesus is doing. Verse number 20, The young man’s self-righteousness is on full display. The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up. What lack I yet? He’s making it unambiguously clear. He thinks he has kept these commands, just these. Forget the rest. Just these. Now, he hasn’t. I don’t believe for one second he had kept these.

But he thinks he has. And that’s one of the biggest problems with self-righteousness, is its self-delusion. And that’s the whole, listen, that’s the whole purpose of this conversation with Jesus. The purpose, and we’ll get to it in just a minute, but the whole purpose of Jesus’ conversation with this young man was to remove the delusion of his own self-righteousness. And the purpose of this conversation is to change his mind from what he says in verse 20 down to verse 22.

Now look at verse 21 if you would. Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come and follow me. You know what this is? This is not one of the commands written in the law of Moses. This is a new command. This is a customized command. Now I want to warn you here because people have taken this verse, verse 21, in the commentaries, even good commentaries that I read, you know, as I try to read them as I go through the passages, the way that they try to warp the text to say, yeah, yeah, you do have to keep the commands, and you do it, it’s just a product of salvation rather than a requirement.

It’s like, what? What? Anyway, I’m getting distracted. Some people have looked at verse 21 and said, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come and follow me. And some people say, see, this is what you have to do to go to heaven. Andrew, empty your bank account, sell your car, your house, everything you got, give it to the poor, and then follow Jesus all the rest of your days and you’ll go to heaven.

You know what that is? If that stands alone, that is against the gospel. You say, how can you say that? Jesus said it. But notice, and you know, people have built religions on this. People have built religions. It’s actually, it’s actually very lucrative. It just so happens we have an NGO that helps the poor. You’ll get a tax write-off, not that it would really matter because you’re taking a vow of poverty at this point.

And people have built this and people have laid their hope of heaven on this verse. But you’ve got to remember, there’s a little thing called the context. To whom is Jesus speaking? He’s speaking to a single man in a single instance. Furthermore, he’s speaking to a single man in a single instance who is convinced of his own righteousness. Is he not? Let me give you something by which you may compare.

Look at John chapter 3. Now in John chapter 3, at the beginning of the chapter, to whom is Jesus speaking? Any takers? Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, a Pharisee, okay? John chapter 3. So in John 3, Jesus is also speaking to a single individual. Look at verse 14. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man, that’s himself, be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

So are we talking about the same subject as this young man in Matthew 19? Yes, eternal life, right? But why is the answer so important? Why is the answer so different? But why is the answer so different? Why in this case did Jesus say whoever believes in the Son will have eternal life, but to this young man he says keep the commandments, and when he says, oh I’ve done that, he says sell all you have and follow me and you’ll have eternal life.

Why is it different? It’s not the same. Why is it different? In that case he’s speaking to a single individual, in this case he’s speaking to a single individual, but in this case he’s making a general statement. How do you know? Because of the word whosoever. Isn’t that a great word? Isn’t that a great word? That whosoever. In other words, Jesus, this is not a customized statement for a specific person who has a specific spiritual hang-up.

This is absolute truth that spans time. This is a general truth applicable to everyone of all time. Whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Do you see the difference? In Matthew 19, Jesus is speaking to one self-righteous young man.

He’s not making a statement. He’s not reimagining the way of salvation. No. He’s putting something...here’s what he’s doing. Go back to Matthew 19. We’re almost finished. Go back to Matthew 19 if you would. Here’s what Jesus is doing. Jesus in verse 21, he says, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that that thou hast, and give to the poor. Here’s what Jesus is doing. He’s putting on his God hat.

I don’t mean to be disrespectful, but I’m just trying to explain to you. He is standing. He is speaking in the place as God is. He’s saying, I have another command for you, if his name was Jim. I have a command for you. I’m God, and I’m giving you a new command. Does Jesus have the right to do that? Yeah, he has a right to look at Brother Yarley and say, I have a command for you.

Absolutely, he does, and that’s exactly what he does here. He looks at this one man and says, okay, you’ve kept all the commandments of God. Here’s one. I am right now, as God, telling you something you must do if you want eternal life. And the young man recoils. He’s saying, I have a command for you. I have a command for you. The young man recoils. Can Jesus do that?

He did it. He can do whatever he wants. He did it. And all of a sudden, this young man is found to be in rebellion to a command given by a worthy authority. He’s found to be in rebellion. He is found to be violating the first command, the second command of the Ten Commandments, and the last command. He has another God before God. He has an idol, and he’s covetousness.

He’s covetous, rather, which is idolatry. All of a sudden, by this one command, Jesus has turned to mirror on him and says, Now, are you righteous? Are you good? And he has a right to do it. And for that man, that’s what he did. What’s the purpose? He’s trying to remove the man’s self-delusion. You see, Jesus, by laying this additional requirement, He touched on the sin that this man had not recognized.

And so we get to the last verse, verse 22. And when the young man heard that, saying, He went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. You know, you look at verse 22, and you should probably come to the conclusion that Jesus wasn’t a very good soul winner. Because the guy didn’t get saved and baptized. He didn’t. But the sorrow, I’m being facetious, of course, but the sorrow that you see in verse 22, what is that?

This young man leaves this conversation with Jesus knowing something. You know what he knows? He doesn’t have eternal life. He doesn’t have eternal life. You say, Why don’t Jesus just pat him on the back and tell him some nice, affirming things? No. At a minimum, this man is now aware of his true condition before God. He has reason to fear. Because remember, eternal life was something that was in the forefront of his mind, which is why he’s asking, but now he has a reason to fear that he don’t have it, and he has a reason to fear that he’s forfeiting it.

His self-deluded self-righteousness has now been diffused. He goes away sad with the pain of conviction, because he knows he’s not righteous anymore. He knows he’s not kept the commandments of God, and he knows he doesn’t have eternal life. And I want to tell you something, brothers and sisters, that is a good first step. Because often the work of salvation, that thing which leads to eternal life, finally in the end, is, if you will, a process.

It’s something that starts like when a seed goes into the ground. It takes time for that thing to bear fruit of salvation. And the Lord works to teach someone where they stand, step by step, step by step, and works to take away all their self-confidence and self-righteousness and self-delusions about their own righteousness, and finally brings them to a place of the fear of God. Oh no, what am I going to do?

Have I forfeited eternal life? What about my mind? What am I going to do? That’s where you and I have to be. Each one of us that comes to the Lord Jesus has to come to a place where we’re like, oh no, where do I stand with God? I’m in danger of forfeiting eternal life. I’m in danger. Only then is the heart ripe to come to Christ as a non-do-gooding, unrighteous sinner.

And you know how that person is welcomed? He’s welcomed by a Savior who has bled and died for that kind of person, unrighteous sinners. And with open arms, he receives whosoever believes in him. Man, what a blessing. Let’s pray together.