July 7 Mark 10:17-31
Revisit with me, the visit of an extremely rich man to Jesus. He was probably a very ambitious young man, but not too, too young, since he was extremely rich. Extreme wealth would take some time to accumulate, unless of course he was indeed young and had inherited all of his great wealth…
And what did you do to inherit your great wealth young man?
Nothing.
You could do nothing to inherit such a gift, but be chosen by the writer of the will, most likely because you are a beloved son. Extremely rich, ambitious, and proud of his accomplished morality, so the question was: how to get more? “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?”, the ultimate get.
His great wealth blinded him to the truth. He doesn’t get it. There is nothing you can do to inherit eternal life. It’s impossible. It is by the grace of God you are saved, through faith, not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.
You must be born again and adopted into the family of God, as a son or daughter for life – for eternal life. Those who receive Him, are given the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name, born of the will of God.
We are saved, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works.
Born again to good works, to love as you have been loved by Christ, to forgive as you have been forgiven by Christ, to show mercy and grace as you’ve been shown mercy and grace… in other words, to be extremely generous.
John 1:12,13, 3:3-5; Ephesians 2:8-10; Titus 3:4-7; Galatians 4:5; Romans 8:15-17
