In the Bible it was common for Jesus to invite people to follow him. That’s simple enough; anyone can do that.
But sometimes Jesus would give a different instruction. For example, he told one very wealthy man to give away all his money and possessions, not ten percent, not half, not even 90 percent, but all. That’s not so simple or so easy.
Some people assume this means the man was putting his trust in his money and as long as he trusted money, he could never fully trust Jesus.
I get that and agree with that: anything that’s more important to us than Jesus, keeps us from Jesus.
But I wonder if there’s not a different explanation. The man was trying to earn eternal life. We know we can’t earn our salvation; that’s impossible. So to make his point, Jesus gave him a seemingly impossible task: give away everything.
Eternal life is a gift. We can’t earn it. All we need to do is receive it.
[Luke 18:18-29 and Romans 6:23]
A lifelong student of the Bible, Peter DeHaan, PhD, wrote the 1,000-page website ABibleADay.com to encourage people to explore the Bible. His main blog and many books urge Christians to push past the status quo and reconsider how they practice their faith in every area of their lives.
