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The Saviour and the Schoolmaster

In Matthew 19:16-22, a young man with great possessions (19:22) came to Jesus with an inquiry as to how he could have “eternal life” based on some “good thing” (19:16) he might do. This text has given advocates of a Law-Grace gospel mix the fodder they need to allege Jesus taught conpliance with the  Mosaic Law as requisite to salvation and eternal life. This passage is the subject of many discussion threads on websites called “Yahweh Restoration”, “Torah Restoration” or something similar. 

It is an admittedly challenging text to interpret, requiring one to compare scripture with scripture in arriving at the proper interpretation. What was Jesus really trying to do with this young man? Was he seeking to evangelize him? Was Jesus involved in pre-evangelism? I believe if we rightly divide the Word of God and treat the scripture with intellectual honesty, we can arrive at the proper understanding of the text. The LAST thing Jesus was teaching was a connection between compliance with Mosaic Law and eternal life. Our text constitutes a story about the Saviour's relationship to the Schoolmaster, the Lawgiver to the Law he gave Moses at Sinai.  

We begin by noting the way the young rich man addressed Jesus. He called Jesus “Good Master.” The Greek is διδασκαλε αγαθε. The adjective ἀγαθός (agathos) signifies what is intrinsically beneficial, good in its very essence. “Master” is διδάσκαλος (didaskolos) meaning “teacher, instructor or doctor.” He addresses Jesus as “good teacher.” It's difficult to find fault with this address. It was polite even if perfunctory. The young man saw in Jesus of Nazareth a genuinely good man, a kind man, a teacher with whom children could feel at ease with his meekness and gentleness.  

Jesus took the opportunity of this address to stimulate the young man's thinking regarding WHO it was he was addressing. Jesus replied: “Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God” (19:17). In other words, do you realize that in calling me “good” you have called me “God”? The rich young man was standing in the presence of the Saviour, the Lifegiver himself, and was asking what “good thing” he might do to have eternal life. At the end of their encounter, it is clear he never did grasp the spiritual truth Jesus sought to teach. 

The man asked: “What good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?” His enquiry was flawed in at least three ways according to scripture he should have known. First, it is impossible for a sinner to DO a good thing. Four times in Psalms, scripture says: “there is none that doeth good” (14:1, 3; 53:1, 3). Paul reiterated this truth for a fifth time in Romans 3:12: “There is none that doeth good, no, not one.” Secondly, it is NOT possible for a sinner to EARN eternal life. It is a gift of God's grace! Thirdly, keeping the Ten Commandments cannot produce life. There is no Law capable of giving spiritual life to a compliant sinner (Galatians 3:21). 

So what was the purpose of Jesus introducing the Mosaic Law to this man as a path to life? Consider these NT truths. First, SIN is the transgression of the LAW (1 John 3:4). Secondly, for by the LAW is the knowledge of SIN (Romans 3:20). Thirdly, SIN by the COMMANDMENT becomes exceeding SINFUL (Romans 7:13). Fourthly, the LAW was added alongside the Abrahamic covenant because of TRANSGRESSIONS (Galatians 3:19). It's clear at this point that Jesus introduced the commandments for the purpose of removing the blinders from his eyes and exposing his sin. And sure enough, it was Commandment #10, a prohibition against covetousness, that sank his ship, so to speak. 

There exists an instructive comparison between this young rich man (Matthew 19) and the woman at Jacob's well in Samaria (John 4). In both instances, the point of evangelism with Jesus was to bring each of them to an awareness of WHO he was and to find salvation in HIM. To the Samaritan woman, Jesus said if she knew WHO it was that had asked her for water, she would have asked HIM for living water. When the woman brought up the subject of MESSIAH, Jesus said: “I that speak unto thee am HE (John 4:26). To the young rich man, Jesus clarified that since he had called him “good” he must therefore be “GOD,” the sole source of eternal life. 

Jesus then instructed him that in order to be “perfect” (complete, lacking nothing) he should sell all that he had, give it to the poor and trade his earthly wealth for heavenly treasure. Jesus followed up those imperatives with another command: “Come and FOLLOW ME” (Matthew 19:21). These are the key imperatives, often overlooked by interpreters. In both cases, Jesus linked living water (John 4) and eternal life (Matthew 19) to HIMSELF. In the end, the young rich man valued the relationship with his GOODS as more important than a potential relationship with GOD, the giver of eternal life!

This is the bedrock truth in true evangelism. On both occasions, Jesus used the Schoolmaster to bring each of them to HIMSELF (Galatians 3:24). For the woman at the well, it was Commandment #7, the sin of adultery, that accentuated her need. She discovered that WHO she worshipped was of far greater import than WHERE she worshipped. For the young rich man, it was Commandment #10, the sin of covetousness, that exposed his need. He ultimately refused to relinquish his sin in order that he might have life in Christ! 

We see the effectiveness of the Schoolmaster in bringing the woman to Christ: “The woman then left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men, 'Come, see a MAN, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the CHRIST?'” (John 4:28-29). Contrariwise, we see the reaction of the young rich man: “But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions” (Matthew 19:22). The woman went away JOYFUL, but the man SORROWFUL!

Some thirty years later, the apostle Paul clarified what was actually happening in this encounter with the young rich man. Paul likewise had kept all the commandments from his youth up, as he testified in Philippians 3:4-6. He used the word “blameless” to describe his devotion to the Law of Moses. But once he met Christ, the obsession of his life was to “win Christ” and to be “found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith” (3:8-9). Paul discovered that CHRIST WAS ENOUGH, his ALL IN ALL, a reality that escaped the young rich man. 

Paul earlier wrote these words to the church at Rome: “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit” (8:3-4). There is nothing wrong with the Law. But it cannot produce true righteousness or give life because of the weakness of man's flesh to comply fully with its demands. So God in Christ condemned sin in the flesh with his own perfect obedience, rose from the dead, ascended to the Father's right hand and sends the Spirit of God INTO the heart of every believer for the purpose of fulfilling the righteousness of the Law IN them! The weakness of the young rich man's flesh rendered the Law impotent to save him or anyone else. Little did that young rich man know that the Christ that bid him “Follow me!” was going to do all this on his behalf.

One last thought. We must remember that this rich young man, although zealous of complying with the commandments “from his youth,” was under condemnation. Jesus told Nicodemus: “He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil” (John 3:18-19). The young man was NOT a good guy. His covetousness was an EVIL DEED that caused him to reject the Light in whose presence he stood. He loved darkness rather than Light, and walked away sorrowful.

Such is the relationship between the Saviour and the Schoolmaster, which God added alongside the Abrahamic covenant to exacerbate our transgressions and bring us to Christ. For the woman at the well, it found great success in her salvation. But for the young rich man, its purpose was not realized. As the saying goes, the same sun that melts the snow is the same sun that hardens the clay!

 
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