The objections which people raise in opposition to the understanding and teaching of "grace", and free salvation are diverse and many. Those who object to the teaching of free salvation pick their way through the Bible, and present a multitude of texts to oppose it.

There are many such texts which are thus used. The examples of the rich young ruler is just one of them.

"And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life? And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? There is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. He saith unto him, Which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother: and, thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet? 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. But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions." Matt. 19:16-22.

This text is pushed forward time after time as an example of how Jesus Himself taught that we must do good works and keep the law to obtain eternal life. Complete books have been written purely and simply to explain this text. Countless reams of paper wasted. I say "wasted" because they do not show the truth of this text at all. They make it out to be something that it is not.

In order to understand the true meaning of this text, there is a foundation principle which MUST be firmly established in our brain.

What is this foundation principle?

THE LAW IS OUR SCHOOLMASTER, to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. (Gal. 3:24.)

The law itself is NOT our Saviour. It was NEVER meant to be our Saviour. It was given so that it might be our teacher and our instructor! It shows us all very clearly that we ARE guilty of unrighteousness! It shows us without any shadow of a doubt that we ARE sinful and we ARE unworthy to merit eternal life. It was presented to man through Moses in such a way that it was designed to cause us to shut our mouths from all such foolish boasting concerning how good we are, or how good we imagine ourselves to be, that we might seek salvation elsewhere, to bring us to Christ our Saviour.

As Paul says - "Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law; that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God." Rom. 3:19.

And the story of the rich young ruler is a prime example of how Jesus Himself used the law as a schoolmaster to show a man his guilt and bring him to the understanding of how sinful he was.

So, in order to understand it correctly, the very first thing that we must understand about this text is concerned with the actual question that this young man asked -

"Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?"

Now, unless we are totally blind we should be able to see exactly how this young man was thinking. His thoughts on the matter are laid open and bare for all to see, so there cannot be any mistake. This young man thought that he had to do some "good thing" in order to have eternal life.

Was this young man using the law for its correct purpose? Was he using the law to both show him his guilt and make him guilty before God?

No!

Was he allowing the law to be his schoolmaster to show him his sinfulness?

No! Not at all!

He was using the law as a guide to show him how much good he had to do. He believed that eternal life was to be gained by doing good works or some particular good work, and he had come along to Jesus to ask Him exactly what good work he had to do. In short, the attitude of this man was a self-righteous attitude. Make no mistake about it. His own words show us exactly how he was thinking, and his thinking was that of a self-righteous person. The question that he asked - "What good thing shall I do that I might have eternal life?" is the question of a self-righteous person. It is the question of a person who imagines that they will be, or can be saved and reach eternal life because of some "good work" or "righteousness" which they have performed.

So, the second question that we must ask is - did Jesus know that this young man was self-righteous?

Of course He did! Do we honestly think that Jesus was so stupid that He did not understand the question that the young man was asking. Jesus knew very well how this young man was thinking. He could hardly be unaware of the fact when the question was so blatantly obvious. Jesus knew very well that the young man believed that salvation could be procured by doing good works. He knew that the young man was using the law for the wrong purpose. And Jesus' immediate object was to show the young man how such thoughts were incorrect.

Jesus knew exactly how a man was to gain eternal life. He knew that all men who were going to be justified before God would be justified by His death for their sins. He knew that He had been sent into the world to die for the sins of the world. He knew that it was because He had come to die for man, in man's place, that man would be able to have the gift of eternal life. He knew that man's own good works were nothing more than "filthy rags." He knew that He had come to die for this proud, young man, this very young man who was now asking Him this most incorrect question. But even though Jesus knew all of this, the problem lay in the fact that the young man did not!

So Jesus began by taking the opportunity to show him his error.

How?

By showing him quite plainly and bluntly that something which he had already said was false. The first thing that Jesus said in reply was - "Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is God."

These opening words are bold, short, sharp, and to the point. The argument is simple - why do you call me, a man, good? There is none good but one, that is God. There is only one GOOD ONE - that is, God Himself.

From Jesus' opening words, the young man should have got the message, or at the very least he should have started to feel a bit uneasy. The alarm bells should have started to ring in his head. The seeds of doubt should have been planted, causing him to swallow hard.

He had come along to Jesus, a man whom he considered to be "good", and he had been told that NO MAN was "good" but God only. He had called Jesus "Good Master" and had asked "What good thing shall I do" But he had been instantly rebuffed with the words "Why do you call me, a man, good? There is none good except God Himself."

Now, if this young man had been thinking logically, an equation should have started to form itself in his brain. It should have dawned upon him that if what he had already been told was true - that there was "none good except God", then he, a man, was not "good", neither could he achieve "goodness". And if he was not "good", and neither could he achieve goodness, then there was not any "good" thing that he could do to inherit eternal life. It should have dawned upon him, that if God was the only "good" One, then he was not "good" and therefore he could not do any "good thing".

So, Jesus' opening statement was a sort of tester, to see if the young man's eyebrows furrowed as he puzzled with the facts which had been presented to him. And Jesus would have been carefully watching his face for any reaction, to see if His words had done any good, or had produced any result, but they obviously had not, and Jesus knew that they had not. Therefore He had to show the young man the error of his thinking, and what better way than to use the law which was designed for this very purpose. So He continues with the main assault. How? By taking the young man straight to the law, of course.

Jesus was not shy about using the law. He used it time and time again, on most occasions in such a skilful way that it is a joy to behold, and in this place, it is as if he picks up both tables of stone and brings them crashing down upon the young man's head with an enormous thump by saying - "But if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments."

Now, the teachers of salvation by works start to jump up and down with joy when they hear this.

"There you are," they say. "There it is in black and white. Jesus said it, so it must be true!" But their false use of the law, and their misinterpretation of the reason why Jesus said it, is not to be allowed. To do so would be to totally ignore Jesus' opening words - "there is none good but God".

Jesus was not advocating that this man, should do any work of the law, or keep any commandment so that he might be made fit enough to pass through judgement or gain eternal life. Just the opposite! Jesus was using the law as a schoolmaster, to teach this young man a lesson. He was using it as a means to show the young man the error of his thinking. He was using the law as the law is meant to be used, as a convictor of sin, so that the young man's mouth would be stopped from such foolish thinking, and that he would become guilty before God. Jesus was using the law to show the young man the truth of what had already told him - that there was "none good except God." And what better way to show a person how they are not good, than to take them directly to the law which was designed to show them just that.

The young man then asks which commandments Jesus was talking about, and Jesus makes it quite clear that He was talking about the Ten Commandments, by replying -

"Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother: and, thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself."

We then see just how far into the depths of self-righteousness this young man had fallen.

Jesus had told him that God alone was good. He had taken him to the law so that he might realize just how true this was, but instead of this having the desired effect, the man comes straight back with the reply -

"All these have I kept from my youth up, what lack I yet?"

To use a popular modern phrase, I bet you could have knocked Jesus down with a feather. He had let go with both barrels of the law from point blank range and this young man had not even blinked. Jesus had taken him to the law, and brought both tables crashing down upon his head to knock some sense into him, and this young man was not even aware that he had been hit, but instead he picks up the same law and gives it back to Jesus, as if to say - I did not feel that one little bit, here, take your two tables of stone back and have another go.

Instead of the law causing this young man's mouth to be stopped from all such foolish boasting and make him guilty before God, he was actually congratulating himself on how well he had kept it! It was as if he was saying - "What? That little old law! Nah, that cannot be the secret to eternal life. I have done all of that. Surely there must be something else that I can do."

Jesus' first two attempts to show this man his error had evidently failed. He still did not understand that there was none good except God. It was as if Jesus' words had gone in one ear and out of the other without leaving any impression on the man's brain at all. He still thought that he was good, and he still thought that when he was compared to the standard which the law required, he was faultless. He was not allowing the law to do its correct job in his life, to convict him of sin, but was rather wallowing in his sins by congratulating himself on how well he was doing.

If Jesus had been an impatient man He might well have given it up as a bad job, but He was not an impatient man. And His love and compassion for the young man was so great that He was determined to show him his error.

Jesus knew that what the young man had previously said was wrong. The young man's reply - "all these have I kept from my youth up" was absolute nonsense, totally false, and utter hypocrisy, and Jesus knew that it was. The first thump on the head with the tables of law should have been enough, but it was not enough, so now is the time for something a bit heavier. This young man is not going to know what hit him. So Jesus embarks upon the third attempt to show this man his error, and the way that He did it was brilliantly clever. He would catch him in his own craftiness and turn his own words against him.

The young man had already openly declared that he HAD kept the law from his youth up, that is to say - he HAD loved the Lord God with all his heart, with all his strength, and with all his mind, and he HAD loved his neighbour as himself. So Jesus launches the final attack by turning his own foolish boasting back on himself, hitting him where it would hurt him the most, by saying -

"If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and come and follow me."

The missile is launched. It hits its mark. And the rich, young man does not like it at all! He had thrown the law back to Jesus, as if to say, I did not feel that one bit, try again. So Jesus does try again, and he certainly feels it this time. This time it explodes right in his face, and now the young man has reason to swallow hard. Now his mouth is suddenly stopped! No more foolish boasting about how good he was! No more stupid comments on how he had kept the law from his youth up! No more self-righteousness hypocrisy! And we are told -

"But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions."

When we sit back as an outside observer and examine these words which Jesus used so brilliantly, and so cleverly we must surely be filled with admiration.

The young man had declared that he HAD kept the commandments from his youth up. That is to say, he declared that he DID love his neighbour as himself, and he DID love God with all his heart. He was so confident that he had done it, so adamant that keeping the law was easy - mere child's play. But when it was shown to him that the commandments of love demanded that he should sell all that he had and give it to the poor, it became evident that he had not kept or done them at all! It was all a mere figment of his imagination.

He, who was so confident that he had kept the commandments from his youth, (which meant that he was claiming that he did love his neighbour as himself, and always had done) was suddenly confronted by the fact that he did not even think enough of his neighbour to sell any of his riches in order to help the poor, the starving, and the needy. He was utterly confident that he had always loved them, but when it came to the crunch he was confronted with the real truth - that he did not love them at all.

The young man's belief that he had kept the commandments from his youth up was wrong. Jesus knew that it was wrong, and now we also see that it was wrong. It was a false belief. The young man was convinced that he did keep the Commandments, but we see just how much he had actually broken them. He, like all other men was a miserable failure when it comes to keeping the commandments of God, and in the end Jesus had shown him just how true this was.

The whole effort of Jesus' speaking to this man was NOT to show him how he could gain eternal life by keeping the commandments, doing the law, or trying to keep any part of it, just the opposite. Jesus was using the law as it was intended to be used - as our schoolmaster to show us that we are unworthy, unrighteous sinners, and that we must look for another way to attain righteousness other than the law. Jesus had taken him to the law to show him that he had broken it from his youth up, not kept it, as he believed. He had taken him to the law so that the law would convict him of sin, and to show him that no matter how hard he tried, no matter what he did or tried to do, he could not alter the fact that there is none good but one, that is - God Himself.

There are many instances where Jesus uses the law in this way, to show both the Jewish leaders just how unrighteous they truly were. All of which are valuable lessons for us today.

In St. John's gospel, chapter 8, verses 3-11, we are told the story where the scribes and Pharisees came to Jesus with a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery, an offence which carried the punishment of death by stoning, according to their law. They tempted Him by asking what they should do with her? His answer was simple, - "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her," And one by one, they all turned and walked away, convicted by their own guilt.

All of these stories are excellent diagrams for us to learn from. What are we to learn?

To shut our mouths! Never mind all the hypocrisy and nonsense about how good, godly and righteous we are. Let us wake up, enter the real world. Let our ears be unblocked and our eyes be opened. Let our hearts be turned to the realization that we are as unrighteous and unworthy as everybody else.