Matthew 19:16-26 People ask questions for many reasons. Sometimes they want to look intelligent. Sometimes they want to stump the teacher. Sometimes they really want to know. I believe that the man really wanted to know but his question was much like asking, "What does the color nine smell like?" Or, "What kind of poem do I need to write to cure cancer?" The object of his question was in an entirely different realm than the method to obtain it. The man was undoubtedly a "good" man who kept the law as much as humanly possible; but there was something missing, something that he couldn't quite put his finger on. Perhaps he felt he could buy something, pay something with his money. I believe that what Jesus was trying to tell the man was that his wealth would never be able to provide answers in the spiritual realm. It wasn't necessarily causing him to sin; but it needed to be eliminated from his thinking as an answer to his question "Give it away! Get rid of it!" "Come and follow Me!" Only in Jesus could he find a real entrance into the spiritual realm. Only in this realm will he find "eternal life", "salvation", a filling of this empty place, the one thing that he lacked. A camel would stand a better chance of going through the eye of a sewing needle than for one to go from the physical to the spiritual using human means. It can't be done! In receiving eternal life, we become a new creation. (II Cor. 5:17). That is a process only God can do. The blood of the cross takes care of the sin problem and makes us eligible. Our faith provides the key. Only God can provide the new creation which is eternal. No wonder Jesus said, "With God all things are possible." If God has the power and the love to accomplish salvation in us; as Romans 8:32 says, "He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?"

With God All Things Are Possible