Treasure in Heaven, Matthew 19:16-26

The more I am digging into this the more there is to find, especially when we get to the latter part of this episode where we focus on rewards. This is all an integral unit. Unfortunately because the way our Bibles chop things up in terms of chapters and verses, and even if you have study Bibles heading are inserted for different sections and subsections, and often the way there are divided is with a tendency to isolate them.

When you study systematic theology these sections are cited and often they are taken out of context because they are not approached from a verse-by-verse perspective the way in which all of these parts are integrated into the whole of a section we miss some of the points.

So I want to go back and look at a couple of things. As we look at this today we will be reminded that the focal point of this section from vv. 16 down through 30 focuses on verse 21 where Jesus is focusing on having treasure in heaven. That is really one of the key phrases to help us understand that this isn't talking about how to be justified so that when you die you go to heaven. The words and phrases are often used in a fuller sense talking about rewards, about inheritance in the kingdom; it goes beyond just being present in the kingdom.

We have often talked about salvation in three stages. In phase one, justification, we are justified by faith alone and we simply trust in Christ as savior and instantly we are credited with Christ's righteousness. God sees Christ's righteousness in us and declares us to be justified.

Stage two is a process: the spiritual life. The problem we have in theology is that for centuries the predominant views had not drawn a distinction between that which is germane or necessary for spiritual growth and that which is necessary for spiritual birth. These terms birth and growth are analogous to circumstances in our individual lives. That which is necessary for birth, for anyone to be born physically, for the pre-birth nourishment and preparation of the child in utero is very different from that which is necessary for nourishment and health after birth. Before birth the child is fed and nourished through the umbilical cord in the womb; after birth the nourishment is taken in orally. There is a distinction. And yet throughout the history of Christianity these have not been distinguished very well.

So what we often hear from people's comments about looking at somebody's life, and they say hmm, that person says this, that person says that, this person lies, this person is involved in extramarital affairs, etc. how can they be a Christian? What they are doing is looking at phase two criteria and trying to determine phase one.

This really began to develop early in the history of Christianity, in the second century as works became seen as evidence of regeneration. The Bible never puts that forth as a truth or as a doctrine. As the theology that became known as Roman Catholic theology became solidified in the early church and into the mediaeval period this became the standard: the only way you could know if you were justified was how you lives. And so justification in Roman Catholic theology is not a point in time when a person believes in Jesus, receives the imputation of Christ's righteousness, and God declares them to be justified. In Roman Catholic theology justification and sanctification are almost synonymous, and they are both processes. They way you become justified over time is to participate in the sacraments of the Roman Catholic church, and each time you do then God dishes out a little bit of the merit from the treasury of Christ. How much is enough becomes the important question, and nobody knows how much is enough, so you are constantly, as it were, working your way to heaven.

That theology was broken by Martin Luther on October 31^st 1517 officially when he nailed the debating points, the 95 theses, on the door of the church at Wittenberg, Germany. What he was basically challenging was this theology. It wasn't crystal clear in Luther's mind at that point but he had a young protégé named Philip Melanchthon who came along and helped him understand what we now would call a free grace understanding of the gospel. It got muddied a little later on in Luther's life but or a period he was very clear that justification is distinguished from sanctification. Calvin understood also that they were distinct but he muddied the waters later on because in the blow-back from the Roman Catholic Church their counter argument was: Well if people are saved by grace what threat do you have to keep them moral, to keep them obedient, to keep them under control? If they can be saved just by believing in Jesus then what is to keep them living like an unbeliever?

Even Calvin succumbed to the pressure and they fell back to this view that somehow how you live is evidence of whether or not you are saved. But the Scripture makes a clear distinction between justification and sanctification or the spiritual life. We are justified by faith alone and the spiritual life in the church age is a walk of obedience by means of God the Holy Spirit; that is phase two. Phase three is glorification.

So the Scripture uses this term “saved” in three different ways. In verse 25 Peter asks: “Then who can be saved?” He is not talking about getting into heaven when they die. We have to distinguish from being saved from the penalty of sin and being saved from the power of sin. The word “saved” [Greek: SOZO] can mean to be healed, delivered, rescued; it has a broad range of meaning. Glorification means to be saved from the presence of sin. There are two ways to be glorified, death or the Rapture.

Phase one is through faith alone, Romans 4:3; Genesis 15:6. It doesn't say anything about believing and doing anything. It is faith alone that brings us justification. Acts 16:31; Galatians 2:16; Titus 3:5; Ephesians 2:8, 9.

Phase two is the sphere of discipleship, not how to get justified. Jesus uses this language all through Matthew—Follow me, follow me—all in terms of discipleship. The rich young ruler comes along and says in Matthew's account, “What shall I do to obtain eternal life”, which means to possess it, to hold on to it, and it is parallel to what is asked n Mark 10:17 and Luke 18:18: “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” We have seen that inheritance often refers to rewards and not to justification; they are two distinct issues.

Colossians 3:24 ^NASB “knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance.” The Bible is very clear that how get to heaven when we die is to believe in Jesus Christ alone. That is the basis. But also the Bible goes on to teach our position, our privilege, our capacity, our responsibilities in heaven will be determined by our obedience in this life, our discipleship, our spiritual growth, our spiritual maturity. The Bible says that we are saved as a free gift but rewards are earned.

The topic at the end here comes to rewards when Jesus says in Matthew 19:28 ^NASB “... Truly I say to you, that you who have followed Me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man will sit on His glorious throne, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” (Jesus is now at the right hand of the Father; He doesn't sit on His own throne until He comes at the Second Coming, then it is the regeneration, the renewal of all things) This verse is talking about rewards, not justification.

The rich young ruler is asking how he could get this life that is promised in the Law.

Matthew 19:16 ^NASB “And someone came to Him and said, 'Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may obtain eternal life?'” There is a textual discrepancy here related to the word “good”. In two or three critical older MSS they don't use the word “good”, but in the majority of MSS there is the word “good”. There is also the word “good” in the Mark and the Luke accounts. It seems from both internal and external evidence that the word “good” there is to be understood.

Matthew 19:17 ^NASB “And He said to him, 'Why are you asking Me about what is good? There is {only} One who is good; but if you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments'.” Some think that this implies that Jesus is saying that He is not God. That is not what is going on here at all. What he is saying is, do you really understand whom it is you are talking to? There is only one good, that is God. There is only one who is good. Do you understand that I am God? He is asking him” Do you really understand who I am, who you are addressing, and are you willing to submit to my authority?

The rich young ruler is asking the question, not about getting into heaven, but about realizing the promises of life. That is how Jesus responds to him in verse 17: “... but if you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.” If you don't address this correctly you think that what Jesus is trying to do is show him that he can't keep the commandments. That runs counter to what the Old Testament says. The Old Testament recognizes that if you keep the commandments you would have life. That is not the gospel, how you were justified, but that is how a justified Old Testament believer was supposed to live.

A justified believer in the church age is supposed to live by obeying the law. Entering into life here is growing spiritually and it will be clarified when we get to verse 21, that this is what it means to be spiritually mature and what it means to have treasure in heaven—not that the church age believer is under the Law. We are not under the Law, we are under grace but there are still mandates in the church age for the spiritual life.

Jesus is talking to the rich young ruler under the Mosaic Law in the age of Israel, the dispensation of the Law. This is not something that would be applied to the church age believer in terms of the Law. In fact, the Mosaic Law gives us a pattern for many things, it has a lot of implications, but it is not directly applicable to the church age believer. We are not to go to the temple to bring sacrifices and even in the Old Testament only Jews were expected to obey the Mosaic Law, it wasn't even for Gentiles. It was to demonstrate the lifestyle of a kingdom of priests as an example to the Gentile nations in the Old Testament.

But the promise was that they would have a fullness of life, that they would have an abundance of life. This is what Jesus is talking about in John 10:10, “I am come to give life (Justification life), and to give life abundantly, richly, fully.” That is the spiritual life, spiritual maturity.

Jesus tells the young man to keep the commandments and he says, which ones? Matthew 19:18 ^NASB “{Then} he said to Him, 'Which ones?' ...” That would seem like a pretty good question because the rabbis even by this time had categorized all of the mandates and prohibitions in the Mosaic Law, and had identified 613. It is interesting that Jesus immediately goes to the Decalogue in order to answer.

It is important to understand that the Ten Commandments are like the preamble to our Constitution. They are basically defining the basic do's and don'ts on which everything else) the other 603 commandments) are built.

Jesus focuses on the commands that are related to human behavior towards other human beings. He focuses on the foundation of the Law. Remember, Jesus said: “I didn't come to abolish the Law but to fulfil it.” Once again we see He is not antagonistic to the Mosaic Law. In other places in Matthew He has already repeated three of these commandments: Matthew 5:21, 27; 15:4. He adds to these and quotes from the 6^th, 7^th, 8^th, and 9^th commandments in that order because those are prohibitions: You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, and you shall not bear false witness.

Then He puts in the 5^th commandment. Why does He take them out of order? Because the 5^th commandment is a positive commandment, and he is going to add one other which is also a positive commandment. He gets the negatives up front and then adds two that are positive: Honor your father and your mother, and a commandment from Leviticus 19:18. Jesus in Matthew 22:37-39 when asked what are the greatest commandments will summarize the commandments in terms of two: Loving the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and He summarizes the second tablet of the Law as loving your neighbor as yourself.

“... And Jesus said, 'YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT MURDER; YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY; YOU SHALL NOT STEAL; YOU SHALL NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS; [19] HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER; and YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.”

The young man, not with a sense of irony, and I don't think with a sense of pride, believes rightly or wrongly that he has endeavored to fulfil this to his greatest ability. But somehow he senses that he is not really experiencing this rich full, abundant life that the Law seems to be promising him. He knows that something is missing; he is not doing it right. And that is what Jesus is going to point out.

Matthew 19:20 ^NASB “The young man said to Him, 'All these things I have kept; what am I still lacking?'” Jesus doesn't say, “No you haven't. The point of the Law is to show you are a sinner.” Jesus doesn't question that but He is going to point out something that is lacking. That is the point of His answer in verse 21, and this is really the crux of this whole section.

Matthew 19:21 ^NASB “Jesus said to him, 'If you wish to be complete, go {and} sell your possessions and give to {the} poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me'.” He sets up a condition: “if you want to be perfect/complete”.

We have to understand what it means when He says, “If you want to be perfect”. That doesn't mean flawless righteousness. We only get that by trusting in Christ as savior—imputed righteousness. Jesus isn't talking about that. Many times in our translations the Greek word TELEIOS or one of its forms is translated perfection, and we think that in the sense of flawlessness or sinless perfection. But that is not the meaning of the word. It never has that connotation in Scripture. The idea in TELEIOS is something that is complete, something that is whole, and something that is mature. This is the key that unlocks this passage and helps us understand that Jesus knows that His question is related to maturity, not related to regeneration or justification.

“If you want to be perfect …” Then He has three things that he has to do. Since salvation is not by works Jesus can't be talking about justification. He said, “Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor”. The knee-jerk reaction from modern anti-materialists, Marxists, socialists, legalists and ascetics is that somehow there is spiritual virtue in poverty, and that people who are poor are more spiritual than those who aren't.

That is not biblical for a number of reasons. In fact, when we look in the Scriptures we see examples of a number of extremely wealthy believers. In the Old Testament we have Abraham who was incredibly wealthy. Job was probably wealthier than Abraham. There was David and Solomon, and in the New Testament there were a number of people who were wealthy and they gave from their wealth to support the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ during His time on the earth. The family of Mary, Martha and Lazarus were probably fairly well to do, probably part of a rather small but active middle class in Judea at the time. There is a reference to a wealthy wide in Luke 8:3, and example of Joseph of Aramathea and Nicodemus. Zaccheus was also wealthy; he gave away his wealth plus made restitution.

When Jesus says go sell what you have and give it to the poor that is a distinct command that he is giving to the rich young ruler. With Zaccheus it was half, and with others He doesn't even mention that. When Peter responded to the Lord he said: “We have left everything and followed you”. They left their houses, they left everything, but they didn't sell them. They had businesses that they could go back to, and they did to some degree. The disciples certainly didn't sell everything or give it to the poor, so this is not a universal command. Jesus is giving specific instruction to this individual because of his mental attitude. That is, that he has something in his life that is keeping him from truly following Jesus or being obedient to the Lord.

Every one of us has things like that in our life. Some of them are details of life. There is nothing inherently wrong with possessions. In fact, in 1 Timothy 6:10 we are told that it is the love of money that is the root of all evil; it is not money. Christian ministries have flourished over the years because God has not only given a number of believers the gift of giving but I have seen a lot of people with the gift of giving who have also been given the ability to make money. And they give out of their abundance to many ministries. Most ministries flourish on the small gifts of many different people but there are wonderful people whom God has blessed materially and financially who have not only benefitted a lot of cultural things but have also given a tremendous amount to support churches and missionaries. They recognize that what they have is to be used for the glory of God.

This rich young ruler though has misplaced priorities on his details of life. For other people the details may be different from his details but those details keep us from being fully obedient to the Lord. In Hebrews we are told that we are to lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily entangles us. So there are details that trip us up and there are also sins, personal sins that we are really fond of.

But in either case what Jesus is saying is that if we are going to follow Him we can't look back like Lot's wife, or like the one person who wanted to be a disciple but said his father was about to die and he had others things to do, he was not ready to one hundred per cent to follow the Lord. That is what Jesus is pointing out. He is not saying there is something inherently virtuous about poverty. There is nothing virtuous about poverty. Virtue has to do with character, not possessions. The problem for this young man is that this is the thing that is keeping him from growing spiritually. This is his distraction; yours and mine may be something else.

“... and you will have treasure in heaven”. That is, if you can get past this one obstacle you are going to grow even more spiritually, you are going to mature, and there will be rewards. This is the centerpiece of this whole thing. The chiasm of this whole section from Matthew 19:14-20—inheriting eternal life, obtaining treasure in the time to come.

This connects is also back to the Sermon on the Mount. A number of things that are said in this section are parallel to what is said in the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 6:19-21 ^NASB “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

So Jesus is saying you need to focus on spiritual growth and spiritual maturity. If you want to be a disciple then you have to focus on storing up treasure in heaven and not focusing in treasure on earth. Treasure on earth for the rich young ruler is a distraction and Jesus is pointing that out to him.

Matthew 19:22 ^NASB “But when the young man heard this statement, he went away grieving; for he was one who owned much property.”

What is interesting here is the response, the reaction of the disciples. Matthew 19:23 ^NASB “And Jesus said to His disciples, 'Truly I say to you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. [24] Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”

This was a proverbial statement at that time, that if something was impossible then it was described as trying to put a camel through the eye of a needle. A camel was the largest mammal in Palestine at that time and there was a parallel rabbinic statement that spoke of an elephant going through the eye of a needle. It was just an expression of something that was humanly impossible.

There have been some people over the years that have tried to say that this is not the eye of a sewing needle but a gate. Instead of opening up the large gate to let people in, especially after dark, they would let them in through a little gate. It came to be thought that this was what Jesus was talking about. However, there is no evidence at all in ancient literature that this was called a needle gate. Not only that but the word for needle that is used in the text is the word that is used for a sewing needle. So it is very clear that Jesus is using this idiomatically and saying that it is impossible for someone who is distracted by the details of life (in this case, wealth) to enter into the fullness of life and the richness of the kingdom.

Matthew 19:25 ^NASB “When the disciples heard {this,} they were very astonished and said, 'Then who can be saved?' ” Their mouth drops open. They are speechless. They can't comprehend or process what Jesus has just said. It doesn't make sense to them. Because Jesus doesn't want some of us, He wants all of us. To be a disciple you have to be committed t spiritual growth and to follow the Lord wherever that takes you.

Peter than says, “What we do in order to be saved?” And it doesn't mean justified, it means so that we can grow spiritually.

Matthew 19:26 ^NASB “And looking at {them} Jesus said to them, 'With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible'.” You can't do it on your own. You can't pull yourself up by your spiritual bootstraps; but with God all things are possible. We can only do it by walking by the Spirit.

But one thing is necessary, and that is that we have to decide that that is what we want. Are we going to follow Jesus or not? Are we just going to sort of play a game with God spiritually or are we really going to be serious about our spiritual growth? Because when we are serious about our spiritual growth the promise is not only abundant life in this life but riches in heaven and treasures in heaven that are used to glorify God—not the personal accumulation of wealth—when we arrive in heaven because of obedience to Him.

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