In the Bible, it was common for Jesus to invite people to follow him. That’s simple enough. Anyone can do that. Does this give them eternal life?
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.
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.
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