He is Our Motivation

When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “One thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” Luke 18:22

This rich ruler was devoted to and focused on a works based salvation model. He walked around with his clipboard so he could award himself a gold star when a “good” deed was performed. I can just imagine the large poster board in his room with a chart full of gold stars. This particular day that chart apparently had filled up so he made his way to Jesus. In his mind he had nothing to fear. He had been great at following rules so surely Jesus would give him a pat on the back and say heaven will welcome you my son. I can picture him taking that chart off the wall and carrying it with him as he approached Jesus. You can hear the excitement and arrogance in his voice when he answers Jesus in verse 21, “All these [commandments] I have kept from my youth.” He says this as he shows his gold star filled chart.

Jesus then drops a bomb on him with verse 22. Think of the immediate shock that must have come over this ruler. “What do you mean I lack something? Have you not seen my chart? It is full of stars, and they are gold!” The ruler’s complete focus was that of works. He believed that his works could save him. Jesus was simply pointing out that apart from the saving grace and mercy of God you have no hope in eternal life. Jesus was screaming, “You think you have it all figured out but You are missing me!!” You can stack up “good” deeds all you want. You can earn as much money as you want. You can go to church as much as you want, but filling up your chart and checking off your boxes mean nothing apart from Him. Do you get that?

Please don’t miss the significance of this verse and others like it. It is easy for us to check off a box and manage our lives. It is easy for us to fill up our charts with gold stars and want to put that in God’s face and say, “see what I have been doing.” Who are you praising and glorifying when you do this? This is nothing more than self-gratification. When we do things like this we are arguing that God needs us. He needs us and our gold stars. We tend to think that, He is sure lucky to have us on His team. This is laughable.

I would encourage you to examine your life and decide where your treasure is found. Are you struggling with a works based philosophy when it comes to your salvation? Please don’t hedge your bets. Stop living with one foot conformed to the world and one foot in the gospel. This is dangerous. We love and keep the commandments because of who He is and what He did, not because of who we are and what we can do. This is why we do good deeds. This is why we go to church. This is why we go to work. We do all this because of Him and His glory. He is our motivation. He is our end. He is our treasure!