Imagine that you were on the committee that was hiring a new pastor for your church, and you have been looking for a while, but you haven’t found anyone suitable. But now you finally have a promising candidate that you are about to have an interview with. In this interview, you are immediately blown away by how different this guy is. He really knows his bible, he is compassionate and kind, he cares for the poor, he is basically everything you could ever want from a pastor. When you get to the end of the interview, you just have one final question.

“If someone came up to you and asked ‘what do I have to do to get eternal life’, what would you say?”

And he sits back and thinks for a while before responding, “keep the commandments”.

I’m guessing you would be looking for a different pastor. This guy obviously doesn’t know the gospel of grace, how we don’t have to do anything other than believe in Jesus to get eternal life.

Except, one time, when Jesus was asked a similar question, this was his response. Read it for yourself!

And behold, a man came up to him, saying, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” And he said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments.” He said to him, “Which ones?” And Jesus said, “You shall not murder, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness,Honor your father and mother, and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” The young man said to him, “All these I have kept. What do I still lack?” Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

Matthew 19:16-22

What is Jesus saying here?

Do we have to keep the commandments to be saved?

There is a lot to unpack in this passage, and I won’t cover all of it, but I think the key to understanding Jesus’ answer is to understand what the young man is asking.

He asks, “What good deed must I do to inherit eternal life?” Now, when we hear eternal life, our first thought is length of life. The eternal life is a life that never ends. But this would probably not have been the first thought of the people in Jesus’ time. Not that it doesn’t mean a never-ending life; it just means something more than that.

For Jesus, eternal life has more to do with quality of life than quantity of life.

It’s not just life forever; it’s a life you would want to live forever.

If you don’t believe me, here is Jesus’ own definition of eternal life from John 17:3:

“And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” 

So, eternal life is to know God. For eternity, yes, but knowing God is something we can do right now. So when the rich young man asks about eternal life, he is not really asking, “How do I get to heaven when I die?” rather, he is asking, “How can I take part in the life that you can give right now?”.

So, do we get this life by following the commandments? Sort of. If eternal life is about the quality of our lives, does it not make sense that following the guidelines of our creator would give us that? If we live by God’s wisdom, we will have a better life.

But there is more to the story.

Notice the commandments Jesus lists. He lists six out of the ten commandments.

(He replaces the commandment about not coveting your neighbour’s stuff with the commandment to love your neighbour as yourself, but the point still stands.)

If we categorise the Ten Commandments into two parts, we first have four commandments about our relationship with God; then we have six commandments about our relationship with other people.

Jesus lists the commandments regarding other people, which the young man had kept. However, it was the other four commandments the young man was lacking, the ones about loving God.

This is highlighted when Jesus tells the man to sell all of his possessions and give to the poor. The man was unwilling to do this, showing that his love for his possessions was greater than his love for God.

Again, we go back to Jesus’ own definition of eternal life, which is to know God. We won’t find this life simply by following the commandments or by waiting to “go to heaven when we die”.

We find eternal life when we know and abide in God’s love, and we respond by loving him back. That is eternal life.