Click here for the Luke 18:28-30 PODCAST
28 Peter said to him, “We have left all we had to follow you!” 29 “Truly I tell you,” Jesus said to them, “no one who has left home or wife or brothers or sisters or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God 30 will fail to receive many times as much in this age, and in the age to come eternal life.” ~ Luke 18:28-30
The rich young ruler walked away as his understanding of the Lord Jesus jerked him in the wrong direction. It is not surprising that he walked away from Him because that which blunted his view of the Lord Jesus was his wealth. If God is not bigger in our lives than anything else, He will appear small in certain areas of our lives. And, unless the Spirit of God through His word has not broken us of our puny view of Him, we will lack the power to rise above the tugs of this world.
As the young ruler was walking away from the Lord Jesus, Peter speaks powerful words. In v.28 Peter said, "We have left all we had to follow you!" The disciples had experienced the miracle of justification and their values and subsequent choices were being radically changed. For the willing, the Lord Jesus puts His finger of conviction on the areas of our lives which we have yet to yield to His sovereignty.
God's goal is not our perfection or total yieldedness, this will never happen this side of heaven. His goal is to increase our trust in Him and that trust will spread as far through our wills as is possible.
Trust is essential in any relationship whereby we learn that we are loved. Trust is feeling safe when vulnerable. It is only in the realm of vulnerability that we grow in our trust of another. This is why the Lord tells us to rejoice in our trials for it is through our trials that the goodness of God can be magnified. If we try to avoid our trials by holding on to the control of our lives, like the rich young ruler, we will end up walking away from Him.
In v.29-30 we read, "29 "Truly I tell you," Jesus said to them, “no one who has left home or wife or brothers or sisters or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God 30 will fail to receive many times as much in this age, and in the age to come eternal life."
The disciples had walked away from their families while the young ruler walked away from the Lord Jesus. The disciples took seriously the words of the Lord Jesus, "Whoever loses his life will find it."
The disciples left everything to follow the Lord Jesus, and they were able to do that because He drew them to Himself. They had come to follow the Lord Jesus because the Spirit of God had made them alive to God. It is the Holy Spirit who reveals to us our utter need of the Lord Jesus.
In the Lord Jesus' response to Peter, He communicated that He knew what Peter and the other disciples had done. They had done what's impossible for them to do because God had granted it to them.
When we came to Christ, we turned away from those things that we had trusted in before. When we turned away from the things of the world, we had experienced something that we had no idea about. And now, all of our priorities are changing and we are learning to love Him with our hearts, souls, minds and strength. As a result, we find ourselves wanting Christ to such a degree that we would let go of anything and everything that keeps us from Him.
To this, the Lord Jesus says in v.30, "You will not fail to receive many times as much in this age, and in the age to come eternal life." The Lord Jesus is describing the ability to see what is really real. This translates into our ability to move beyond the lesser things that have always defined us, to being defined by His way of thinking and living.
It is said, "the tighter we squeeze, the less we will have." The more we hold on to our lives, the harder it will be to hang on to reality. Most live life, for the most part, with closed fists. When the Lord told the rich young ruler to give all his money to the poor, He was prying his hands off that which was defining him.
Our lives must not be defined by the possible. Our lives must be defined by the impossible. Otherwise, our view of and faith in the God of the Bible will be stunted. It is the goodness of God that leads us to let go. And, if the goodness of God is not being given the chance to display itself through our trials, we will have a stunted view of God's goodness. If we have a stunted view of God's goodness, we will end up walking away from the Lord Jesus when the trials come.
