Luke 18:18 Commentary and Bible Study

‘A certain ruler asked the Lord, saying, good master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?’ It is worth noting what had just gone before this passage. There was Christ blessing the children, and he had said, ‘Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein.’ In these words he had been teaching humility. He had been saying, ‘What you have got to do is, not to come like the scribes and the Pharisees, thinking they know so much, but to come to me humbly, ready to learn the meaning of life all over again. This young man was very impressed by this, and if you put the different Gospel accounts together – because each one adds a little piece of information – there is a little added piece of information. You find that He ran after the Lord as he went away from the scene of speaking about the children, and he caught up with him, and he fell down on his knees, and he implored him. He was a young man, Matthew tells us. All three Gospels tell us that he was extremely rich. We are told also that he was a ruler, that is to say probably a ruler of a local town synagogue and its community. That was no doubt because of his wealth, that was because he was the principal landowner in the area that secured for him that position. But he had a sense of need. He knew that he couldn't be sure that he was going to heaven, and he wanted help. He thought there was just something he needed to do: perhaps to endow something for the benefit of the community. There was something he thought he had left out, and this teacher would show him what it was. In His favour he was a seeker, yet things went radically wrong. He was a seeker after the Lord, and what's more, he sought him eagerly, and he had tremendous respect for the Lord. He really believed he was a special prophet of God who could give him the answer. Furthermore his mind was open, and he was teachable. You would think that a person in that state and condition would be ready to come to Jesus Christ and to obey him and to follow him, but it was all ruined. All the plus points of his attitude, everything was ruined like a maggot within the fruit. There was a flaw in his approach, and that is what the Lord Jesus Christ revealed, and we have to learn from. Also in his favour, as we discover from verse 20-21, he was outwardly quite a good living person. No doubt he overrated himself. No doubt he thought far better of himself than he should have done, but he was outwardly, by comparison with many, a good living person. We are told in Mark that the Lord Jesus Christ loved him. He looked upon him and, though he was a sinner and unfit for heaven, yet because he was eager and seeking, the Lord had special favour and special compassion towards him, but he still told him the truth. He asked about eternal life, and he realised this life is not all. He was looking to the world to come, and thinking about his eternal soul. But he was uneasy. How could he be sure that his soul was safe. He never questioned for a moment that it was within his power to do something to obtain life. His problem, as he supposed, was ignorance of what that one thing was. It never occurred to him that eternal life was completely and utterly beyond his reach: that he could only receive it as an undeserved gift from God. He has come to Christ for advice, not for salvation.