Matthew 19:16

Matthew 19:16 And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life? A man came to Jesus looking for answers. And that was good. But the man was looking for a way that he could work his way into heaven. Instead of asking what he could do in order to get to heaven, he should have been asking how to get to heaven. That is because there is nothing that you can do to get to heaven. Jesus Christ has already done everything for us in order for us to get to heaven. So to get this man to think, Jesus asked him what the Jewish law said. The man rattled of the rules that he had been keeping. Then Jesus said something that made him stop and think. Jesus told him to go and sell everything and then to give all of the money to the poor. Then he would have eternal life. The man was sad and walked away because he had a lot of stuff. But stop and think. Selling everything you might have still isn’t the way to heaven. So why did Jesus tell the man that? Well Jesus wanted the man to have faith – faith in God and faith in God’s Son, Jesus. If you sell everything and give it all away, you have nothing. You must trust God. So Jesus was showing the man – and showing us – that the way to God is by faith. We must trust.