Profit and Loss - Unsecured Investment
Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” He said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me.” At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth (Mark 10:21-22).
Father, we give thanks to You, Lord, for You are good... (Psalm 136:1 - ESV). We have no goodness apart from You—in our sin-marred human state we are unfit to worship you; each of our good deeds is merely a filthy rag (Isaiah 64:6 - CEV).
Our Lord Jesus emphasized this reality in His encounter with a man we know as the rich young ruler, (from descriptions by three gospel writers). In response to the young man's query, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus told him, “No one is good—except God alone..." (Mark 10:18).
Jesus' reply was not a denial of His deity, but an assertion of the goodness unto salvation He alone could provide. The rest of the conversation revealed the rich young ruler's measurement of "good" (Mark 10:20). It exposed his pride in his own efforts to obtain eternal life by following the commandments—“all these I have kept since I was a boy” (Mark 10:20).
Jesus showed the young man his inability to keep even the first commandment, “You shall have no other gods before Me" (Exodus 20: 3). Presented with the choice of following God, or following money, the ruler showed his deeper attachment was to his wealth.
Like that young man, Lord, we are incapable of earning eternal life by keeping Your commandments. Jesus tells us that all the Law and the Prophets hang on loving the Lord God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength; and our neighbor as ourself (Matthew 22: 37-40). We fail. And the apostle James tells us that whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it (James 2:10).
You knew this Lord, when You sent Your Son, the Lamb....chosen before the foundation of the world (1 Peter 1:19-20 - EHV)—For what the law was powerless to do...God did by sending his own Son...to be a sin offering (Romans 8:3). And to us, as to the rich young ruler You issue the invitation, "Come follow Me" (Mark 10:21).
The young man went away sad (Mark 10:22). Trusting in his own goodness. Clinging to his wealth. Forfeiting eternal outcomes of profit and loss for the unsecured investments of this passing life. Others walk away angry, offended at the message, No one comes to the Father except through Me (John 14:6). Clinging to their "truth." Staking all on empty portfolios and purses that grow old and wear out (Luke 12:33).
Today, Father, we pray for souls wrestling with questions of life and purpose, meaning, and eternal life. Lead them to the truth. According to Jesus, truth is not relative, or selective. He unequivocally declared, “I am the way and the truth and the life..." (John 14:6).
Bring awakening. Bring deliverance from the unsecured investments of this life, and from moth-eaten purses full of holes—holes of worthless investments, holes of self-reliance, holes of false paradigms.
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