1500) Answering questions people ask us is sometimes tricky because we cannot know the motivation behind the question, which may change how we answer.
In Matthew 19:16-30, a man asks Jesus a question about how to earn eternal life (salvation). The man asks Jesus what he must do to earn it. Jesus chooses how he answers based on what he already knows of the man. Jesus tells him to keep all of God’s commandments and he will earn salvation.
Now, that’s a funny answer, isn’t it? I thought we have been taught the message of John 3:16, that God gives us eternal life because Jesus died in our place on the cross, but this isn’t what Jesus tells the man.
Why? Because the man asked Jesus what he must do to earn eternal life and Jesus tells him. He will earn it because he has kept all of God’s commands 100 % of the time. If this man is a thinker, he would realize this excludes him (and all of us, too).
The disciples heard Jesus and later asked how anyone can gain eternal life with God if these are the requirements. Jesus tells them it isn’t possible for them, but with God all things are possible, paving the road for Jesus’ sacrificial death; the only one who has kept God’s commands 100% of the time.
We cannot earn our salvation, but God offers it to us. Christianity is the only religion that does not teach any form of earning your way into heaven.
Will you accept what is offered to you?