Introduction

A Sunday School teacher was once attempting to explain to his class of children the meaning of sin. He asked them, "How do you know when you’re being bad?" Some talked about a guilty conscience, others talked about the ten commandments. Finally, one boy said, "I know I’ve done something really bad when my Mom calls me by my first name and my middle name."

All Christians want to overcome sin. But how can we prevent sin from getting a grip on us? Much of the problem stems from our misconceptions of what sin truly is. Many people when asked for a definition of sin, would give a list of bad things that bad people do. That’s their definition of sin. Although bad things are sin, this is not the complete picture. Once we understand what sin really is and how it affects us, then we are better able to overcome it.

The problem is our modern society attempts to deny that sin even exists. Have you noticed that nobody is a criminal anymore? They are all victims. Their parents abused them. They came from a poor environment. Their home town didn’t offer midnight basketball. Nobody wants to take any blame for sin. Erickson explains, "There are various ways of denying sin. It may be relabeled, so that it is not acknowledged as sin at all. It may be considered a matter of sickness, deprivation, ignorance, or perhaps social mal-adjustment at worst. Another way of denying our sin is to admit the wrongness of what we have done, but to decline to take responsibility for it."

Erickson goes on to list 11 consequences of sin. They are: enslavement, flight from reality, denial of sin, self-deceit, insensitivity, self-centeredness, restlessness, conflicts with others, inability to empathize, rejection of authority, and inability to love. Sin has serious consequences. It seems prudent that every Christian would want to learn how to get a grip on sin.

The story of the rich young ruler is recorded in Mark 10:17-22. In this story we see a man who did all the right things, and yet he discovered sin in his heart that he didn’t know was there. Perhaps we can learn from his experience.

Verse 17

Now as He was going out on the road, one came running, knelt before Him, and asked Him, "Good Teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?"

This verse tells us Jesus was going out on the road — in other words, he was getting ready to leave. The young man came running before he missed him. He had an important question for Jesus. Notice this young ruler’s attitude. He wanted to do what was right, he came to Jesus for the answers, and he came running — he was eager and anxious for an answer. This is a remarkable young man. Do we come eager and running to Jesus, or do we have to force ourselves into prayer time or drag ourselves to church? This man had no such problems. He was eager to learn from Jesus.

The question that he asked is, "what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life." I think this is a normal way to ask this question, and we probably have asked the same question ourselves. But right from the start we discover that he doesn’t understand the things of God at all. He asks, what shall I do.

Many believers are trying to live their Christian life by finding out what good things they can do. They think the more good things they do, the more God will love them. This is what the young ruler thought. He thought he was a pretty good person, but in case he had neglected doing anything, he wanted to find out what else he could do to earn God’s favor. But as Jesus indicates in the next verse, there’s nothing inside of man that he can do — he’s not good enough.

Many commentators point out that Jesus is here trying to help the young ruler realize that He is God. This may be true, but it’s not necessarily the meaning here. When dealing with different people, Jesus often skips over many matters and immediately goes to the condition of the person’s heart. This is what I think he is doing. As we will see in the next few verses, this man believes that he is a pretty good person. This is why he asks, what shall I do. He thinks whatever hard task Jesus might pick out for him he is fully capable to accomplish it in his own strength. The point Jesus is trying to make here is that no one is good enough — only God.

We sometimes fall into the same kind of thinking. We figure that if we go to church, and pay our tithes, and treat everybody with kindness, God has to send us to heaven. But we simply aren’t good enough. As we learned in the Study on Salvation, Romans 3:23 tells us, "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God," and Romans 3:10 says, "There is none righteous, no, not one." This young man was about to learn this lesson.

Jesus is here quoting from the Ten Commandments. He actually lists 6 of them.

• Do not commit adultery.
• Do not murder.
• Do not steal.
• Do not bear false witness — don’t lie.
• Do not defraud.
• Honor your father and your mother.

Perhaps some of you have never violated one of these commandments, but before you start feeling too self-righteous like this rich young ruler, I want to look at another list of sinful practices that Paul gives in Galatians 5:19-21

"Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God."

Let’s examine each of these, and see how well we fare.

Adultery — is of course being unfaithful in your marriage.

Fornication — means any kind of sexual immorality.

Uncleanness — means any kind of impure moral practices.

Lewdness — means unbridled shameful excesses.

Idolatry — is placing anything in importance above God.

Sorcery — The primary meaning of this word is dealing with the occult or evil spirits. But it’s interesting the Greek word is < farmakei&a> pharmakeia which is where we get our English word pharmacy. This Greek word means drugs. It came to mean sorcery because the sorcerers would take drugs in order to get into a trance to call up the evil spirits. So in this one word we find two sins: the sin of sorcery and the sin of taking illicit drugs.

Hatred — coming from hostility.

Contentions — making trouble.

Jealousies — based on contentious rivalry.

Outbursts of wrath — boiling up of anger.

Selfish ambitions — putting oneself forward in a fractious spirit, or as The Living Bible says, "constant effort to get the best for yourself."

Dissensions — or divisions.

Heresies — choosing a different outlook than God’s.

Envy

Murders

Drunkenness

Revelries — late night drinking parties, or as the New Century Version says, "having wild and wasteful parties"

Is there anyone who has never done any of these things? Welcome to the large group of sinners who are in need of a Savior.

And he answered and said to Him, "Teacher, all these things I have kept from my youth."

Now this young man is a remarkable fellow. I believe that he was very meticulous in keeping all of the commandments in the Bible. He did his best and he genuinely believed that he had succeeded. He believed he was a good person worthy of eternal life. Apparently this young man also impressed the disciples because after Jesus had said in verse 23 how hard it was for the rich to be saved, the disciples were astonished in verse 26 and asked, "Who then can be saved?" This rich young ruler must have been an impressive individual. Yet as Charnock observes, "...he had not any full satisfaction in his own conscience; his heart misgave, and started upon some sentiments in him, that something else was required, and what he had done might be too weak...."

The problem is that he really didn’t have a biblical perspective of sin. Erickson lists 5 perspectives on sin that he sees in the Bible.

"1. Sin is an inward inclination. Sin is not merely wrong acts, but sinfulness as well. It is an inherent inner disposition inclining us to wrong acts. ... It is not simply that we are sinners because we sin; we sin because we are sinners.

2. Sin is rebelliousness and disobedience.

3. Sin entails spiritual disability. It alters our inner condition, our character. In sinning we become twisted or distorted as it were. The image of God in which we were created is disturbed.

4. Sin is incomplete fulfilment of God’s standards. A common element running through all of the biblical characterizations of sin is the idea that the sinner has failed to fulfil God’s law.

5. Sin is displacement of God. Placing something else, anything else, in the supreme place which belongs to God is sin. Choosing any finite object over God is wrong, no matter how selfless such an act might seem."

Jesus does three things here: he looks at the man, he loves him, and then he speaks to him. Jesus is looking at you. He knows your heart. He understands your struggles. He can see all your strengths and all your weaknesses. He knows where you need his special touch, and where you need his help. He looks at you and sees everything there is to know about you.

Jesus loved the rich young ruler, and he loves you. He wants the best for you. He looks at you inside and out and he knows what is best for you even though you may not understand. He knew the young man needed to give up all his possessions. Jesus knows what you need to give up. He cares about you, and so he only asks you to do what is best for you.

Jesus spoke to the man, and he is speaking to our hearts. Let’s see what he is saying. Jesus tells the young ruler to do four things: give up everything, come, take up the cross, and follow him. The man did not listen to the advice from Christ. Are we going to listen? Here is what he is saying to us.

First, give up everything that will hinder you from serving Christ. Sell it all; get rid of it. Whatever it is, we have to let it go. What is it that you are hanging onto? Pride, possessions, alcohol, drugs, immorality, parties, friends? Let go of it if it prevents you from serving Christ. Notice Peter in verse 28 says, "We have left all and followed you." If we want to serve Jesus, we must be willing to leave it all to follow him.

Remember the first time you dove into the swimming pool? Whether it was from the diving board or the edge of the pool, there was a moment of hesitation—some would say fear—as you realized you were leaving solid ground. But you could never experience the fun of diving into the pool until you were ready to let go of the comfort of the ground.

Second, Jesus said "come." We must come to him. As we discussed in the Study on Salvation, there is no other way to please God — we must come to Jesus.

Third, take up the cross. Now we might think that carrying a cross is a difficult thing to do. We might want to think that Jesus is saying take up the heavy burden which I have given you and trudge along under its extreme weight and do the best you can. But you see the cross of Christ was only heavy to him. He took upon himself all the weight of our sins. Jesus said in Matthew 11:28-30 (KJV), "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

The cross he gives us is a light one. It represents the forgiveness of all our sins. Jesus is really saying here, Get rid of everything which would hinder you from serving God and get hold of the forgiveness that Jesus has already provided for you. There is no sin too great or no deed too awful for Christ’s cleansing touch.

Fourth, Jesus says "follow me." That’s what we must do: follow Jesus; walk in his ways; allow him to lead us and guide us. We must not strive to go our own way, but rather learn how to follow him. His way is the much better way. Sometimes we think our way looks pretty good, but we need to follow Jesus because his way is always better.

What happened to the eagerness and self-sufficiency of this rich young ruler? It all collapses because he is not willing to obey Jesus. Notice this man did everything else that was expected of him. And yet, as far as we know, he never did accept the Lord. What was the one thing that hindered him? It was sin. You see, sin is not the long list of bad things that we are capable of doing. Sin is simply disobeying God. Having riches or possessions, by itself, is not a sin. Many biblical figures had great wealth. But with the rich young ruler, riches had become his god. Jesus asked this man to do only one thing, but he refused to obey. In the Garden of Eden God told Adam and Eve they could eat whatever they wanted, but there was one tree they were to stay away from.

Jesus could have told the young man, as he did others, that not only could he not commit adultery, but he also can’t even lust after a woman in his heart. Or he could have said, as he did on another occasion, that not only should the young man not murder, but he also must not become angry with his brother. But Jesus didn’t say these things to the rich ruler. He only asked one thing of him. But the young man was not willing to give up the one thing Jesus required.

What is the one thing that is hindering you from serving God? It may not be a bad thing. It may even be a good thing. Are you willing to give it up for the Lord? If not, then it is sin in your life. But if you are willing to give it up, Jesus will then give you his cross of forgiveness to take its place. You will suddenly sense his cleansing power sweeping through your whole being. There are many ugly, awful, filthy areas in our life, but Jesus cleans them all. We may not feel clean. We may even fall back into some of the trappings of sin. Jesus doesn’t say we will be perfect. He only says, "follow me."

We will fail, and fail often. There will be times when we fail so miserably, we will even wonder if we are saved. But remember, you are carrying the cross of Christ’s forgiveness. As we are told in 1 John 1:9, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." We are constantly being re-cleansed because we will constantly fail the Lord.

In spite of our failings, we must not become discouraged. We must continue to follow Jesus.

Footnotes:

This study on Mark 10:17-22 © 1997 by David Humpal. All rights reserved.
All scriptures unless otherwise noted are from the New King James Version © 1982 Thomas Nelson Publishers

Erickson: Introducing Christian Doctrine pg. 192-193 ©1992 Baker Books

Charnock: The Existence and Attributes of God, vol. II, pg. 212 Baker Book House

Erickson: Introducing Christian Doctrine pg. 180-181 ©1992 Baker Books