DAILY DEVOTIONAL – August 19, 2019
“What’s Your Wager?”
Prayer: Lord Jesus, You are the only One who is truly good enough for heaven. You lived the perfect life, died a sinner’s death in our place as the sinless Lamb of God, and rose to eternal life in order to redeem sinful mankind from the death we deserve. We worship and praise only You as God for the salvation You earned for us on the cross; a salvation that is freely given by the grace of God through faith in Christ alone. Amen.
Scripture: Matthew 19:16-23
16 And behold, a man came up to him, saying, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to inherit eternal life?” 17 And he said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments.” 18 He said to him, “Which ones?” And Jesus said, “You shall not murder, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, 19 Honor your father and mother, and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 20 The young man said to him, “All these I have kept. What do I still lack?” 21 Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”22 When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. 23 And Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly, I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven.
Devotion – “What’s Your Wager?”
One of my favorite games to play is Texas Hold’em Poker. I never play for real money, but do love the game. Although it is nowhere near as fun as playing, I do like to watch poker tournaments as well. At critical points in a tournament when it is really getting down to the last few players and the stakes are getting quite high, you will often hear the tournament commentators say something like “if you wanna win big, you gotta bet big.”
Here in Matthew 19 we read of a rich young ruler who wagered quite a steep bet. He wagered that he had been good enough to inherit the kingdom of heaven. In the mind of this rich young man, he foolishly believed that salvation could be earned by being “good enough” for God. As is made clear by his walking away sorrowfully after Jesus asked him to part with his money, this man was blinded by and deceived by his wealth. He thought that because he was materially rich, he was also spiritually rich. He was deceived into thinking that because he was successful in this life, it meant he was successful enough to convince God he was worthy of salvation and worthy to inherit the Kingdom. The rich young ruler’s own words reveal just how backwards the belief is that anyone could be good enough for heaven.
The rich man asked Jesus how he could “inherit” the Kingdom of Heaven. The text doesn’t tell us whether or not this man inherited his power and wealth, but he clearly didn’t understand what inherit means, and ironically, although he didn’t understand the truth himself, his words did contain the truth about salvation and about how anyone enters the Kingdom of heaven. God’s grace and salvation cannot be earned or bought, but only inherited. All of mankind is sinful and wicked from birth and no one is capable of being good enough for God’s grace. Salvation can only be inherited as a free gift of God, and God has indeed made salvation from sin, death and the devil a free gift to be received by faith alone in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Jesus offered this man the treasures of heaven itself. What was the cost? What was the wager this young ruler would have to make in order to receive the Kingdom? He would have to wager everything he had. Jesus didn’t ask this man to give all he had to the poor because that would make him good enough to earn salvation. Jesus was asking this young ruler to obey the very first commandment, the first of many commandments this ruler already claimed to have kept perfectly – the first commandment that says, “you shall have no other gods before Me.” Jesus offered this man the eternal and priceless riches of heaven itself, and yet, this rich ruler couldn’t obey even the first commandment because his wealth had become his god. The rich young ruler wanted heaven, he obviously thought heaven would be nice and tried to be religious enough for heaven, but His love wasn’t really for God.
This rich young ruler thought the bet he placed was big enough to win heaven…he thought the value of his good works was a big enough wager. He failed to see that all of his riches, even if they were combined with all the riches in the world and combined with all the good works in the world would never amount to enough. There isn’t a big enough bet that could be placed to win heaven, because heaven is not for sale or a prize to be won and our salvation isn’t a gamble. God’s grace and forgiveness isn’t a bet or something to wager on. God’s love and salvation is absolutely free and guaranteed; won for us and purchased with the blood of God’s own sinless Son Jesus Christ.
Jesus said it is impossible for the rich to enter the kingdom of God because only the poor inherit the Kingdom. As Jesus said in His sermon on the mount, “Blessed are the poor in spirit for they will inherit the kingdom.” Only those who know and believe that they are spiritually and morally bankrupt inherit salvation. Only a completely empty bank account has enough room to fit the eternal riches of heaven. This man’s money and wealth blinded him and prevented him from going “all in” for Jesus. Wealth can so easily give a false sense of security.
God wants all of us. He wants our whole heart and our whole mind and all that we hold dear. If we truly want to experience the immeasurable riches of heaven both now and for eternity, it has nothing to do with the number in our bank account. If we truly want to know and experience eternal wealth, then we have to bet big. We have to go all in for Jesus.
Fewer theologians were ever more eloquent or gifted by God than C.S. Lewis. I say it any better than Lewis did in his book “A Grief Observed”:
“Your bid – for God or no God, for a good God or the Cosmic Sadist, for eternal life or nonentity – will not be serious if nothing much is staked on it. And you will never discover how serious it was until the stakes are raised horribly high; until you find that you are playing not for counters or for sixpences, but for every penny you have in the world. Nothing less will shake a man out of his merely verbal thinking and his merely notional beliefs.”
God bless you my friends, and remember, that God has forgiven yesterday, is with you today and has already taken care of tomorrow. Amen.
